“Know ours”: how domestic brands are developed in Russia

On February 29, an award ceremony for the winners of the “Know Ours” competition for growing Russian brands took place in Moscow. 85 brands from 42 regions of the country were recognized as the best in the main and special categories of the competition, and they were awarded special prizes. More than 2,000 finalist brands will receive support from 60 project partners. ASI General Director Svetlana Chupsheva spoke about what awaits the winners and why they should participate in the competition.

The “Know Ours” brand competition was held for the second time, and the number of its participants increased 2.5 times. How do you explain such high interest?

The multiple increase in participants is evidence that the competition turned out to be very popular. If a year ago about 5 thousand brands participated, now there are over 12 thousand. There are more nominations, partners and support measures. On February 29, we announced the winners of the second season – these are eight dozen brands in the main and partner categories, they will receive powerful promotional support at the federal level. Popularization is exactly what they need, and the “Know Ours” competition is helping to solve this problem for the second year. We are trying to demonstrate the diversity of Russian brands, establish mechanisms to support them, and we see that this work is yielding results. The best argument for new participants are the success stories of last year’s winners, who, having increased their recognition, received an impetus for business development. Their average revenue growth over the past year was 50%, and some were 100% or more.

Interest in the competition is growing not only among participants, but also among partners, of whom there are more this year. Almost all large companies already cooperate with you. What is their motivation?

About 60 government and commercial structures act as partners of the Competition, including OZON, WILDBERRIES, Magnit, X5 Group, Detsky Mir, VK, Skolkovo Foundation, Rospatent, Roskachestvo, Vkusno i dotka, etc. Big brands act as mentors for young, beginners, help them express themselves and advance in the market.

The geography of participants covers the entire country. How can one explain such high activity?

As at the “Strong Ideas for New Times” forum, which we hold together with Roscongress and VEB.RF, the brands competition is traditionally led by regions where they have long and systematically supported small and medium-sized businesses and created conditions for the implementation of projects and initiatives. Moscow won the Region category. Among the regions that most actively support their brands, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Murmansk, Moscow, Leningrad and Saratov regions were also noted. If you look at the top regions in the investment climate rating, they largely coincide.

Who is on the competition jury? By what criteria are the winners determined?

The jury includes experts from ASI and regions, project partners. The jury determines the winners based on several criteria, the main thing being that they must be growing brands with a high level of localization of production, which show sustainable growth rates and participate in social projects. Among the jury members there are entrepreneurs who looked at the sales figures of the contestants and at the recommendations of retail chains, marketplaces, and brand experts. This is not the only, but one of the most objective methods of assessment.

The President of Russia, participating in the “Strong Ideas of New Times” Forum, also visited the exhibition of brands participating in the competition. How impressed was the head of state with what he saw?

The brand competition is held on behalf of the president and, of course, he provides us with comprehensive assistance, is interested in new brands, and monitors the success of last year’s finalists and winners. This time we took him through an improvised “apartment”, all of the contents of which were created by Russian companies – the products of 80 brands from 27 regions were exhibited. The attention of the head of state was especially attracted by textile products with hand embroidery “Krestetskaya Stitch” from Veliky Novgorod, Mobitruck food trucks from the Moscow region, and IT gaming equipment “Innovations for Children”. The head of state tried on a pea coat from DNK Russia (a brand from Rostov-on-Don), tried the products of the Bryansk company Am-Am and Krasnopolyanskaya Cosmetics. By the way, all these brands were among the winners of the competition, so the opinions of the president and the jury coincided.

How do you see the future of the competition?

We hope that the competition will attract an increasing number of young entrepreneurs and in the coming years we will be able to reach the level of 20 thousand applications. We see good dynamics in individual industries, a tendency to expand the circle of partners, and we invite all interested companies to cooperate. That is, the movement is obvious and cannot be stopped.