Vladimir Salamatov, General Director of International Trade and Integration Research Center (ITI), spoke about the importance and the success of the «Made in Russia» brand in an interview to Izvestia. The interview was published as part of an article entitled «Soft pressure. How export helps promote the country» in the December issue of V Fokuse (In Focus), a supplement to Izvestia.
«What is the beginning of Motherland? A picture in your ABC.» These lines of a poem written by Mikhail Matusovsky in 1968 could well be used to convey the meaning of territorial marketing — a term which started to be widely used by early 2000s. Every year, countries are paying more and more attention to their national brands and getting increasingly active in promoting their national culture, places of interest, and products. Accordingly, «Made in» labels have grown popular.
«In 2016, our government made a decision to promote the ’Made in Russia’ brand across the globe. The Russian Export Center was selected as the organization authorized to implement this project. Today, they continue to popularize Russian products abroad. REC informs foreign consumers that products made in Russia comply with the most rigorous standards,» Vladimir Salamatov commented.
To qualify for «Made in Russia» labeling, a company must have excellent business reputation, comply with the Russian legislation, maintain high product quality, and possess product safety certificates.
Currently, over a thousand products have received the «Made in Russia» label. These include food products, machinery, and apparel. The demand for products with the «Made in Russia» label is often higher than for those without it, which shows a certain level of trust placed in Russian products. For example, in China the prices for food products with the «Made in Russia» label are 20 to 30 percent higher than for similar products made in other countries. This is why forecasts about a possible growth in the number of products labeled «Made in Russia» to tens of thousands within several years look perfectly reasonable.
«At the moment, we have already gained an understanding of the effectiveness of this brand and of ways to promote it, and enterprises are showing great interest in this label,» Vladimir Salamatov added.
Apart from the interview with Vladimir Salamatov, the article contains comments from Vadim Zuikov, President, the National Trade Association, Igor Kosarev, President, the Union of Producers of Alcohol Products, Andrey Slepnev, General Director, REC, and Galina Kuznetsova, lecturer at the Institute of Business and Business Administration of the RANEPA, concerning various aspects of Russian exports promotion.
For the full article, see the official website of Izvestia.