the board of the retail chain technics ila and robert made he is managing partner at robert may consulting group ok gentlemen we're in st petersburg and i'd like to ask you robert the first question we think of the term branding the country japan technology china the factory of the world germany precision united states may be too much financial market you think of russia what brand comes to mind. if it is one if one does come to me what i can say about that i lived here in russia for a long time and i've watched a lot of changes and improvements happen over the standard fifteen years i had to describe russia in short i would say it continues to be a country in transition with considerable long term potential is that a brand that's the brand in my opinion it is because i'm not sure how else you could describe it because we won from one system and we went from one brand another brand and so we're in turn this into i mean create their own model here in russia i

would say it's not going to match the model you'll see in other countries but what i can say is it has considerable long term potential not sure term but long term i think the vision is there the policy vision is there on behalf of the president's administration in the government it's just the biggest step is taking this syrian policy and putting it into practice and then means changing the institutions changing the the infrastructure changing the mentality of a lot of the people that may take a very long time robert trying to use private equity when you look at investors what kind of brand do they see in russia when they see is a plus deficits or avoid. what we've seen recently is a lot of successes in the in the i.t. space in technology i mean take a brand which maybe don't put the associated with russia but i think it has very strong russian roots which is. a great company just dubai world anti-viral program exactly like more recently there's been an i.p.o. and you see that right. right if it were actually an investor and i.

felt but there are a lot of very very bright russians a lot of people who have very good computer skills software development skills and i think about it becoming a brand with russia you know you're you actually growing the chain electronics. softwoods chain how hard is it in russia today two thousand and eleven to create a lasting viable valuable brand. i think that you can create as a brand in a day you know because the station changed so quickly even in our segment before you ask the almost lame thousand year so fuel up on all existing chains no we just. be changed in the industry because it was impulse of internet because of the changes a customer have a source of people and people will want to fly and some some tells them they want to buy and for

a five year civil war then your civil. looking of all the rushes is really unique solution especially in the infield if you're going to do was to some european company. one was a company ms exist but you just draw initial brands in the scene local brands your local roads in full signal for repeal all in. the national brands use use or in some women it's a little it's going to make your trip you're striving to be the biggest in the best in your field have you learned certain branding techniques from western maybe your western competitors or western peers i mean how do you when you look at your consumer how do you match brand and your consumer do you look at certain specific local issues that you can play upon or do you look outside and say hey well you know in britain they did this or in argentina they did that i mean is it a combination how do you do it. it's always trust it means a. really custom in the city typically additional premium. to the trust in your

books movies. so we. expect. to use the trial of the idea to please. if you don't listen to completely different they post let's say electronics. which should be the way. you can wish. for electronics people really need you to play premium because there's a lot of international competition to because they're difficult for the films according to the. idols but if you buy some. some stuff like that. you can. actually call if you buy your film and people go. to sleep. you see the waves that are almost more strong brands in produce of the same thing you may never go back to robert here i mean before the program we we were both discussing i mean if we look at an international audience international customers. i can only think of one

international russian brand and i'm sorry it's twenty years after the end of the soviet union and that's kalashnikov ok i can think maybe gentlemen can help me out here but i can't think of another brand here that's a real deficit here but is it also an opportunity i think it's a considerable opportunity because as michael was saying there probably are some very good brands that are known here in russia and i know that there are some russian consumers that would really love to buy the russian brands instead of the foreign brands so they're just waiting for someone to please do something with them or improve them. russia has considerable potential because they can take the best practices from around the world they can apply them here in freight brands and really export them out i mean they have really. limited what they can do and it's wide open and i'm sure in the world i mean sure there's somebody in some other brands that are being exported now but there's a whole broad range that's really going to get whatever that also is a i won't name the brand but i like my booty. wristwatches ok and i came across

a russian brand own name in here and it's absolutely exquisite maybe a little goudie ok a little bit too much this is right is a ok well this isn't pretty i should have worn my russian one but my point is that technologically speaking it's state of the art it can go up against any swiss brand but it's a third the price you can afford the price now what it will what does that manufacturer have to do i'd like to point out their presentation that with the box where they sold it was awful ok it wasn't attractive ok but the product itself was how do they get around that this is just investing the normal amount of money or just to repeat what everyone else has done but i think it's a process that i mean it's going to take time in any case it's only been you know twenty odd years old the subject here when russian quality was was not something that was was really considered to be good i mean i mean. you can see a good for instance in watches but things are changing i mean we're seeing we're seeing russian russian brands which are now being. pushed forwards in the west and

the association of russia with even western brands is very possible take chelsea football club i mean russia has done a lot for i mean said individuals certainly have done a lot for the russian. football and that's fantastic so you know there are certain things where you can definitely see there's been a lot of progress and in pushing a russian association we often go to you i mean do russian brands have to be better than the best to be equal i just gave the example of a wristwatch manufacturer i mean what do you have to do to get the eye of a consumer because yourself there's so many brands out there that people identify with i mean i'm holding a pen here again i won't name it here but i mean this is one of the nicer ones but most of them are just pure plastic but they still cost a lot of money ok you're buying the brand how hard it is is it for you in russian companies to really meet that challenge. group. in the city of chile

just visually you feel just the being goes away. easily union in the us money but also as a people he feels little to business money. you almost couldn't support its own put in some it is weak if you want to bret's it means that people seem to see anything brants people. do but if you look we've been email. pretty much was a sense of most people. it's it's like it was before you know one little bit a little nobody was pretty lousy as in the stones of the world it's a business but they still have a hammer and sickle i'd like to point out it's their logo here which again you know their place to a local consumer here because i do is a brand that is considered of value though it may be ambiguous to a foreign. consumer and i can tell you it is so i think it's an interesting story that they kept that that mark the hammer and sickle and they kept it in after the

soviet union because it's so well known among russian citizens you know but i think that an example of a brand that's really changed and you know we're very happy because before when you thought of your life you know i started to follow one could be for iraq's borders or something like that and now you have we made the international flights on our flight are great for their their their service is very good very international standard and they have a lot of direct flights of places that. are there are old brands think we can actually be made international i think the first company that ever listed local on a local stock exchange was bolshevik biscuits yeah ok i mean well known in russia but that's a hard it's a hard sell i was trying to push as you've ever seen several i.p.o.'s of companies which have you know associations very close associations with russian names. and it is a you know often it is a very hard sell but i think that when people actually get. these companies and the

quality of management look at the fundamentals driving most companies ford's on the market they have in russia and they'll continue to expand outside of russia as you know we've seen quite a few successes going to it's really interesting across the color of the confectionery again if you translate it into english red october it still does not have an appeal to outside just for the borders of this country which i can attest via their product is excellent ok it is competitive but you know i mean are there can you think of any brands outside of kalashnikov which is a real maker why must we be any other brand that can be sold outside of russia's borders using its name now. the name we named our hero file that's probably the moment. you see. a t.v. in if you ever use such a school if you're in love it will store. girl most of the whole

program speech a good. part of one by one company could achieve some people's will. so you could use a mini or a little monkey jumping here we're going to go to a short break and after about a short break we'll return discuss russia's premix state guard to. move. east.

to a substantial degree and one problem or another socialism has spread the shadow of human regimentation over most of the nations that they are and the shadow is an approaching a whole different. leave early twenty first century military bases the network of military bases all around the former believes empire that the united states is trying to do it's astonishing most americans have no idea there are more than a quarter of a million or more than two hundred fifty thousand u.s. troops stationed on these bases all around the world. we don't have power bases in america we don't have any british base we don't have any korean base we don't have

any french bases or you know we just all american bases in bases of. the noises i would northeast of those bother us at all because they were our bases but for other people it's almost like a cancer here for. since the end of world war two. we're here to provide a safe and secure environment for everybody. the questions you know thing else get everything you need. welcome back to on the money i'm peter lavelle in this episode we're discussing branding ok robert i want to go to you we've heard a lot of good things about brining in the first part of the program but i always like to pour a little bit of cold water on things is really branding all that important when so

many people in this country because there's a huge difference here is branding so important only just for a small small percentage of the population is it just for aspirational people and i think many russian. and are really quite pleased with russian products i mean depends what we're talking about and their aspirations i mean they want something of good quality that's affordable and there's a lot of historical and traditional aspects to some of the brands that have been around for a long time you like to reminisce about remember the old beers this wine this cookie whatever so i pulled. it out of some of the people are never going to reach a point where they can expire to the most expensive brands but for them it's not for the you know the driver and so i think it's very interesting as they said goom in moscow they have this store gas turned off and ten years ago even five years ago i would say they know what no one of whom would never a guarantee to point out to our viewers is a huge huge department store dared to put

a soviet almost replica and now you go there it's a very very popular rubber for the same reasons that you mention brands that you can do up with and reminds me of something very much when i lived in poland before i came to russia was there was a me polska we movement among some producers to say look you've had all of the wonderful western goods the cereals the soaps the pains what in the clothes but we had some good stuff here do you see that trend there really picking up some steam here because a drink that almost disappeared here in the kind of an equivalent of coca-cola or some kind of coal in the west came back i guess i would say. what i'm seeing is more sophisticated russian buys actually are actually beginning to understand the value of some of the older better russian brands and to see this in food products and drinks in types of being involved so definitely the question is whether these brands can mend be marketed outside of russia the success of not only not only my

home market you know you know if i go to you i mean this could be a tough one in your russian soul and ask you the tough question here i mean russia's reputation is problematic in many parts of the world because of the soviet past. in some cases even before that i mean how does russia in russian companies get over that i mean it's history i mean this is a market economy people are very very savvy here are they certainly have the abilities and knowledge in now even money here i mean is is that kind of all the brand of russia is that going to be is that still a major barrier for companies that want to go beyond the borders to sell to consumers because it is a globalized economy and to be a global winner you have to go global. you can create brands only if you will be useful as a strong. side each legion of. share of those if you look at the world it's good if you create the you know everybody in

all our lives in the way it will. was supposed program. if you see on a national brands that exist. the brands in. it people go see that. as a high quality even the broad even the western companies. like to do it all sort of. stupidity and it's a stupid law and you always need to clear. all those don't you michel felician. but ok with the again you know i'm going to pour a little bit of cold water on this here i'm lucky to name the companies because i don't want to promote them and i don't want them to get angry with me at the same time with the same energy companies in russia that when there is a dispute with a neighboring country. i don't see that they put a whole lot of effort into p.r. in creating a brand you know what a forward pay day of responsible corporate citizen i mean. when you get too big and

too powerful this it is their risk of being lazy and saying it doesn't matter because we're here and people have to deal with this is that you think that any big . case and just how dangerous is it because it is dangerous i'd say so you're speaking more on russia is russia as the brown noser versus our consumer products because i consumer products i think it will take extreme a long time to have something very competitive in the world i mentioned the large energy companies they were directly associated with the russian state in some sense they're owned by the russians but in that respect. it's true and it's very important because in russia it's a little bit different where you see the fine line between business and politics it's much finer in russia than it is in many other countries and you still have a lot of these companies that are speed owner of there's a high level of state participation so again on this transition i was talking about once we get to the point where there's more privatization when there's more institutions that are set up that are free better rule of law and conditions that

are good for foreign investors then i think you'll start to see bit of a change in the mentality and basically how russia presents itself overseas. i mean when you think about how do you think low i live i mean i mean small and medium companies have to go out of their way to make a good impression but let's go beyond what my my since i just sit on the board of one of the large state shipping companies in russia that non-executive director and i was brought on along with several. independent directors to try and help help me with dealing with corporate governance issues and always the image of the company on the market and we're trying very hard to to improve that isn't the issue of what's the biggest barrier what's the biggest challenge you face from doing what i think the biggest challenges is there has been one of mentality that needs to change but again it's a question time and i think the generational i think it will take us to that i mean

i think it's you know i think it's going to be a couple of years but but generally what i think of you know ten fifteen years you see the love and lot of progress and i think that's going to continue you know what let's go back to this year and i in western media. russian companies often get a bad rap certainly the russian state. how can the russian business in your opinion being a businessman yourself help improve the image of russia as a brand on the international stage because you know when a lot of critics of the west will look at banks to look at oil companies you know it's these evil institutions and things like that but as we've already pointed out on this program here there's not that much of people make that kind of differentiation what does business have to do to disassociate itself with government institutions and politicians even. usually when people think about the company made sure there's a brand there's shades as we see they today experience if you come in or nobody in

france is looking was the french people or. you. experience on some you and some compression from this visas or if you buy. just. like japan is the new or. you'll. like the. chance for the coolidge offices i don't suppose a missional jerk but. i think that only with our going to. create a strong image it's possible to be more than. that really to build on it's not that there was a goal it's a matter of the business as well as weekly that it is strong business oriented for . tourists who are people who come in the russia who can spend here. days weeks spent money will be possible down that it was used in question and this also helps you more wells will be you not only consumables maybe it will be in order they'll

build maybe it will be their brands it will be it. now what's be it's you know like you see kalashnikov you want to go on national football or you he whispered. call this program beyond kalashnikov here let's talk about this forum that we're out here how valuable is this forum in st petersburg because it's really a man's a lot of people come here in the lives a lot of what i read in western media about media that i'm just here to meet any why there are facts i see because there's quite a few of them but this is seems to be one that is not given how would you say this one is more business driven than politics than paul and i did yeah i definitely think that probably explains the attraction of the home why did you come to this when you found your this one. want to do this for me the same people. actually get really excellent and he'll say complaints. i don't like the ventilation samples on his form because he. uses them you know i'm.

useless really useless you just spend them so you do not get them to see it everybody loves this one especially the last two years the city live. with everybody. else to meet the we's days so we will most difficult to meet you will you've been you've been. we can meet him in one the rooms in the city days you can see people with whom you can swim we'll do that. you can also hear some really interesting news for all those girls. over and maybe the last word here what would you like to see change in russia over the next five years when it comes to branding . to bring up for the country yeah. i'd like to see a really driven by business where it's less given by politics less driven by government but actually business setting the course setting the pace and then you'll get a feel for that this country really has made the transition and it operates functions like any other you know driving is different than any other place in the

world i try to move on out of time i want to thank all my guests here in the studio when i think our viewers for watching us here on the money see you next time and stay on r t. b.

thank you steve this is not a problem you would warm. to be sure everybody is sure to support your dream they have no idea about the hardships to the face. like one it is this is. all too new to. the army the life that are you see is the most precious thing in the world. uses of self sacrifice and terrorism with those who understand it fully that you have to live a. real life stories from would need. to treat nineteen forty five gold dot com.

the e.u. agonizes over curbing its catastrophic dad and ballooning bailout budget as other countries once eager to join the blog have second thoughts. about how to stop a global crisis happening again major business and political leaders have discussed just that at the international economic forum which has wrapped up in st petersburg . syria faces third round of sanctions amid more deadly anti-government crackdowns which saw more than a dozen dead and thousands rage nationwide. this is he coming to live from moscow i'm joshua into the program a real war that's how greece is the latest finance minister sums up the job had of

him he's been tasked with securing another multibillion euro bailout the criteria for which means slapping and outdrive hostile greek public was more stary cuts and some countries like turkey which once harbored dreams of e.u. membership are beginning to rethink their plans. if you talked about turkey in the e.u. ten years ago turkey's hopes of joining would have been inseparable from joining the euro not anymore turkey's attitude in short can be so.