Brand value increases across categories

Part 4 | The Fast Growing Markets
Government regulations banning beer
advertising on TV drove a different
kind of innovation. Until July 2012, the
government permitted beer advertising
on TV after 10 pm. Now it’s banned
entirely. The prohibition follows similar
limits aimed at alcohol and tobacco.
The beer advertising restriction forced
companies to think creatively about
building brands differently. Russia’s
leading beer brand, Baltika promoted its
non-alcoholic version called Baltika 0. The
name follows Baltika’s numerical branding
style—Baltika 3 is a lager, for example.
The product and communications solutions
that beer brands devise to compensate
for the TV ad ban will influence other
Insight
Brand building by B2B
companies
In developing markets, it has primarily
been consumer brands that have
invested in brand building in recent
years. We’re seeing however a
growing interest in brand building
from B2B companies, however. It
followed Russia’s acceptance into
the WTO last year, which opens
the market up to competition from
both directions. These B2B brands
are looking for ways to be more
competitive against brands entering
Russia and also against brands in the
markets to which they may expand.
Emma Beckmann
Country Director – Russia
Landor Associates
emma.beckmann@landor.com
128 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2013
categories to evolve their brand building.
Emphasis should shift from a focus on
advertising, design and packaging to
improving brand experience overall and
increasing social media activity.
Establishing brands abroad
Russia’s three largest telecoms—MTS,
Megafon and Beeline—raised their
brand profiles as they expanded abroad
to the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS), Turkey and fast growing
Asian markets.
As the telecoms grew through acquisition,
Megafon and MTS usually subsumed
new entities under their masterbrands.
Beeline’s parent Vympelcom tends to
leverage the equity of the local brand.
Meanwhile, MTS has developed other
revenue streams, in financial services and
from monetizing its customer data.
Russia’s fourth largest telecommunications
player grew by collecting
regional telecoms and operating an
intercity fixed line business under a
conglomeration of names. The company
recently unified these entities under a
single brand, Rostelecom.
Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil and gas
brand, has become a global brand,
having recently entered in partnership
with ExxonMobil and other global
players desiring access to natural
resources reserves in the Arctic and
Siberia. Whether the state-owned Rosneft
will devote attention to brand building,
as two major state-owned banks have, is
another question.
The two banks, Sberbank and VTB,
are actively branding both in Russia
and abroad. Sberbank recently
completed several overseas acquisitions
to build global stature. These follow a
comprehensive rebranding program that
transformed the bank from an austere
Soviet-era institution to a consumerfocused
business. The remodeled branches
and their online banking services are
sophisticated and user-friendly.
VTB is working to strengthen its brand
as part of an aggressive expansion of
Insight
Beer ad ban offers an
opportunity
The ban on beer TV advertising
challenges the beer brands. It will be
interesting to see how the brands
behave after this ban, how they
launch new products, for example,
in the absence of TV advertising. The
stronger beer brands could emerge
even stronger after this advertising ban.
Brands in other categories will look to
beer to see what’s innovative in the use
of social media and other tools.
Vladimir Melikov
Quantitative Research Co-Director
Millward Brown A/R/M/I-Marketing
vmelikov@armi-marketing.com
commercial and corporate banking in
Russia, Europe, Africa and Asia. The
bank recently branded its retail business
VTB 24. VTB launched a stand-alone
brand called Leto, which means summer
in Russian. The bank developed Leto to
provide lending services to the sub-prime
market. It felt it would be imprudent to
reach this audience with its core brand.
VTB intends to open 1,000 Leto branches
over the next five years.
Yandex, Russia’s competitor to Google,
has expanded to Turkey and is eyeing
other markets. Kaspersky’s Labs antivirus
has become one of the strongest
software brands in the world.
In a high profile international brand
building initiative, several brands are
sponsors of Sochi 2014, including
Sberbank and Megafon, which recently
completed an IPO.
The increasing sophistication of the Chinese consumer
challenges all brands to remain relevant. Every brand has its
own story. To watch short individual brand videos containing
unique content about China, and to learn more about the
BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2013,
please scan this QR code,
or go to http: //thestorewpp.tv/china50.
Russia
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