Process of developing the international city branding strategy: Case study city of Kharkiv.

The purpose of the article is to determine the sequence of stages for the development of the city’s international branding strategy. To achieve the goal, the world practice of forming well-known city brands was studied and city brand models were formed. Approbation of the procedure for developing an international brand strategy was carried out on the example of the city of Kharkiv, one of the largest cities in Ukraine. The combination of experiment and interview made it possible to evaluate the brand of the city of Kharkiv. Based on the SWOT-analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of the development of the city brand, as well as the prospects for brand positioning were revealed. Practical recommendations are given to improve the strategy for the development of international branding of the city based on the use of a spectrum of offline and online branding tools.

1 Introduction

The city needs a brand and branding to support the innovative and investment capacity, to increase competitiveness, to build cohesion among citizens, to develop and implement creative ideas, to create a positive image of the region’s development, to strengthen the desire of city residents to connect their lives with the city, to attract additional funds from other regions and from abroad, to increase the attractiveness of the city for tourists, to stimulate the development of recreational potential, to motivate entrepreneurs to develop business in the city, etc.
That is, the city brand is a resource that is implemented by ensuring social stability, investment inflow, tourism development, and the creation of new jobs (Soskin 2011). The city brand is a certain capital for the future of the city, the common intellectual property of the residents. Well-known city brands are several times higher than the value of the city’s real assets. So, a city brand is understood as a certain sign that denotes the uniqueness of the city (Bilovodska 2012); and city branding means planned and interconnected activities aimed at creating, maintaining and increasing the positions of a positive image of the city brand (Vlaschenko 2016).
City branding tools include logo, motto, and familiarity, respectively, which reflect the city’s history, culture, and essence. The purpose of city branding is to form positive associations with the city among residents, tourists, investors, and entrepreneurs. It is important that the developed brand does not form negative associations, so that during the development of the city’s branding strategy, there is no negative backlash. It is advisable to form and develop the positive features of the brand, and to eliminate the negative ones as soon as possible. The presence of garbage, unsatisfactory logistics, bad roads, packs of wild animals, mice and rats in important places of the city, destroyed and unrepaired buildings can become elements of a negative brand of the city. These components should be paid attention to and minimized and leveled in order to further form a positive branding of the city.
Taking into account the above, the responsibility of local authorities is the development and formation of the city’s brand. The brand will be remembered if you define the main idea of the city, for this you should analyze the history of the city, historical cultural monuments and important historical events that are connected with the city; prominent people who were born or lived in the city; geographical location and landscape, namely the presence of mountains, rivers, lakes; climate features and recreational resources; regional and international events (festivals, competitions, contests) that took place or are taking place in the city, etc.
Taking into account the current globalization trends in the development of cities, the development of city branding involves the formation of an information environment, i.e. the creation of a modern city website, information transmission on local television. Also, for branding, it is advisable to use posters with city symbols, various advertising materials, such as packages, calendars, weekly magazines, magnets, blocks, flags, CDs with information about the city, T-shirts and caps with images of the city, tourist reference information as maps, invitations, flyers. These materials usually do not require large costs and are highly profitable, at the same time they will work for the city’s brand, increase reputation, form awareness and recognition.
World practice includes more than 36 types of city brands (Kotler 2005), that is, each city should form its own direction of movement, which will reflect the essence of the city. Any city should be positioned as one that has no analogues, that is, the only one that should be visited. In the strategic management of branding, it is advisable to use a pool strategy aimed at working with consumers (citizens, tourists, entrepreneurs, investors), so you should use tools that will allow increasing the audience and improving brand recognition. In the world, cities position themselves as tourist (Rome), gaming (Monaco), wine (Tokay), beer (Krushovice), sausage (Munich), coffee (Vienna), cheese (Gouda), music (Salzburg), etc. Sometimes the brand of a city is associated with a certain outstanding legendary or historical figure (the city of Shakespeare, Maradona, Usain Bolt, Gaudi), then it has its own unique brand. It is important to choose the city’s brand correctly, because whatever brand you create will be perceived by society. The success of city branding is achieved through the use of various effective tools. Firstly, activation of the city community to create the idea of the city brand. Secondly, the selection and understanding of the symbolism of the city, as well as ways of its popularization at the regional, national and international levels. Thirdly, information provision and support of brand development by, first of all, creation of the city’s Internet site in common languages of the world, as well as formation of a competitive interactive media environment. Examples of successfully formed city brand ideas include Rome – Eternal City; Dubai – Sand to Silicon; Paris – Paris, je t’aime!; Copenhagen – Wonderful Copenhagen; New York – Big Apple; Lublin – „Be free. Study in Lublin“ etc.
The important element of the brand concept is its value, namely the competitive advantages of the city. The following main categories of city brand values are distinguished as functional values (quality and availability of services: infrastructure, quality of goods and services, uniqueness of the territory, recreational potential); social values (feeling of comfort and coziness, security and stability); emotional values (feelings and emotions that arise in visitors and residents of the city); cultural values (territorial subculture); spiritual and historical (historical and cultural heritage of the territory); innovative (development of science and the level of innovative support for production, the presence of advanced enterprises, scientific developments).
Branding is necessary for all cities. Little-known and insufficiently attractive cities for tourists should pursue an active policy on the formation and promotion of brands. Branding contributes to the expansion of opportunities for development and growth of the well-being of the city’s population, the attraction of investors, and the interest of tourists. The presence of a positive brand will increase the city’s competitiveness, quality of life, attract external and activate internal resources, and create an attractive image.

2 Literature review

Building on empirical examples and conducting extensive research on place branding, place branding is seen as a non-political form of urban policy that can have both negative and positive impacts on a city’s reputation (Lucarelli 2018). Building a brand for a product, a company offering goods or services, can be done through a marketing campaign, advertising, or through distribution (Roszyk-Kowalska and Małż 2017).
City branding is becoming an internationally recognized field of study, characterized by a high degree of multidisciplinary, rapid expansion (Lucarelli and Olof Berg 2011)
The significant contribution to the development of city branding is the study of the evolution of city promotion on the example of North America, Great Britain, and European countries (Ward 1998).
City branding is a tool that allows you to retain and attract residents, visitors and investors (Dinnie 2011). The city brand is a chain connecting the internal and external image of the city (Krivoshein 2014).
City development strategies should be based on the formation of the city brand, on the example of the city of Chernivtsi as a „Comfortable City“ (Budnikevich, Shevchuk and Krupenna 2013).
The national brand evaluation system (Anholt Nations Brand Index) takes into account such indicators as tourism development, export operations, government activities, human factors, cultural and historical heritage, investments and migration processes (Anholt 2007, 2009).
As many cities tend to compete globally to attract tourists, investment, or talent, brand strategy concepts are increasingly being taken from the commercial realm and applied to urban development, revitalization, and improving the quality of life of cities. However, city branding helps elevate the city’s status as a tourist, residential, or business hub (Jojic 2015).
The well-being and satisfaction of citizens and visitors is influenced by the image of the city, to the formation of which monumental or iconic buildings make a great contribution. That is, the concept of city identity and branding, with an emphasis on the image of the city, ensures the effectiveness of branding (Riza, Doratli and Fasli 2012).
To develop new branding that can be implemented, actors need to identify and evaluate internal and external policy factors to further shape the city development strategy (Bustomi and Avianto 2022).
Slogans and logos are important elements of branding (Chan 2022). Social networks influence the branding of territories and encourage potential tourists to visit this city, while simply sharing photos and videos about the beauty of the city or food is not enough to create a memorable image for potential visitors; it should be used as a supplement to the activities of the city administration to promote the image and attractions for tourists (Ebrahimi, Hajmohammadi and Khajeheian 2020). Meslem and Abbaci studied the impact of landing on consumer loyalty, what to say about the weight of digitalization of brand strategy (Meslem and Abbaci 2022).
The creation of business incubators, technology parks, infrastructure development, tourism and investment promotion, implementation of cultural and sports events, international festivals will contribute to the positive development of the city’s international brand (Krivoshein 2014).

3 Methodology

3.1 Global experience in the development of city brand strategies

At the international level, the city brand is determined by such components as a significant cultural and historical heritage, recreational potential and tourism opportunities, the presence of international business and export operations, the image of local authorities, the size of investments, investment portfolio and potential, migration processes in the city, environmental and social responsibility city enterprises, public health care system, transport infrastructure, etc. Successful international city brands are based on a balance between economic and social development. Thus, the city brand increases the competitiveness of the city, and competitiveness shapes the brand. The intangible component of regional development is a new toolkit that builds the social and economic well-being of the city.
The purpose, stages and results of the development of the international strategy of the city brand are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The purpose, stages and results of the development of the international city brand strategy
Source: Author

3.2 Process of developing the city’s international branding strategy

The process of developing an international city branding strategy is a process of step-by-step management decision-making regarding the promotion of the city brand. Branding involves brand management through the integrated use of marketing and management strategies.
The process of developing the city’s international branding strategy is presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The process of developing the city’s international branding strategy
Source: Author according to Bilovodska and Haydabrus (2012).

Let’s consider each of the stages of developing the city’s international branding strategy. Firstly, the current situation should be diagnosed in order to understand the strengths of the city. To evaluate the attractiveness of the city brand, it is advisable to use the model of Anholt, 2009, which is formed on the basis of a survey, and can be an evaluation base for comparing city brands. This model is used to maximally satisfy the needs and interests of the city’s target audiences (residents, tourists, entrepreneurs, investors). The evaluation criteria are indicators that present the city’s brand. In order to assess the existing brand and apply the Anholt index, it is suggested to take into account the attitude to the city of its residents, visiting guests, experts of the relevant companies and statistical data. The author adapted this technique to the characteristics of the cities of Ukraine and selected the components of the criteria of the general index. The criteria that should be used when forming a positive city brand are the place (quality of the natural and built environment); product (key institutions of the city, attractions and infrastructure); culture (art, culture and entertainment in the city); people (immigration and population diversity); welfare (employment indicators, GDP per capita, availability of corporate offices); promotion (number of scientific publications, links and recommendations on the Internet).
At the second stage, the essence of the international brand of the city is formulated. The goal is to define the concept of the city brand based on the results of the situation diagnosis. The importance of this stage lies in careful monitoring of the situation, diagnostics, determination of the essence of the city’s brand, goals and objectives of its development. The search for the uniqueness of the city will allow determining the brand development strategy. The target audiences of the city’s international branding are the city’s state authorities, residents, entrepreneurs, tourists, and investors. It is appropriate for the city brand to apply to all target audiences, to stimulate the development of all areas that enhance the image of the city. At the same time, it is also necessary to select a priority target audience, since it is quite a difficult task to reach all those interested.

3.3 Characteristics of the city brand model and city brand promotion strategy

The main goal of the city’s development is formulated on the basis of identifying its uniqueness, defining its role for the region, the country and the world. The city development mission must meet the following criteria as future priorities; persuasiveness; stimulation; targeting the target audience. After developing the mission of developing the city brand, it is necessary to highlight the goals by which it will be achieved. The success of the city’s brand is achieved thanks to its positioning as distinguishing its features from other cities for target consumers.
The next stage of the process of developing a city’s international branding strategy is the choice of a general branding strategy, which can consist of several models of city brands. We systematize the existing models of city brands in the Table 1.

Table 1: City brand models
Source: Author according to Bilovodska (2012); Soskin (2011); Jojic (2018)

It should be emphasized that promoting the city brand using a single model is quite difficult and not effective; therefore it is advisable to combine and combine models with each other, which will allow reaching a larger number of target groups and satisfying different interests in order to expand the orientation of the city. Measures that are recommended to be used to promote the city brand are presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Measures that are recommended to be used to promote the city brand
Source: Author according to Kotler (1999)

The next stage of development of the city’s international branding strategy is the formation of a strategic branding plan. Strategic planning within the territory involves independent study, monitoring and development by the local government of the goals and main directions of sustainable social and economic development of the city in conditions of fierce competition. The international branding strategy is a tool used to form and substantiate management decisions in the field of territorial branding. The challenge of strategic brand planning is to deliver the innovation and organizational change the city needs.
The functions of strategic brand planning cover the allocation of resources for the formation and development of the brand, adaptation of the brand to the external environment, internal coordination and regulation of branding, and organizational changes in the development of the city. That is, the strategic plan for the promotion of the international brand of the city is a set of strategies, measures, rules, methods for making planning decisions and implementing the plan, which are aimed at achieving branding goals. The strategic brand development plan is developed based on the current state of the city, outlining its future orientation, taking into account the necessary resources. The successful brand of the city can form a strategic vector for the development of the territory. However, in order for the city’s international branding strategy to be viable, the brand must be based on an interesting idea that identifies the city’s uniqueness in the country and the world.
The city brand promotion strategy ensures the positioning of the city, its products and resources on the global and domestic markets of the countries, and also contributes to the strengthening of the country’s national competitiveness, therefore, in order for Ukrainian cities to enter the world rankings, attention should be paid to the formation of a positive perception of cities and unique associations with them. It is necessary to identify the main characteristics of the competitive advantages of the city brand and summarize the process of forming a successful strategy for the development of the city brand.
The next stage of the development of the city’s international branding strategy is the implementation of a strategic plan, which involves regular, ongoing evaluation and control of the results of the implementation of the strategic plan, making corrections if necessary.
The last stage is the evaluation of the effectiveness of the formed international brand of the city. The evaluation is carried out by analyzing the achievement of the set goals and determining the new positions of the city and, if necessary, returning to the initial stages, that is, the presence of feedback.
Thus, in order to expand the possibilities of the city’s development, increase the welfare of the population, and attract investors and tourists, it is necessary to form a clear and positive international brand of the city. To ensure sustainable development, the development of the international brand of the city on the basis of strategy development is of particular importance.
The process of forming a city brand is quite long and labor-intensive. It is necessary to begin with the definition of special factors of the city’s development as geographical location; geopolitical significance of the territory; natural resource potential; tourist and recreational potential; national and cultural features. An important element of the city brand concept is the idea that is formulated in the name.
Therefore, the development of the international branding strategy will be facilitated based on modern strategic tools and marketing approaches, which allows to fuel the city’s competitiveness among other cities.

4 Results

4.1 Assessment of the Kharkiv city brand

Let’s move on to the assessment of the Kharkiv city brand. An expert assessment was conducted. The experts were the residents of the city who could objectively assess the culture, nature, architecture, scientific potential, infrastructure and general improvement of the city of Kharkiv. Residents of the city were interviewed by the questionnaire method. 535 people who live in the city, work at the city’s enterprises, study in the city’s institutions were interviewed. The sample is unique, quota-based, and representative of the city’s population. The permissible error is 5%. The respondent had to score from 0 to 1 for each of the proposed criteria. The integral index of the Kharkiv brand is obtained as an arithmetic average of its indicators. The results of the survey are shown in the Table 2.

Table 2: Results of a survey of residents of the city of Kharkiv regarding the assessment of the existing brand
Source: Author

Thus, according to the results of the survey, it can be concluded that the compliance of the brand with the requests of the city population is characterized by high indicators (average index 0.71). n order to increase loyalty to the brand, it is necessary to form such a strategy, as a result of which people would clearly identify the city of Kharkiv among others and give it preference in terms of tourism, recreation, and investments. That is, based on the analysis of the existing associations of people with the city, it is necessary to select the strongest of their groups and determine the strategy of brand formation and development.
We will conduct a SWOT analysis of the city of Khariv’s brand in order to rank the strengths and opportunities of the external environment from the most promising to the least feasible, and the weaknesses and threats from the most threatening, which will allow us to form the city’s international branding strategy. The results of the SWOT analysis of the city of Kharkiv are presented in the Table. 3.

Table 3: Results of the SWOT analysis of the Kharkiv city brand
Source: Author

According to the results of the SWOT analysis of the city of Kharkiv and the results of the survey on the correspondence of the brand to the requests of the city population, we can see that the city has many strengths, such as historical heritage, the standard of living, which, in combination with ecology and the beauty of nature, forms the prerequisites for the possibility of positioning the city as „interesting modern city“.

4.2 Development of the Kharkiv city brand during the period of large-scale invasion

Despite the military situation in 2022-2023, the Kharkiv city continues to develop. In order to develop and support the Kharkiv brand, in January 2023, the Kharkiv City Council decided to create the Kharkiv Investment Agency, whose activities are aimed at attracting domestic and foreign investments to the economy of the Kharkiv region. The purpose of creating this institution is aimed at the implementation of investment, innovation, advisory and other activities, as well as promoting the investment development of the Kharkiv region by unlocking investment potential, attracting investments, developing public and private partnerships, and establishing cooperation.
The investment potential of the Kharkiv region is enormous, although temporarily weakened by the war. Even in such difficult conditions, the economy continues to work; there is interest from already working and new investors in a number of sectors. After the start of the full-scale war, the investment attractiveness of Ukraine worsened tenfold due to high riskiness and instability in profitability. But foreign and Ukrainian companies have announced many investment projects. Information about direct investments in Ukraine during the war period (Table 4) indicates the interest of investors.

Table 4: Foreign direct investment in Ukraine from 2021 to 2022, in million USD
Source: According to Ministry of Finance of Ukraine

The largest contraction of the economy occurred in the first month of the large-scale invasion. Activities in the trade, industry, and construction and transport sectors of the Kharkiv region have significantly decreased due to the outflow of labour and the closure of enterprises due to the proximity to the territories of active military operations. In addition, product supply chains were destroyed, logistics were limited, sales markets were lost, and the purchasing power of the population decreased. Currently, the IT industry remains one of the few that has not been significantly negatively affected. After the withdrawal of the troops of the Russian Federation from the region, the recovery of many enterprises began. Thanks to road repairs, broken supply chains have been restored. In addition, enterprises of mechanical engineering, food and light industry, pharmaceutical industry are resuming their work. A full-scale war created many obstacles to the development of entrepreneurial activity in Kharkov. Many business entities have ceased their activities or moved their business from Kharkiv. Despite the situation, new businesses continue to open in Kharkiv, which makes it possible to restore the city’s economy. So, within two months of 2023, 1,573 entrepreneurs opened their own business in the city, in addition, 317 entrepreneurs moved their business to Kharkiv from other regions during the same period. Local businesses continue to fill the budget, create jobs and engage in volunteer activities.
The advantages of investing in Ukraine and the Kharkiv region are high margins in some businesses, conditions for the cheapest entry into business, the social significance of continuing to build a business specifically in Ukraine, and supporting the country’s economy.

5 Conclusion

Thus, in the process of developing a city branding strategy, image and social advertising plays an important role. When developing the brand of the city of Kharkiv, an important area of work is the recognition of the city on the Internet, for example, on international tourist web resources and in social networks. Promotion of the brand on the Internet today is becoming an innovative, effective and relatively inexpensive means of advertising. PR technologies are becoming the most popular means of creating a brand, while advertising is the best means of support, because public relations activities generate more trust in the target audience than advertising. PR technologies include work with mass media, lobbying and event organization. The city of Kharkiv uses this tool in the development of an international brand, involving in the dissemination of information about the city opinion leaders who have a significant influence on public opinion and authority in society, that is, politicians, businessmen, public figures, prominent local residents. PR technology takes into account connections with local businesses, IT companies and tourism companies. Direct marketing as a branding tool demonstrates high efficiency in establishing communication with the elite. Personal communications should be effective by showing interest in certain individuals. This brand development tool is part of the marketing communications plan provided by the marketing strategy. The development of tourism and the attraction of investments in the city of Kharkiv require active interpersonal communication with the relevant target audiences, in the format of meetings and meetings. This toolkit of brand development is quite affordable, but may require some financial investments and organizational efforts. Sales promotion is aimed at obtaining an immediate response, attracting the attention of new customers, motivating regular customers and increasing the number of spontaneous purchases. Based on this, sales promotion from the point of view of geobranding is not easy. The branding strategy of the city of Kharkiv provides for the improvement of the city’s infrastructure, i.e. the modernization of engineering networks, transportation, information networks, development of the city’s investment portal with the aim of simplifying investors’ access to information about the city’s investment offers. The popular and effective means of creating a city brand is association with a person, which is, connecting the image of the city in the minds of people with a certain famous person, historical figure, for example, a politician, artist, poet, musician, composer, actor, director, athlete, scientist, artist etc. The strategy for the development of the Kharkiv city brand involves positioning the city for tourists through famous personalities who lived in the city, namely Hryhoriy Skovoroda (founder of Ukrainian philosophy, poet), Vasyl Karazin (founder of Kharkiv University), Petro Hulak-Artemovskyi (writer), Leonard Hirshman (professor of medicine), Mykhailo Starytskyi (writer and theater actor), Ilya Repin (artist), Ilya Mechnikov (nobel prize winner in the field of physiology and medicine), Dmytro Bagaliy (historian), Oleksiy Beketov (architect), Mykola Barabashov (astronomer), Isaak Dunaevsky (composer), Simon Kuznets (economist), Klavdia Shchulzhenko (pop singer and actress), Lev Landau (physicist), Leonid Bykov (actor), Lyudmila Gurchenko (actresses). Therefore, the association with the personality is an effective means of forming a bright brand of the city.
Product marketing is more effective than traditional advertising. Cooperation with famous writers and directors provides an opportunity to appeal to large target audiences, advantageously representing the brand. The informative and accessible way of building a city brand is event marketing, which is the holding of sports and cultural events, which contributes to the growth of interest in the city, attracts tourists, investors, promotes the spread of positive information, and establishes emotional connections between the consumer and the brand. Event marketing in the development of the brand strategy of the city of Kharkiv has become quite widespread. Thus, all-Ukrainian and international competitions in various sports are held in the city of Kharkiv, in addition, a large number of regional, all-Ukrainian and international festivals are held.
Thus, communication tools for the development of the city’s international branding strategy play the most important role in the system of marketing tools. Traditional and special communication channels are used to develop the Kharkiv city brand. PR technologies have the greatest influence on the development of the Kharkiv city brand, which allow you to effectively build a public relations system and create the image of the city. Associations with personalities, „product placement“ and event marketing are also effective tools for the international branding of the city, as they are available and not too expensive. Special attention should also be paid to advertising on social networks and the Internet, given their strengths.
Websites are the main and popular tool of online branding of the city: it helps to increase recognition of the city, improve awareness about it and form an image. Communication on the website of the city of Kharkiv takes place in the form of passive transmission of information (general information about the city, gallery of photos, brochures, projects and plans) and interactive communication (electronic city, consultations, feedback, calendar of events, interactive maps, virtual tours and reservations. The site has a detailed systematization of brand identification (logo, slogan, coat of arms, etc.), offers of the city (lists of historical and cultural monuments, calendar of events, photo gallery, maps, catalogs, reports, video reports), line of conduct (news, projects, plans, strategies , reports, information about local government, press center). In the process of developing the Kharkiv city brand, private blogs and the city blog of the city government are used. Blogs help to establish relations with city residents, gain the support of the population, and gain the favor of potential tourists. With the help of social networks as a city branding tool, it is possible to track the preferences of target groups and their feelings about the brand. The most visited social networks in the city of Kharkiv are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. An important social network is Trip Advisor as the site where travelers give advice to future tourists based on their own travel experiences. On the page of the city of Kharkiv on the Trip Advisor website, many reviews of entertainment (parks, monasteries, museums, churches) that are recommended to visit are provided; about hotels worth staying at during the trip; about cafes and restaurants where it is possible to have breakfast during your trip. Firstly, you can see a lot of photos of interesting places, and secondly, learn about the opinions of others about the quality of service, infrastructure of the city and evaluate the attractiveness and uniqueness for the purpose of your own visit. The 3D virtual environment in Kharkiv is used as part of the „Pocket Country“ project, which digitized the city’s architectural objects. In addition, there are banners and videos on YouTube about interesting cities of Kharkiv, which is one of the tasks of developing the city’s brand. Information resources of the city of Kharkiv have links to e-mail, which allow the target audience to contact and receive feedback. Viral marketing is also used in the positioning of the Kharkiv brand, as a measure, the application of which provides an opportunity to ensure the active dissemination of the necessary information within the target audience by the users themselves. Viral marketing uses viral video and audio clips, flash applications, photos or images.
Based on this, two areas of online branding can be distinguished: first, promotion and communication of brand values; second, building online communities associated with the brand. Among the available online branding tools, cities use: websites, blogospheres; social networks, virtual reality, e-mail, viral marketing.
So, the process of developing a city’s international branding strategy involves a sequence of steps. To develop an effective branding strategy, it is advisable to use integrated marketing communications, that is, offline and online tools. The possibilities of the Internet expand the range of methods by which a city can communicate and develop its local brand. The number of Internet users and the time they spend online is constantly increasing.
Effective international branding of the city contributes to the attraction of tourists, the formation of the regional sphere of industry and services, which is positively reflected in the growth of the number of jobs, the improvement of the quality of life, the concentration of investment resources and the recognition of the city beyond its borders. Attitudes towards a certain city are formed on the basis of a positive or negative image.
Each city is unique, special and unique. Creating a city brand, improving infrastructure, and promoting development are currently the main tasks of the city government. Creating and improving the brand of the city should be understood that in the future the city will receive advantages compared to other cities. The government and local authorities will support the development of international city brands.
The international branding strategy of the city of Kharkiv is formed as a „interesting modern city”. The local authorities of the city of Kharkiv should apply offline and online technologies in the process of developing the city’s international branding strategy. It is worth introducing virtual platforms, the latest trends in digital marketing, and taking an example from foreign city brands into the practice of Kharkiv city brand development.

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Kľúčové slová/Key words

city brand, city branding, territory branding, reputation, image, international city branding strategy
značka mesta, tvorba značky mesta, značka územia, reputácia, imidž, stratégia budovania medzinárodnej značky mesta

JEL klasifikácia/JEL Classification

M31, O18

Résumé

Proces rozvoja medzinárodnej stratégie značky mesta: Prípadová štúdia mesta Charkov.
Zámerom príspevku je určiť postupnosť etáp rozvoja medzinárodnej stratégie značky mesta. Za týmto účelom bola analyzovaná teória svetovej praxe vytvárania známych značiek miest a na tomto základe sa navrhli modely značiek miest. Schválenie postupu na vypracovanie stratégie medzinárodnej značky sa uskutočnilo na príklade mesta Charkov, jedného z najväčších miest na Ukrajine. Spojenie experimentu a rozhovoru umožnilo zhodnotiť značku mesta Charkov. Na základe SWOT analýzy boli odhalené silné a slabé stránky rozvoja značky mesta, ako aj vyhliadky na umiestnenie značky. Uvádzajú sa praktické odporúčania na zlepšenie stratégie rozvoja medzinárodnej značky mesta na základe využitia spektra offline a online nástrojov na jej budovanie.

Recenzované/Reviewed

10. February 2023 / 2. March 2023