• by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, March 14, 2023

A little over a year ago, Ukraine was invaded by its much larger neighbor Russia. I happen to know quite a lot of people in the Ukraine, and I shared Tetiana Lukinyuk's initial thoughts here. A year later, I asked Tetiana, who is  B2C director at Kyiv-based telecom provider Kyivstar, to share her thoughts on marketing while at war. Here is her contribution:

You would never expect the two words “marketing” and “war” to be put together in one sentence. But since for over a year my country is in a large-scale bloody war with Russia,  I have learned that, well, they can coexist -- under certain principles.

Your natural expectation would be that with the start of a wide-scale hostile invasion, brands and companies would remain silent, since this is probably not the right time for marketing messages. In reality, that was not what happened.

Let me share with you five marketing lessons we have learned in these difficult times in Ukraine.

Take a clear moral stand. It was important to clearly state support for our country. That was a no-brainer for Ukrainian companies, but proved much more difficult for internationals. The first stage of the invasion started in 2014, when many internationals did not react at all. By the time of the 2022 invasion, everything was different due to its scale and the clarity around good vs. evil, which shaped global support for Ukraine. Still, some international companies have not managed their messaging well and have suffered significant reputational damage (for instance, German Raiffeisen Bank and French supermarket chain Auchan).

Choose your message -- and don’t be shy. It is important to choose the messages of your support wisely. At first it was important to clearly explain how your company donated a share of its profits to the war effort. As this quickly became a default requirement, businesses needed to adapt messages based on the changing needs of their customers.

For example, we have several million Ukrainians who fled the country and now live abroad. At Kyivstar, we first provided credit for roaming usage for this group. As they started to settle in, parents abroad wanted to continue Ukrainian education for their kids. So we offered a dedicated school education section for kids on our OTT platform, Kyivstar TV.  Then Ukrainians abroad started to look for jobs to support their families, so we partnered with Jooble, an international job search platform.

These are all important initiatives. War is not a reason to be shy about the good things you are doing.

Support the country’s fight for victory. As a company and brand, you must choose where you apply your efforts. The best way to understand where you can help is through deeply understanding the services or products you provide. We focused on resistance through restoring our mobile network after aerial attacks, supporting people in war areas, and making roaming affordable -- all to ensure that Ukrainians could maintain their connection to loved ones wherever they are.

Learn by doing. There are currently millions of people who struggle and migrate. There is no time for collecting insights through research. You learn on the fly. For example, we did a lot of social listening to identify people’s pain points and sometimes acted on a hunch. It was not always right -- but it was better to make mistakes and correct them instead of waiting to develop 100% perfect solutions.

Show your human side through situational marketing. A lot of news and eventshappen during a war, closely followed by the majority of the population. So creating situational visuals, messages and even memes is a big thing. Usage of Twitter grew because of its natural capability to provide quick reactions. Brands started to play with their logos, key messages and even support campaigns following events at the front line.

For example, brands reacted within hours to the liberation of Kherson,  the announced supply of Leopard tanks by Germany, and the historic visit by U.S. President Biden. This has essentially removed the division between politics and brands that normally applies in peaceful times. And consumers react very positively because they feel that brands empathize with them and share the same feelings.

War is awful and destructive, yet businesses now have a unique opportunity not only to aim at success, but also to contribute and build toward the unifying mission of winning and prospering for the whole country -- and every single last Ukrainian, wherever they currently are.

Glory to Ukraine! Slava Ukraini!