Communication Management in Place Branding at the Regional Level of the State

In modern public administration models, the need for the use by state and municipal authorities of alternative methods for developing the potential of territories and increasing the image of local administrations is being actualized. Over the past 20 years, the attention of representatives of the authorities and the expert community to marketing tools has increased, in particular, to the concept of place branding, which allows to improve socio-economic indicators, both at the local and regional levels of the state. At the same time, in Russian practice, an increase in the number of initiatives to implement branding strategies for regions and cities by authorities is not accompanied by an increase in the quality of processes for managing them. The success of place branding initiatives depends on many factors, including the quality of the management system. The purpose of the study is to identify communication mechanisms for managing place branding at the regional level of the state. The theoretical part of the study consists of investigating the main aspects of place branding and marketing, as well as of identifying the problems that are present in brand management systems from the position of state and municipal government. To increase the effectiveness of communications in place branding in the external environment, a communication model is proposed that will allow public administrators to manage the communication component of branding by building a consistent communication strategy. The empirical part of the study is based on quantitative and qualitative methods, which allows to analyze in detail the role of communications in place branding using the proposed model and the experience of one of the regions of Russia. It is demonstrated that the leading role in managing place branding strategies is performed by the communication mechanism, which includes ways of informing the public and promoting the brand in the external environment. The practical significance of the obtained results lies in the possibility of their use by representatives of the authorities for managing place brands, taking into account the peculiarities of the branding communication mechanism.