Purpose. The work aims to improve the theoretical, methodological, and practical foundations of marketing communications between local self-government bodies and residents of the community's villages/settlements.
Design/methodology/approach. The research's theoretical and methodological basis was the scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists who studied the problems and issues of marketing communications of local self-government bodies. Used methods: abstract logical analysis and synthesis, comparative analysis, and generalization.The information base was a sociological survey as part of the project “Information asymmetry in the interaction of local self-government bodies and residents of rural areas: analysis of the causes of occurrence and ways to overcome it”, which was implemented with the financial support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany, 2021–2022). The survey conducts by using the questionnaire method among residents of rural areas in eight territorial communities in the Southern, Central, and Western regions of Ukraine. The error of representativeness is ± 5.2 %. The final sample was 3018 people (residents over 14 years old).
Conclusions. It was established that long-term and trusting relations between local government and residents of rural communities are based on regular and high-quality communication. The hypothesis that the poorer the community residents are, the more interested they are in information about social projects has been refuted. The results of the study showed that this category of residents is most interested in information related to reporting on expenditures/incomes of the local budget, on the activities of the head of the community, local officials, local deputies, and infrastructure projects. The hypothesis “The more affluent residents are, the more they are interested in information about the community development (economic development and infrastructure projects, land issues)”.
The hypothesis “The richer the residents, the more interested they are in information about community development (economic development and infrastructure projects, land issues)” was confirmed. The least exciting for this residence category is social projects, transfer of ownership or leasing, reporting on the head of the community activities, local employees and deputies, cultural events, and the educational sphere. The hypothesis that there are no gender and regional differences in determining priority information topics for local self-government bodies in marketing communications was also confirmed.
Originality/value. The article analyzes the specifics of the target audience and identifies the needs and interests of different categories of community residents. The combined distribution of the interest of the residents of rural areas in information from various fields was carried out, depending on their feeling of abundance. Gender differences in marketing communications with the rural population are considered.
Practical results. the research results presented in the article will be helpful to local self-government bodies for effective communication with residents of villages and towns and build a community communication strategy.
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