The Role of Branding Elements in an IT Startup: Case Study of Koshelek Mobile App

Today's business market in Russia, like in the world, is characterized by a high level of competition, which is exacerbated as companies try to gain market positions [Domin & Starov, 2017]. Thus, in building their long-term expansion and promotion strategy, companies are guided not only by price factors, but also turn to non-price strategies to enhance product value, including branding. In this paper, branding as a way to gain long-term market advantage is studied in the context of identifying the role of its elements in building loyal relationships with the satrap's stakeholders and covers both its internal and external aspects. This paper identifies the distinctive features of IT-stratagem branding, examined through a literature review and a case study on the analysis of the branding activities of the Wallet Company. The paper also identifies the factors that influence the formation of the consumer's impression of the brand when interacting with its elements, which have also been operationalized in this paper.