Branding in the context of forming the city’s value proposition

Abstract

In contemporary place branding, the city brand is increasingly less often viewed as merely a set of visual signs, tourist messages, or advertising campaigns. It is methodologically more appropriate to interpret it as a system for forming the competitive identity of a territory, one that transmits symbolic, economic, managerial, social, and infrastructural dimensions (Anholt, 2007; Govers & Go, 2009; Kavaratzis, 2004). This approach is particularly relevant for Ukrainian cities, which operate under conditions of war, spatially uneven destruction, business relocation, demographic losses, the need for rapid recovery, and the simultaneous need to attract private capital (World Bank Group et al., 2026).