Marketing instruments for attracting investments in territorial communities

Problem setting. Ukraine has significant regional imbalances in attracting investment. The most attractive for investors is Kyiv city, where almost 50% of foreign investments are accumulated. At the same time, other regions remain unattractive for investors. The unsatisfactory situation in the regions is a reflection of unfavorable investment climate and requires the use of new tools to attract investment. The use of marketing tools can stimulate the inflow of investment into small cities and communities. Given these, the issue of using marketing tools to attract investment in local communities remains unexplored and relevant.

Recent research and publications analysis. An important contribution to the study of territory marketing and investment attraction was made by: S. Ankholt, V. Bondarenko, D. Vizghalov, M. Hovorukhina, N. Hrynchuk, K. Dinni, O. Ignatenko, F. Kotler, O. Osovets, A. Pankrukhin, S. Smerichevskyi, R. Fedorov, O. Fedorovych, D. Frolov, O. Khymych, and others.

Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. An analysis of the literature on this issue has shown that domestic researches are quite narrowly specialized and most English-language works on this topic are written in the form of study of real situations and have non-scientific characters.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the essence of marketing tools and justify the feasibility of their use to attract investment in local communities, and improve the investment climate in Ukraine.

Paper main body. In recent years, Ukraine has taken significant steps to decentralize its power and resources. And although decentralization is a complicated reform, it is also one of the most successful reforms in Ukraine. This reform provides the transfer of powers and finances for their implementation from the central government to local authorities. The starting point of the reform is the thesis that local authorities are better oriented at local problems and can use funds more effectively to solve them.

However, in the context of the economic crisis caused by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government is cutting transfers to support infrastructure and urban development in general. The local authorities in Ukraine suffer from an austerity policy pursued by the government. With this in mind, communities need to work to create a positive image of the area, to diversify sources of capital, and attract new investors.

Taking into account the limited budgets and the specifics of activities at the local level, the minimum set of tools for attracting investment in local communities should include: development of investment strategy and program, brand formation of the territory, development of investment passport, formation of industry reviews, construction of investor’s roadmap, distribution of investment proposals, creation and updating of investment website, work in social networks, development of interactive investment map, press kit formation, preparation of multimedia presentations, participation in road-shows, investment seminars, conferences, forums and exhibitions, targeted search for new investors and formation of existing investors database.

Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. The results of the study confirm that in the conditions of competition for investment funds, marketing tools for attracting investments come to the fore. Although the marketing of territories is a relatively young area of research, it can contribute to the successful promotion of local communities to attract investment and improve the image of the territory. The skillful use of marketing tools can help attract investment to local communities.

In further research, we plan to study tax instruments to stimulate investment activity to improve the investment climate in Ukraine.