The theoretical basis of the branding of the Serbian Armed Forces

The structure of the military organization, its social, normative and legal role, doctrine, history and tradition, specific internal relations, combat readiness, weapons, external features, the attitude and behaviour of personnel to its fundamental values and, finally, the way it communicates with the public, make the totality of the identity of the Serbian Armed Forces. The way that the public perceives the identity characteristics of the military represents a dynamic category that we call an image. A reputation, like an image, is based on the subjective perception of an identity, with the difference that establishing a reputation requires personal experience in relation to the organization and the period in which such an experience is confirmed. Brand and branding are occasionally, theoretically inconsistently, related to the Serbian Armed Forces as an organization, while the main properties of these concepts established in marketing are ignored. This paper analyses various definitions and determinants of the concept of brand, and offers an answer to the question: whether and in which case it is possible to talk about "the brand of the Serbian Armed Forces" and why its public image should primarily be considered and studied through the prism of an organizational identity, image and reputation. The paper proposes that the organizational image and reputation of the Serbian Armed Forces be used as conceptual frameworks for considering its image in the public, while the concept of brand can be used in the sense of branding the Armed Forces as an employere.