Russian National Branding: Between Cultural Archetypes and Marketing Strategies

The communicative landscape in contemporary Russia demonstrates a marked turn towards national cultural traditions, folklore, and classical art. Unlike the often opportunistic campaigns in popular culture, branding and marketing communications, due to their commercial nature and drive for monetization, signal a new level of identity processes that are permeating everyday life precisely because of their resonance with the public consciousness. The goal is to identify the deep, archetypal foundations of the phenomenon of the national brand, which, in its hybrid form, serves both as a tool for creating a “unique cultural proposition” for the world and for affirming ethico-semantic constants within society that influence internal communication as a tool for identificatory reflection. The methodological framework is based on qualitative casestudy analysis, supplemented by the dialectical principle of historicity, tracing the transformation of cultural patterns from classical exemplars (e.g., the Ballets Russes, Russian ballet) to contemporary hybrid forms (e.g., the Khokhloma brand, the Sigma Boy media phenomenon). The analysis proves that the resilience and success of a national brand are directly correlated with its embeddedness in the specific patterns of the national consciousness, with its orientation towards integrity and a spiritual tonality. In conclusion, the article substantiates the crucial distinction between authentic cultural archetypes and imposed ideological simulacra in the context of Russia’s contemporary branding strategy.