Konstantin Kuzin: “Corporate Brands and the Country Image Have to Complement Each Other”

The issues under discussion concerned the ways of strengthening the national brand and defining the part of authorities and business in this process. Participants of the meeting expressed different opinions on what is more important – brands that shape the image of the country or, on the contrary, the national brand, or the so-called country-of-origin effect which may eventually appear to be determinative factor for the consumer.

Dmitriy Medvedev, Prime-Minister of the Russian Federation, outlined in his speech some peculiarities of the brand perception, the ways the image of a manufacturing country is formed and importance of this image for domestic companies entering the global market.

“What does perception of a brand or a trade mark depend on? In my opinion, it depends on two things. The first one is the quality of products and the second one is reputation of the manufacturing country itself”, - Prime-minister said.

Today production of a number of Russian companies is known worldwide and it’s highly competitive with goods produced by world’s top manufacturers.

Konstantin Kuzin, General Director of the Megapolis Group LLC, told the audience about interaction between the brand image and the country image as exemplified by DM Textile, Russia’s leading terry manufacturer. Since last years the company has made a huge step forward and by now has become the largest domestic manufacturer of home textiles producing 70% of Russia’s total terry output. The company’s textile manufacturing complex is one of the best in Europe as regards its technological infrastructure, while the quality of goods is verified by certificates of conformity to world standards. DM Textile was one of the first companies of the Russian light industry which created and successfully launched its own brand.

“Formation and shaping of the country’s nation brand, on the one hand, and development of corporate brands, on the other, should complement each other”, - Konstantin Kuzin said. “We launched Cleanelly brand at the beginning of 2000’s, and at that time consumer confidence in foreign brands was much higher than that in domestic ones. Today the situation has completely changed. Foreign and domestic customers know that making their choice in favor of our towels and bathrobes they get high quality products manufactured here, in Russia”.

Denis Manturov, Head of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, in his speech at Sochy forum also underlined that domestic goods need to comply with world standards and spoke of the role of their quality in formation of the country image.

“Today we see that consumers start to trust Russian brands more and we strongly believe that our manufacturers should make the most of this opportunity. Nevertheless, nobody is going ever to buy low-quality goods, that’s why we should always think of quality and, primarily, of our customers both at domestic and foreign markets”, - Prime-minister said.

The country-of-origin factor and the manufacturing country reputation have a huge impact on how the company enters the global market. Today the government and manufacturers have a serious task of forming Russia’s national image as a country where high-quality goods are produced. And this task can only be fulfilled in case of cooperation between authorities and business.