uture incomes from the brand over a particular period of time – lifespan converted to present value (Forbes, 2006). However, there is an evident research gap in the existing literature in terms of considering time as a category, which is relevant to place branding.

Time and place

Time has always been a matter of interest for researchers in different fields of study since the ancient periods. The concept of time and various approaches to understanding and explaining its nature have been scrutinised in philosophy, physics, literature, arts, urban studies, management, economics and a large number of fields. Meanwhile, there is a logical question, that can be addressed in this context. If time has been studied in approaches dealing with spaces and spatial characteristics of the social world, how the issue of time is connected with place brands?

In place marketing and branding the term used for defining spatial characteristics of cities, regions and countries is usually put as “place”. However, in philosophy this category is describes as “place” or “space”. In the recent publications there is a discussion about differences between these terms and special characteristics in marketing (Giovanardi and Lucarelli, 2018). Analyzing place and time categories has always been one of the most popular and challenging philosophical problems. It has been debated if time and place exist independently of people’s minds. One more issue discussed was the possible interdependence of these categories and how to identify them. In the ancient atomism theory time was considered as a specific substance. Place (space) is considered to be a fundamental concept of a human mind, reflecting the multiple character of the existing world and its heterogeneity. A range of objects and data reflected in human mind build a complicated image of the world. In the ancient philosophy Plato described time as the period of motion of the heavenly bodies and sees past and present as forms of time (Brumbaugh, 1984). Aristotle defined time as the number of changes with respect to before and after, and the place of an object (Madanipour, 2017).