Branding – Deep in the
Russian Federation
By Tim Robertson, Principal, Robertson+Partners
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| Tim Robertson |
This project gave me real insight into the emerging economy
of Russia. The city I visited is Russia’s third largest, yet
no one in the West had ever heard of it. Imagine telling people
you went to Chicago and they wondered where it was? Because of Nizhny’s
location (four hours east of Moscow by car) it had escaped the world
wars unscathed, and had been a major producer and supplier of armaments
and food supplies during WWII. Today it has a huge student population,
new shopping centers and cinemas are being built, and the real estate
market has been very active in the historic downtown area. The police
might still be a bit paranoid though... the “new” KGB
kept my passport and visa for three days.
 In
March 2005 I was invited by an economic development agency to create
a branding program for one of the leading business schools in the
Russian Federation.
Nizhny Novgorod is Russia’s third largest city with over
2.5 million people. Situated at the union of the mighty Volga and
Oka rivers, it has over twelve educational institutions, its own
Kremlin, opera house, ballet, and symphony.
Formerly a restricted city in the Soviet era, it has a large industrial
base that includes the massive Gaz automotive plant and a submarine
building facility. My client was the Nizhny Novgorod Commercial
Institute, or NCI. Created about ten years ago after the breakup
of the Soviet Union, it has degree programs in financial, legal,
and commercial areas of study. It has over 7,000 students studying
full-time and through correspondence.
 The
president of the Institute, Natalia Sumtsova, is a unique woman
in the Russian executive landscape. In a country where only men
hold high status positions in business and government, she not only
has made her mark as an innovator and leader, but is an inspiration
to other women with aspirations in management.
NCI has a growing reputation for being innovative, international
in scope, and very successful in both job placement and other growth
metrics. Not funded by the state, the college relies on its own
initiatives to grow enrollment and fund new investment. The competition
for adult and students of higher learning has become more active
in the last five years, and the college needed assistance with a
branding program to make itself stand out.
The challenge
At first glance, this project looked a bit daunting. For one, few
people spoke English, so I had to use an interpreter for almost
every conversation. Secondly, I was unfamiliar with their marketplace,
and only had a month to come up with a complete branding program.
As well, only a few people knew what “branding” was
in the first place, and there was some reservation about its value.
I met with the college’s marketing director, Igor Sizemov.
He was concerned about the college’s marketing efforts and
knew he had to work on the brand. He had spent several months going
through numerous logo designs and advertising slogans. He was the
first to admit that branding wasn’t “just a logo and
a slogan”, and knew there was something more. I reviewed his
work to date and held back any criticism. Often agencies will jump
all over a company’s logo at the first opportunity, but to
me that was premature, and I had plenty of investigation to do.
In branding, brand icons come at the end of the process, not at
the beginning.
Igor made sure I had the resources I needed; that I had access
to any market feedback they had; and instructed his staff to assist
me in any way they could in the weeks ahead. After making it clear
to the stakeholders that we had a very aggressive timetable, I initiated
the first crucial step in discovering what the NCI brand was about.
Branding sleuth
This line of work requires you to be a bit of a detective (sifting
through facts), an anthropologist (the study of human behavior),
and a poet (crafting words that will engage the imagination). I
followed my standard procedure of investigation. It consisted of
interviews with executives, marketing staff, administration, students,
and professors. The college had done some of the usual marketing
studies, comparing themselves to the competition. Fortunately some
of this work was perception-based feedback. Perception-based feedback
was more important to me at this point—marketing metrics could
come later.
It doesn’t take long to find out how authentic an organization
is, even if it is in another culture and language. As usual, people
did not perceive values as having any relevance, choosing to talk
about features, benefits, comparisons, and personal preferences.
I was looking for values inside all of the answers I received, and
it became apparent I was working with a good brand.
Quality
 This
was a word that was mentioned many times. I looked for evidence
that this value was legitimately demonstrated. To my delight, it
was shown by the quality of the teaching staff, a commitment to
technology and the IT staff to support it, the superior student
services provided, and the international affiliations with universities
in Britain and Germany.
“The food is good here. You may not think that's important,
but it's important to a student,” one of the students told
me. Someone was paying attention to details
Mobility
The idea of mobility is a very important one to educators in Russia.
In an economy that has been unstable for so long, people are looking
for a decent education that gives them a secure future with prospects
for growth. The college had an excellent rate of job placement (98%),
there were many partnerships with the business community, and international
certification was built into the programs.
Success
The college was growing both in terms of enrollment as well as
physically, the library was being expanded, and satellite schools
were being created in other regions. Students who were enrolled
in the programs rated the college #1 in comparison to competing
institutions.
Perception vs. Reality
My next task was to create a list of thoughts and assumptions the
marketplace had about NCI to compare to what was true and factual.
This would help me articulate a core brand message that addressed
the perceptions that needed to be changed, or the ideas that needed
to be promoted.
I discovered that parents thought the college was limited to just
a few areas of study only; that students came out with a degree
that was of questionable value; and that the college was a #7 wannabe
in prestige and desirability in student’s minds rather than
the #1 that it was. I also discovered that the college had a long
history of “firsts.” It was first in job placement success,
first in professor salaries, first in establishing international
credentials and partnerships, and more.
As well, Russia has had a rocky relationship with capitalism. People
want a good education, careers with a future, decent housing, and
a good environment for their children. Unfortunately, the banking
system does not support the amount of credit we are so used to in
the West. No one has credit cards or mortgages, and if they do have
a loan, the interest charge is often in the range of 25-30%. This
didn’t seem to stop them from shopping or pursuing their dreams,
though.
“People here are sick of war and the Soviet legacy,”
I was often told, “we want the good things that come with
democracy and economic opportunity.”
Making a difference
The purpose of a brand message is to communicate an ongoing brand
promise. This brand promise has to be authentic and deliverable:
Imagine if FedEx didn’t get it there overnight! Weak brands
talk about themselves; great brands create value. NCI needed to
speak directly to its target market with this kind of messaging.
The following two statements make up the core brand message of NCI:
“First in so many ways.”
The college is first in so many areas; the reader can imagine themselves
being first in so many ways; it suggests leadership and opportunity;
and it begs the question: What firsts? A whole campaign can be built
around this statement alone.
“Higher education for a secure future.”
In Russia today, “higher education” goes beyond the
perception that the college was only what is known as a “trade”
college. “Secure future” implies the practical training
and relevance of the curriculum, and the high rate of job placement.
 The
brand icons that existed included the logo Igor had commissioned.
It contained symbology that was redundant, the slogan was a passive
statement, and it sent a mixed message. I am always very careful
with an organization’s logo, because it usually has some recognition
and brand value already, and people tend to be emotionally attached
to it whether it has any relevance or not. Fortunately this one
had only been around for a few months.
We examined the logos of other great schools in the world, and
I used this analysis to convince the stakeholders that a more literal
wordmark had more merit than the abstract shapes they had commissioned.
As well, the logos of many of the colleges and universities in Russia
were quite obscure, and I felt the new design would not only stand
out, but reflect the international bias the school had so carefully
fostered. We created a branding styleguide that included recommendations
for visual identity, sales material, and conferences. It included
having pictures of the students with testimonials, a brighter color
palette, and an international look and feel.
Nelly Savitskaya, NCI’s director of advertising, thought
about the values and the brand message for a couple of days. “You’ve
provided us with the missing piece,” she told me. “It
feels like we’ve just been throwing facts out into the marketplace.
This give us so much more to focus on and communicate about.”
Tim Robertson
is principal of Robertson+Partners. He has spent over fifteen years
in global design firms and advertising agencies, including marchFIRST
and FCB. His work for clients includes Perrier, Audi, and Novartis,
and has worked in regions as diverse as the Russian Federation and
Asia.
This article appeared in the July
2005 eBulletin.
Feedback on DMI Viewpoints and article proposals
are always welcome! Please email jtobin@dmi.org.
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