Corporate marketing through legitimation and identity construction: launching the Sputnik V vaccine

This study investigates how corporate marketing of an anti-COVID-19 vaccine candidate Sputnik V uses referential identity construction and (de)legitimation mechanisms to integrate informational and promotional data on a specifically created website. Combining corpus analytical tools with discourse analytical techniques and relying on Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) framework of identity and van Leeuwen’s (2007) legitimation theory, the study delves into the most prominent identity claims of the vaccine on its website. The findings reveal a robust link between the vaccine’s brand / identity construction and the nation branding of Russia. The nested configuration of indexical and relational identity claims through ideologically informed representations of Sputnik V / Russia as scientifically proven, safe, effective and economically profitable vs. other vaccines and manufacturers that discursively lacked those qualities and were openly delegitimated showed how communication was predominantly directed at large state entities rather than individuals, differentiating this discourse from media communication on vaccines. In the wake of a global pandemic, some of the company’s identity claims were clearly meant to legitimate and promote not only the vaccine, but also the country, operating on an ideological level.