Russian theatre as a component of Russia's cultural brand

The issue of Russia's cultural branding has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers in recent years, but research in this area is still at its dawn. The first step of the national branding procedure based on the country's cultural resources is to find candidates for brand status that conform to the entirety of the cultural heritage. This task has not yet been resolved in Russia; no catalog of national cultural brands has been developed. The article explores the phenomenon of Russian national theatre as part of national branding given that Russian theatre as a general notion is not the only code of Russian identity, but its inherent aspects such as drama, directing and acting are also cultural codes to be considered. Currently, despite the fact that individual theatres in Russia are full-fledged brands (Bolshoi Theater, Moscow Art Theatre, Tabakerka, Mariinsky Theatre, etc.) and Russian theatre is often referred to as a brand by celebrities, there is no structural brand framework for the Russian theatre. The article analyzes Russian theatre as a brand from the structural perspective, characterizing each of its brand components in turn: (1) brand name - a unique name that reflects the content of the brand; (2) idea - the main task for brand positioning; (3) mission - the purpose of the brand's existence in the market; (4) history - coverage of the main stages of brand development; (5) uniqueness -features that distinguish a brand from competitors; (6) impression - associations and emotional images that should arise in consumers' mind when mentioning a brand, which contribute to the formation of its positive image; (7) values -intangible characteristics of a brand that increase its significance in the eyes of consumers; (8) identity - a set of external characteristics of a brand (style, color scheme, logo, slogan, etc.) that provide maximum differentiation from competitors. The research is designed on semantic analysis of secondary data, based on search results of Yandex, Google, Yahoo, cyberleninka.ru, eLIBRARY.RU, disserCat, and the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture web-sites. Based on the results of a structural analysis of the Russian theatre brand, its another important characteristic is derived - personality. As a personality, "Russian theatre" can be characterized as multifaceted: having absorbed national and world cultures, educated, but also innovative; emotionally, spiritually and intellectually deep, confessional, but also paradoxical; sophisticated and accessible; all in all - always professional, with "enlightening" being its main driver feature. Thus, the concept of "Russian theatre" contains all the content features (prerequisites) to be considered and developed as a brand with a potential of different target-audience orientation. However, from the perspective of political branding and cultural diplomacy, it still requires visual brand identity differentiation (a trademark, a logo, etc.). The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

Keywords

Authors

References