If You Want to Sell a Product, Tell the Consumer about Its Origins

A Management Department research seminar was held last week, at which Alisa Panenko presented the results of her research into how Russian consumers perceive European brands. This is not the first time HSE’s Perm Branch has looked at the issue of the marketing impact of a product’s origins. This time, research focused on retail consumers and their perception of the ‘delivered straight from Europe’ initiative launched in the SemYa (Family) chain of stores. During the survey, a team of HSE researcher’s asked customers at the chain whether they view European products differently from the others on offer at the store, and what impact this difference has on their consumer behavior.

HSE research staff Dmitry Potapov and Olga Mayorova took part in this research alongside MA Marketing students Lyubov Nazukina and Nadezhda Maslennikova.

Leading specialist with the Public Opinion Foundation, Assistant Professor at HSE, Efim Galitsky was involved in designing the research.

The research results were the main focus of the seminar, showing that European brands are liked by consumers, they recommend them to their friends, and trust the producers, or – in marketing language – they display customer loyalty.

The fact that the European image delivers a positive impact on their emotions and evaluations – and on their intentions to buy the products in future, was also noted as being of particular importance. Understanding this impact could help Russian retailers establish the consumer value of particular items independently of brand strength and producer’s advertising activity.

The seminar participants, many of which boast significant experience in marketing, sociology, and management research, discussed the potential uses of these findings and their application in the retail segment. On the one hand it is impossible to ignore the risks involved in using the products’ European image to drive emotional, value, and behavioral loyalty in the current economic conditions, in which the development potential for European brands on the Russian market is limited.

On the other hand, the marketing impact of a product’s origin can be viewed more broadly, indicating that alternative approaches to the ‘made in’ logo can be used in Russian retail. Numerous participants raised the ‘Buy Perm’ – initiative as an alternative example.

We will only know if this programme has similar impact after further research is conducted – see more on this on the HSE news site.