Almost half of Ukrainians choose brands that support the Armed Forces of Ukraine

A year ago such an attitude was quite rare, while now almost half of Ukrainian consumers (44%) choose brands based on their positions regarding support for the army, political views, language of communication or cooperation with the aggressor country. And the war in Ukraine seriously affected this new "demandingness" of people.

Especially for the event "Marketing under the sirens. Strategies of wartime" under the auspices of the Ukrainian Marketing Forum, the research company Gradus Research asked Ukrainians what aspects of brand activism influence their decision to buy certain goods or services in addition to price and availability on the shelf.

According to the results, we can see that at the moment the dominant choice criteria among consumers are two brand activities: helping the Armed Forces and refusal to do business in Russia, 44% and 34% of respondents pay attention to this, respectively.

For 21% of citizens, brand volunteering is important. Having a clear political position is an important aspect of the choice for 18% of buyers. The language issue also has a certain weight — 16% of Ukrainians pay attention to the language in which the brand communicates.

If we look at the results by age, we will see that the most sensitive to brand activism are the generation Z — representatives of the 18-24 age group. They are the ones who look most closely at whether the values ​​of the brand coincide with their personal values ​​and civic position. And it is the youth who, among all others, put forward a request for the social responsibility of companies. In particular, they pay attention to both volunteering and the clear political position of the brand.

"The war forced us to divide the world into "ours" and "others", and this did not bypass the sphere of consumption. Buyers are less and less forgiving of brands for their neutrality, and increasingly expect brands to take a clear position and, together with Ukrainians, do something to win the war," comments Evgeniya Bliznyuk, CEO & Founder of the research company Gradus Research.

This new "demandingness" of consumers applies regardless of the size of the brand: i.e. now Ukrainians want to see a clear position both from large national companies and from conventional producers of yogurt or toilet paper. "Beyond politics" is no longer perceived by our fellow citizens as a normal brand position. And this is a significant shift for the market, to which Ukrainian brands are forced to respond in order to gain consumers’ loyalty.

The survey was conducted by the research company Gradus Research using the method of self-filling the questionnaire in the mobile application. The Gradus online panel displays the population structure of cities with more than 50,000 residents at the age of 18-60 by gender, age, settlement size and region. Survey period (2022): August 15-16. Sample size: 1050 respondents.