Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Moscow) – October 7, 2008

Arara Park Hyatt Hotel in Moscow hosted the awards ceremony for MARKA NO. 1 IN RUSSIA, organized by the RBC group of companies. Voting ballots were placed on the Internet and in major print media publications ahead of the event. Consumers were asked to answer one simple question: “What brand do you consider the best one?” A total of 297,000 people participated in the voting. The MARKA NO. 1 IN RUSSIA award was founded 10 years ago in the form of independent voting by Russian consumers. The main factor distinguishing this award from others is that consumers get to name their own favorite brand instead of simply choosing one from a given list.

This year, a total of 31 brands received awards. Compared to the previous year, 11 new brands were featured. RBC decided not to present the award in the Payment System category, as the two leaders in this sector – Visa and Master Card – came in head-to-head with votes.

The ceremony was attended by Chairman of the Organizing Committee of MARKA NO. 1 IN RUSSIA Yelena Biryukova, head of the market research company ComCon Alexander Kafu, as well as representatives of companies whose brands were named as winners of the award.

The start-up company RIGLA, which was founded a mere two years ago, won in the Pharmacy Chain category and is certainly favored by many Russians. Meanwhile, Hewlett Packard received the award in the Laptop category. According to head of the PSG department Alexei Voronkov, the victory was quite predictable, as the company had already won four awards over the previous years in the Printer category.

Yelena Biryukova stated in an interview for Rossiyskaya Gazeta that the companies’ brand managers were responsible for 70 percent of the victory, as they succeeded in creating excellent advertising for their products, thus making the brands so recognizable.