The communicative potential of a social brand

The subject of the study is the communication aspect of branding. The object of the study is a social brand in a communication environment. The authors consider branding in detail as one of their areas of communication activity, turn to the history of the emergence of the concept of "brand", identify the main areas of research on branding in Russia as a communication technology. Special attention is paid to the study of the concepts of social responsibility, as well as the concept of "social brand". The study identifies the main areas of social responsibility of modern business. The emergence of the phenomenon of "social brand" is associated by the authors with the implementation of the ideas of social responsibility. As an example of a social brand, the article considers a social project – Gazprom for Children. The authors have identified the characteristics of the social brand that the named social project possesses. Through the implementation of a social project, the image of the company is formed in the eyes of the general public. The research was carried out using general scientific methods. In particular, the methods of analyzing the concepts of brand, social and commercial brand, and social responsibility are applied. The analysis of these concepts required their simultaneous comprehension in interrelation and interaction, thus, the synthesis method was used. The methods of analogy, the method of system analysis, the method of structural and functional analysis were also used. The main conclusions of the study are: the absence in modern science of a clearly formulated concept of "social brand" and its characteristic features; the formation of ideas about a social brand is caused by the purposeful implementation of socially responsible behavior by companies; the transmission of social responsibility forms a social image of the company in the eyes of the public, which positively affects the attitude towards it. The communication component of social responsibility is actively manifested in the provision of non-financial reporting to the general public. It has been established that not every line of activity implemented within the framework of social responsibility acquires the image of a social brand. A special contribution of the authors to the research of the topic is the formulation of the definition of the concept of "social brand", the establishment of the relationship between social responsibility and social brand, the identification of the main characteristics of a social brand and its communication potential. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that it presents the author's vision of a social brand through the prism of communication activities.