Ukraine was recently visited, for a second time, by the renowned European marketing innovator, Sean Smith. The expert made presented the main report at a conference titled “Making the Customer the Advocate of Your Product” for top managers in Ukrainian retail trade, TV companies, bankers, and the representatives of financial services sector. The organizer of the event, the Mark Tapley company (who invited Smith), had meant to help solve the urgent problems in Ukrainian business by using the experience of the world’s leading experts.
The Day managed to secure a personal interview with Sean Smith to discuss global tendencies in product positioning, as well as Ukrainian hurdles to efficient marketing. The British expert kindly agreed to share his impressions on his stay in Ukraine and some ideas about our country’s successful, internationally recognizable brand:
What are your impressions of today’s discussion? Are you satisfied with its level and the questions coming from Ukrainian businesspersons?
“Frankly, I am impressed. I did not expect to meet such a high professional standard in what concerns the scope of problems raised at the conference. The representatives of Ukrainian business with whom I talked are quite well informed of the world’s main marketing practices, tendencies in brand promotion, leadership strategies, interaction with customers, and company positioning.
“The only upsetting thing was that their erudition was only theoretical. Ukrainian business lacks practical knowledge, and experience in the implementing acquired theory.”
Why do you think is this so?
“In my opinion, this is the backlash of the decades of the USSR’s isolated economy. Back then, business and manufacturers did not have to worry about the promotion of their goods or services on the market.
“However, the reality of the market economy differs dramatically. They force business to fight for the consumer by inventing various strategies. That is why Ukrainian companies are facing so many difficulties: they have to quickly make up for the practical experience they lost in Soviet times.”
Mr. Smith, the problem of efficient branding for Ukraine is as urgent as it has ever been. Soon we are going to host the European soccer championship. Can marketing innovations that you yourself invented be applied to a non-commercial project, such as state branding, for example?
“I have no specific experience there. But I think they can.
“I have noted an interesting peculiarity: the brands of many of the world’s countries are dramatically different from their geographic, cultural, or historical peculiarities. Sometimes this is very upsetting.”
What would a successful and internationally recognizable brand for Ukraine be like?
“The developers of a state’s brand will first of all have to ask themselves, ‘Why should people be coming here?’, and ‘What caught my attention in this country?’ Answering these questions is already half of the brand’s success.”
What impressed and attracted you personally about Ukraine?
“This is a country where very attractive people live. I mean it, honestly, I was impressed with the Ukrainians’ physical beauty.
“Also, you’ve got beautiful ancient architecture. This might become a kind of shtick for your country.”
And how about Ukrainian hospitality?
“The professional level of the personnel, as far as waiting on the customer goes, is fairly high, especially in restaurants. I have no complaints or criticisms about it. However, your service lacks personal warmth.
“We have got a great cafe in the UK. Its name is Pretty Lake. They mostly have seafood on the menu. So, when a customer orders fish and wants to ask the waiter about this dish, they get exhaustive information about it, including the mention of the fact that this fish was caught in the special water of this pretty lake. And then indeed, as you eat that fish, you seem to feel its special, unique taste, because it was ‘caught in the special water of this pretty lake.’
“However, when I asked a Ukrainian waiter what kind of dish it was, I just got a list of ingredients.”
What is your source of inspiration in your search for marketing innovations? Have you ever sought for ideas in modern literature?
“Maybe. The most recent book that impressed me was Chris Anders’ Long City. It talks about how the Internet has affected modern society.
“I also loved another book, unfortunately I don’t remember the author’s name, which explains how organizations should completely change their operations and start moving in a different direction, opposite to where their rivals are going. You don’t have to try to catch up with them, you just have to follow your own path.”
Do you already know how to find this path?
“First you have to realize what your specificities are, what your key customers need. And then look for holes in the market where you can fit.
“It is also important to take a new look at the market. In my book The Ship I describe companies that change the market environment.
“An interesting example of such a company is the hotel Sixth Sense. The key product they offer their customers is intellectual luxury. That is to say, the transformation of habitual consumption of hotel services to intellectual consumption.
“This service is interesting first of all to those people who take care of the environment and want to be real in everything they do. They do not care for surface luxury: the shining chandeliers, the expensive carpets...
“The traditional brands of deluxe hotels try to give their customers more and more material stuff. On the contrary, the Sixth Sense is doing quite the opposite: they have taken away all the superficial stuff, and presented the real thing which present-day society so badly misses.”
Have you noticed a shift in consumer interests in contemporary society?
“Of course society is changing, especially the new generation. It is more focused on the contents of things: why something exists, why it does something. For instance, one very good business survey shows that people are always prepared to pay an extra 15 percent for a product or service if they share the brand’s values.
“Take GMO-free brands: people tend to want to pay extra if these products are in line with their ethical beliefs. That is to say, those brands win the struggle for the client’s favors which have an ethic component, that have a more sublime goal than mere money-making.”
So you think that those companies have a future that will position their brand as emotional, intellectual, or ethical?
“No, you cannot really generalize that far. Different brands have different positioning and different key customers.
“Most likely, all brands in the future will have a clearer and more comprehensible positioning, so customers will be able to much faster appreciate the supply and select the most suitable option. It is not as if everyone were a humanist or, say, a connoisseur of intellectual products.”
