28 May 2015
VALENKI vodka wins in Germany
Entry into the European market is a great milestone for every Russian company in terms of its development as well as the fact that tempted European consumers accept not only high quality products but also compliance with international standards and some unique emotional components that make the consumer choose a particular product over the abundance of famous brands. This is a great challenge in which only a driven and ambitious company can cope with. Indeed, we admit that it is much easier to find imported goods on the shelves of our markets than to find Russian products in Europe. The month of May 2015 brought Diamond Holding new triumphs. The New Russian brand VALENKI appeared on the shelves of German supermarkets.
The head of the Diamond International Economic Activities department, Dmitriy Gorelov had this to say when we asked him some questions:
We know that the German Alcohol market is very competitive. Will there be enough space for a Russian vodka brand?
- Germany is one of the leading countries in Europe in consumption of alcoholic drinks. The average consumption of a person per year is 10 liters of pure alcohol. Currently, Germany is becoming more of a multinational country. In this regard, the consumption of vodka is projected to increase. Germany is 2nd in the world for consumption of Russian vodka. A variety of the most popular Russian vodka brands are presented there. We are proud that we managed to take a well-deserved place among them, because the conception of our VALENKI vodka is unique. VALENKI is unlike anything else, it totally differs from everything ranging from the design of our VALENKI bottle-flask which is in the form of a melted piece of ice that won the nomination “Industrial design of the year” and the category “Shape and brand” to its perfect taste which was awarded numerous Gold medals.
Why strive towards Europe? As far as I know, Germany is just the first step for the company to tap into this market…
- Entry to the European market is interesting for us because of its prospects and economic components. It is stable and steady, and businesses are more protected. Without any doubts entry to this market is a sign of strength and great competitiveness for our brand and our company.
Dmitriy, why are our German partners specifically interested in VALENKI brand over the wide assortment of Diamond Holding products?
- The Trade Mark VALENKI is one of the national symbols of our country. The truth is that most Russians who left Russia still remain Russians in their souls. Presently in Germany, there are more than 4 million immigrants from the former Soviet Union as statistics shows – this is the largest Russian-language expat community with €40 million purchasing power. Our brand is too emotional, and we count on the patriotism of Russian emigrants. As tradition shows, they not only remember and love Russian products, they are nostalgic about it. Moreover, they can influence their neighbors, colleagues and introduce new Russian traditions and culture of vodka consumption. As a rule, this is like assimilation inside assimilation. That’s why our brand VALENKI has specific potentials beyond the ethnic market.
How did you break into this market?
-Since last year we have been active in the development of our international activities. We are now constant participants of the international alcohol exhibitions like ProWein (Duesseldorf), SIAL (Paris). It is possible here to meet the biggest world producers and representatives of importers. We created English website translations for all our vodka brands for the convenience of our foreign partners. Through constant improvements on the quality and design of our alcohol brands, we took part in the most prestigious international contests and we have several awards to show for it.
- That’s why there is stirred interest in our vodka brands not only in Europe, but also in Asian countries as well. The most important task at hand is to have enough capacity to complete inquiries and offer good service to our clients, i.e. to be able to settle down in this market.
Advertisement is of great importance for highlighting new products, especially a new one, with an increase in brand recognition. What are your plans in this direction for the acceleration of sales of VALENKI vodka to the final buyer – German citizen?
-Our German partners are experienced distributors and they are very interested in the VALENKI brand promotion on the market as well and they consider it as their strategic product. They plan to introduce our vodka all over the country, to all the popular German retail stores. Already for this purpose, they created a website in German language valenkivodka.de. We will provide them with all the necessary POS-materials and promotional items as well as branded corrugated stands for placing products inside the shops.
- In short-term, we have plans for TV ads on the most popular German-Russian channel “RTR-PLANET”. In our VALENKI vodka commercial, the famous artist Alexey Buldakov is endorsed!
The first step is always difficult, but is this a step to victory?
- Absolutely true, each brand should be raised like a child – first we give it a name and then watch it take first steps, follow-up its growth and development. It’s very important at this stage to support it. This was just the first small step. And up ahead – the analysis of the results, command work for correction of errors, maximizing of efforts, desire and big opportunities. Striving for Victory with a team that really understands what they are doing. I want our VALENKI to appear at every festive table in every European home… I hope that quite soon Russian products will take part in the European product basket there, as we have of European products here. In practice for us, everything is possible.
