Branding strategies of the city of Saransk in the context of the category of "quality of life"

Introduction: currently, the issue of development of a city brand strategy in any region of the Russian Federation is highly relevant, as its successful implementation can provide a considerable impetus for development of the city, of its infrastructure, human potential, industry, culture and tourism. Choosing an effective branding strategy is a complex task requiring an integrated approach. Materials and Methods: the materials used were scientific publications of the leading Russian and foreign experts in the field of territorial branding, as well as statistical and rating data from open sources. The study was performed in the framework of an integrated approach based on the principle of systematicity; the methods used were: analysis, synthesis, data generalization and integration, conceptual modeling. Results: the authors identified the reasons that make creation of the brand of the city of Saransk, the capital of the Republic of Mordovia, a complex scientific and practical issue requiring immediate solution. The performed analysis revealed that there are three brand development strategies of the city of Saransk: Saransk as a capital, Saransk as a sports city and Saransk as a model province. It was exposed that implementation of these brand development strategies, despite the obvious progress, cannot give considerable results because it does not significantly improve the quality of life of the population. Discussion and Conclusions: the existing brand development strategies of the city of Saransk are largely intrinsic to other medium-sized cities as well. Having a number of advantages, these branding strategies, however, do not lead to a substantial increase in the important indicator of brand development, that of improvement of the quality of life of the population. In this regard, the issue of choosing an effective branding strategy of a city development remains relevant and requires an integrated approach to be settled.