What if your country is stigmatized?

Here's a question: How do you market properties to foreign investors if your country is stigmatized?

The real estate world is a tough one these days- been tough for a few years now.  It's getting better, though- as I've dealt with a number of Canadian investors that are looking to once again step into the U.S. real estate market.  This is surely a good thing- although there's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to them and the different rules and laws affecting condominiums, etc.  But what's it like if your entire country (whether fairly or unfairly) is stigmatized?  What do you do then?

I'll freely admit that I've never stepped a foot upon Mexican soil. Don't really know if I ever want to, either.  Floridians are blessed with tons of cruising opportunities- ones to Cozumel, Acapulco and other places in Mexico head off every day, and many of my friends and loved ones have travelled there and enjoyed themselves.  I've just simply never had the urge to go there- there's too much of America I haven't seen yet!

Our newscasts and newspapers aren't filled with cruise headlines, though.  The papers and TV clips of Mexico these days are filled with stories of drug cartels, mass graves and headless bodies hanging from overpasses.  So how do you overcome something like that?

If you're in Mexico and trying to lure American investors into buying the property or properties you represent, how do you overcome things like that?  How do you convey to clients that what's happening in parts of the country isn't happening in the entire country? How do you look towards investors doing their cost/benefit analyses, and succeed in overcoming what appears to be an overwhelming obstacle?

The answer to these questions may benefit many- for if one can succeed in drawing foreign interest in the face of a seemingly endless barrage of bad media coverage of their entire country, translating that into how one can sell the house down the street where "that crazy guy used to live" should be child's play.