Award ceremony indicates key Russian trends
for the first time were able to glimpse a snapshot of the state of
Russia's food and drink industry, writes Angela Drujinina.
The spread of the awards revealed which sectors were dynamic and which were stagnating.
"Growth in many food sectors is slowing down because consumption is not growing," said Maria Khokhlova, head of the contest's organisational committee.
"We can see this right away. For instance, there are no confectionery and milk product brands among our winners in 2004. This year only juice, chips and restaurant brands advanced."
Russian viewers witnessed the top accolade for an alcohol-free beverage going to a product marketed in a most traditional way. The Dobriy brand received gold in the alcohol-free beverage nomination, for its rather archaic take on marketing.
"Its old Russian script of the logo, Russian-style packaging suggesting patriotism and family values also promises at the same time the highest quality within the segment at an affordable price," Sergey Lavrinenko, PR manager of Multon told CeeFoodIndustry.com.
"This combination has proved itself since the brand was launched six years ago."
The clever marketing has certainly achieved its objectives. Dobriy's market share in Russia reached 24 per cent in July 2004, and sales volume has increased by 35 per cent from September 2003 to September 2004. Distribution of the brand also grew by 3 per cent in 2004.
Besides that, Dobriy has proved capable of retaining customer loyalty - 70 per cent of consumers who had bought it some time in the past bought the product again within the last three months.
The grand-prix in the New Name category was given to Baltimore for its 8 Vegetables brand. According to Irina Troshkova, deputy director of marketing and sales of Baltimore, the company has a long-term goal.
"First of all, we wanted to create a new category of product - vegetable juice. Before we started, the culture of consumption of vegetable juices was practically nonexistent. The only exception was tomato juice, which was third by consumption after orange and apple juice.
"But research and surveys around the world show that consumers are waiting for other vegetable juices. Baltimore plans to become a leader in this new category of products and we have everything we need to succeed. Our initial goal in the first year after the introduction of 8 Vegetables was to achieve a 50 per cent share of our target consumers."
The firm's $2.5 million advertising campaign managed to achieve a 47 per cent share of its target audience by August 2004. At least 14 per cent of consumers bought 8 Vegetables juice at least once, and the volume of sales at the end of 2004 reached 10 million litres.
The Brand of the Year event, now in its seventh year, was attended by almost 1,000 top managers and directors of leading Russian and transnational companies. Gold, silver and bronze medals were given to 94 brands in various categories that had been advertised in Russia from September 2003 to September 2004.
According to Khokhlova, this year's sponsors were particularly generous. Besides the traditional trophy, all winners received five minutes of free advertisement time on television from the TV-RBC channel, a popular Russian business channel, and a 50 per cent discount on advertising from the Echo of Moscow radio station.
A live broadcast of the ceremony in December 2005 is planned.
