A GROUP of prominent businessmen is pushing for the creation of a panel to advise business and government on how Australia Inc can market itself more aggressively overseas, amid growing recognition that the country risks losing its hard-fought position as a global brand on the world stage.

Executives from every big export industry are being tapped to feed into the idea of a "Brand Australia Council", which is being driven by the former British Airways chief Sir Rod Eddington and the tourism and transport lobbyist Christopher Brown.

Qantas's chief executive, Alan Joyce, the airline's former chief executives Geoff Dixon and James Strong, and the Foxtel chief executive Kim Williams, among others, are backing the establishment of a permanent panel of "brand advocates".

The architects hope to pitch the benefits of developing Australia as a "nation state brand" to the Prime Minister within the next three months. The idea was last floated when Joe Hockey was tourism minister but failed to get off the ground because, it was said, bureaucrats were too scared to broach with the the prime minister, John Howard, the notion that Australia's brand was in trouble.

Initial key objectives would be to bring some consistency to the different logos used by government bodies operating around the world and to analyse the impact foreign policy and trade has on perceptions of Australia. A set of guidelines instructing sportsmen on how to represent their country when abroad, as South Africa did with its rugby union team before the 2003 World Cup in Sydney, might also be an early initiative.

There is a growing recognition that since the Sydney Olympics Australia has lost its momentum, and other countries, such as South Korea, India and China, are building their profiles as places to invest, locate businesses or holiday in. Mr Brown, the chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum, said that till now the tourism sector had "done all the heavy lifting" in marketing Australia and it was time for other sectors, such as mining, education and the service sector, to step in and help.

"We have taken the foot off the accelerator pedal. It [the council] is essentially a business development program that is looking at what we can do to better promote Australia."

But Mr Brown, who recently hosted a dinner in Sydney with senior business people to discuss the issue, said a global ad campaign would not be the solution. "I can tell it is not about a 30-second ad," he said.

Mr Brown said he believed the Prime Minister would be receptive to the idea as the council's objectives were aligned with key government goals: the bid for the 2018 soccer world cup, a seat on the United Nations Security Council and the establishment of an Asia-Pacific forum. But one of the biggest challenges the panel faces is determining which aspects of Australia it should play up and which it should suppress. For instance, how does that relaxed informality amid the setting of the beach and the bush - values that are regularly exploited in tourism marketing - translate to a business context?

Sir Rod, the chairman of JPMorgan, who is canvassing

support among business leaders in Melbourne, said it was something he was grappling with. "Can we capture the Australian brand in a way which we can use internationally and portrays us accurately and stimulates some interest in the country? Those are the things we are trying to get to the bottom of."

Australia's prominence as an exporter of raw materials had shaped its brand, to the extent that many outsiders viewed the country as "China's quarry and Japan's beach", said Austrade's chief economist, Tim Harcourt. "We do have a very strong brand [as a country]; we just need to find ways of leveraging it."

The director of the travel and leisure division of the research company TNS, Carolyn Childs said she applauded the idea of a council if it brought more "consistency and alignment" to the way Australia represented itself as a brand. However, she questioned the level of control that the Federal Government and its agencies could exert on the perception of Australia around the world. For instance, in Britain advertising by beer brands such as Foster's has helped conjure a stereotypical view of Australia as an unsophisticated place that is all about the outback.

"I think they will need to accept that you can't control every single touchpoint of a brand. Just as they can't control some idiot in Melbourne throwing acid on an Indian student. There's a tendency [by these bodies] to think that they own the brand, which they don't. Then again, everyone thinks they own it."