Bringing the Nation to the Nation Branding Debate: Evidence From Ukraine

The emergent stream of research on branding nations, places and destinations has been growing along with a plethora of definitions, terminology and conceptualizations (Gnoth 2002; Papadopoulos 2004; Kavaratizis 2005; Hanna and Rowley 2008; Fan 2009). By place branding we refer to an articulated set of marketing actions that present the following traits: They are i) different in terms of unit of analysis, ranging from the city to a whole country; ii) may involve multiple stakeholders including local and national governments, citizens, companies, and the media; and, iii) cover a large array of objectives, such as enhancing exports, protecting local/national production, attracting tourists and foreign investors, facilitating international relations, and more (Papadopoulos 2004). While established contributions on “country-of-origin” mostly hold companies’ perspective and deploy the place to improve the attractiveness of other products designed, assembled and/or produced in these places, place branding literature fosters the perspective of governments and individuals (both tourists and local dwellers) and considers the place as the main object of market exchange (Anholt 2004, 2011). Therefore, place branding constitutes an excellent theoretical context by which to improve understanding of the arenas in which markets consume others’ identity, here represented by the identity of a place.