On May 10, Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers approved a brand—featuring the slogan ‘Ukraine NOW’—that Ukraine will use to promote itself abroad.
With distinctive yellow and blue coloring, and a bold black typeface, the government sees it as a way to give Ukraine a ‘single voice,’ and attract more investment into the country.
“This will be Ukraine’s brand in the world,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said during a Cabinet meeting on May 10.
The brand is intended for government presentations and conferences abroad, but, with a ‘brand book’ soon to come, the Cabinet of Minister’s press service also highlighted its potential use on buses, airplanes, travel bags and other merchandise.
Artem Bidenko, Ukraine’s Information Policy Ministry’s state secretary, described it as a “single voice of Ukraine all over the world,” According to the ministry’s press release, the brand was developed for almost a year as it went through various modifications.
The brand was developed by Banda Agency, which also developed a brand for the 2017 Eurovision competition in Kyiv. According to the agency’s website, Ukraine abroad is mainly associated with three things: revolution, corruption and war. Foreigners think that Ukrainians are closed, aggressive and intolerant.
But this view will hopefully change with the launch of this new brand which will attract investments into business, tourism and cultural projects, according to the agency.
According to Brand Finance, an independent branded business valuation and strategy consultancy, last year Ukraine as a brand amounted to $68 billion. Brands of leading countries ranked in trillions of dollars for their names: U.S. – $ 21 trillion; China – $10.2 trillion; Germany – $4 trillion.
But the value of Ukraine’s brand in 2017 went up to 22 percent compared to the previous year and has already reached the level of 2011.
The main problem of Ukraine’s brand value, however, is the lack of investments, according to Ukrainian Institute for the Future, an independent think tank.
