Opportunities and directions of forming a brand territory (The case of the Komi Republic)

The article analyzes the potential of the Komi Republic in the area of forming a territorial brand. The relevance of the work relates to the announcement in November 2017 of Sergey Yemelyanov, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Archives of the Republic, about the disunity of territorial brands of Komi municipalities. The author regards the concept of brand of the territory from the standpoint of cognitive psychology as a single psychological complex of its perception, as knowledge that identifies the branding object with the given territory and motivates the representatives of target groups to perform the actions necessary for the subject of branding. The territory brand is, first of all, an intangible asset for increasing the competitive advantages of the territory and the factor of attracting resources. In the process of determining the resource needs of the territory, it is necessary to rely on own development strategy, the availability of which is conditioned both by the requirements of the legislation and by current economic realities. Understanding of resource needs and their correlation with the needs of target groups allows formulating a brand idea. Promotion of the brand idea in the process of forming a territorial brand occurs with the help of such communication tools as generalized verbal and visual images (slogan and logo), static and dynamic visual symbols, the formation of associations with personalities (famous historical figures, political leaders, etc.), using, creation and promoting the legends. The possibility of applying these tools in correlation with the strategy of territorial development and resource needs is examined through the example of the Komi Republic.