Ethnic Symbols of a Product Brand as a Factor in the Formation of Youth Cultural Identity – Международный журнал исследований культуры

Buy

Galina I. GERASIMOVA
Tyumen Industrial University
38 D., Volodarskogo str., Tyumen, 625000, Russian Federation
Professor of the Department of Marketing and Municipal Management
Doctor of Science (Sociology)
e-mail: gerasimovagi@tyuiu.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-5670-1784

Aigul N. GILMANOVA
Kazan State Institute of Culture
3, Orenburgsky Trakt St., Kazan, 420059, Russian Federation
Associate Professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Socio-Cultural Activities
PhD in Philology
e-mail: gilmanowaai@yandex.ru
ORCID: 0000-0003-2626-5229

Ethnic Symbols of a Product Brand as a Factor in the Formation of Youth Cultural Identity

Abstract: Globalization and unification threaten the cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia, contribute to the erosion of traditions and the loss of cultural identity, while at the same time, ethnic symbols as a sign system ensure the integrity and dialectical unity of the new and the traditional, help to overcome alienation, and reproduce a multiethnic community. Such symbols are implemented not only in cultural, but also in marketing practices, when in the process of branding, the ethnic component is used to form an emotional connection and associations with certain values of people, including young people. To date, the process of perception by young people of ethnic elements in product brands, their influence on the cultural identification of the generation has not been sufficiently studied and, therefore, additional comprehension of this cultural phenomenon is appropriate. The most productive approach is based on the interdisciplinary paradigm, integrating the theory of intercultural communication by E. Hall, the concepts of symbolism by F. Barthes, E. Smith and L. A. White, the principles of cultural relativism by M. Herskovich, as well as the theory of integration of ethnic and religious components by W. Kimlicki. Based on this theoretical foundation and the results of empirical research, it is important to identify ethnic symbols, signs and authentic images that are priority for young people, the placement of which in Russian product brands conveys a certain set of values. The hypothesis of the research is to define symbols as constructs that transform ethnocentric stereotypes, produce intercultural trust, dialogue, consolidating Russian society. In addition, the provision on product brands as cultural mediators that ensure the interaction of representatives of different ethnic groups, contributing to the formation of an integral social space without young people losing their ethnic identity, has been verified.

Key words: branding, globalization, visual elements, identification, new meanings, traditions, values, focused interview, emotional response, ethnocentric stereotypes.

References:

Brubeyker, R. (2012). Etnichnost bez grupp. [Ethnicity without groups]. Moscow. 408. (In Russian).
SHnirelman, V. A. (2018). Mif o dalёkih predkah i etnicheskaya identichnost [The myth of distant ancestors and ethnic identity]. Jurnal «Istoriya» T. 9. 6 (70). Available at: http://ras.jes.su/history/s207987840004906-5-1 (Accessed: 15.04.2026).
Smith, A. D. (2001). Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History. Cambridge: Polity Press. 224.
Kymlicka, W. (1995). Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: University Press. 280.
Modood, T. (2019). Essays on Secularism and Multiculturalism. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. 262.
Knutsson, K. E. (2006). Dihotomizaciya i integraciya: nekotorye aspekty mezhetnicheskih otnoshenij v Yuzhnoj Efiopii [Dichotomization and integration: some aspects of interethnic relations in Southern Ethiopia]. Etnicheskie gruppyi i sotsialnyie granitsyi: sotsialnaya organizatsiya kulturnyih razlichiy [Ethnic groups and social boundaries: the social organization of cultural differences]. Moscow.198. (In Russian).
Uajt, L.A. (2009). Ponyatie kul’tury [The concept of culture] Questions of social theory: a scientific almanac. T. III. 1(3). Sociality and culture in a changing world. Moscow. 372. (In Russian).
Sadohin, A. P. (2017). Osnovy etnologii [Fundamentals of Ethnology]. Moscow. 351. (In Russian).
Geertz C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York. 470.
Hall S. (1990). Cultural Identity and Diaspora // Identity: Community, Culture, Difference / ed. by J. Rutherford. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990. P. 222–237.
Gofman I. (2000). Predstavlenie sebya drugim v povsednevnoj zhizni. Moscow. 304. (In Russian).
Burd’e P. (2001). Razlichenie: social’naya kritika suzhdeniya vkusa. Moscow. 567. (In Russian).
Bart F. (2006). Etnicheskie gruppy i social’nye granicy: social’naya organizaciya kul’turnyh razlichij. Moscow. 200 (In Russian).
Anderson B. (2001) Voobrazhaemye soobshchestva: razmyshleniya ob istokah i rasprostranenii nacionalizma. Moscow. 288 (In Russian).
Assmann J. (2011). Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination. Cambridge. 410.
Barthes, R. (2008). Mythologies [Mifologii]. Akademicheskiy Proekt. (In Russian).
Mirzoev N. (2013). Vvedenie v vizual’nuyu kul’turu. Moscow. 416. (In Russian).
Lotman YU. (2000). Semiosfera. Sankt Peterburg 704; Uspenskij B. A. (1995) Semiotika iskusstva. Moscow. 360. (In Russian).
Tishkov, V. A. (2003). Requiem for the ethnos: Studies in socio-cultural anthropology [Rekviem po etnosu: issledovaniya po sotsial’no-kul’turnoy antropologii]. Nauka. (In Russian).
Ionin, L. G. (2004). Sociology of culture: The path to the new millennium [Sotsiologiya kul’tury: put’ v novoe tysyacheletie]. Logos. (In Russian).
Kon, I. S. (2003). Sociology of personality [Sotsiologiya lichnosti]. Aspekt Press. (In Russian).
Flier, A. Y. (2010). Culturology for culturologists [Kul’turologiya dlya kul’turologov]. Akademicheskiy Proekt. (In Russian).
Gadamer, G.-G. (1980). Istina i metod: Osnovy filosofskoj germenevtiki [Truth and Method: Fundamentals of Philosophical Hermeneutics]. Moscow. 704. (In Russian).

For Citation:

Gerasimova, G., Gilmanova, A. (2026) Ethnic Symbols of a Product Brand as a Factor in the Formation of Youth Cultural Identity. International Journal of Cultural Research, 2 (63). 27–36. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2026_2_27

DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2026_2_27