Russia: 'Old fashioned' juice brand wins marketing award

Dobriy, which is produced by a company called Multon, won the gold medal in the alcohol-free beverages category at this year's ceremony, with the judges highlighting in particular the brand's efforts to grow its share of a stagnating market.

Launched just six years ago, Dobriy is already the undisputed leader of the Russian juice market with a 20 per cent market share, a position built on the simple ethic of offering a high quality product at an affordable price, according to Multon's PR manager, Sergey Lavrinenko.

With its old-fashioned packaging and a conservative Russian-scripted logo, Dobriy does not conform to the ideal of most modern brand successes, yet the company's recent marketing campaign proved an instant hit with consumers across the country.

With growth in the juice market slowing, and Dobriy coming under increasing pressure from rival producers, Multon set itself the ambitious target of increasing the brand's market share to 22.5 per cent, as well as a 25 per cent increase in production volumes.

The company focused primarily on TV - the only medium which really reaches the whole of the country and which is therefore the most cost effective - and billboards to promote its brand, but also hit upon the idea of publishing adverts on benches in children's playgrounds and amusement parks in St. Petersburg and Moscow - appealing directly to families, its core consumer base.

The campaign was a clear success, with Dobriy's market share reaching 24 per cent in July, well ahead of the company's own targets, while volume sales increased by 35 per cent in the year to 1 September.

The company also achieved its goal of improving consumer awareness and loyalty - some 70 per cent of Russian consumers who had bought the brand in the past said they had bought it again within the last three months.

"Experience suggests that it is often harder to hold on to your market position than it is to achieve it in the first place,"​ Tatiana Tretiachenko, Multon marketing manager, told CEE-foodindustry.com​. "More and more brands are appealing to the consumer at the emotional level, and we expect the competition to become even fiercer in the future. But our strategy remains the same: to strengthen Dobriy's leading market positions and through reacting promptly - but not precipitously - to the market developments around us."​

Food product marketing is among the most competitive, according to Maria Khokhlova, head of the organising committee of Brand of the Year awards, and indeed food companies are considered to be largely responsible for the development of branding as a concept in Russia.

But their dominance of the marketing world appears to be waning. "Food producers were our first winners when we started the awards seven years ago,"​ said Khokhlova. "But now producers from other industries have learned the benefits of effective branding from them, and the food industry's growth is slowing as a result of consumers spending their disposable incomes on other goods. This year, the only food products to win awards were beverages and potato chips."​

Of the 29 industry categories covered by the awards, five centred on the food industry: processed food, alcohol-free beverages, beer, other alcoholic beverages and restaurants. Other gold medal winners included the snack brand Cheetos; tea brands Lipton, Martell and Tuborg Green; Baltika No.3 beer and the Il Patio chain of restaurants.

All the winners will receive five minutes of free advertising on TV-RBC (a popular business channel in Russia) and a 50 per cent discount on advertising spots from the Echo of Moscow radio station. The ceremony itself will also be aired on TV, providing additional exposure for nominees and winners.