So many people tweeted me wondering why I was vacationing in Ukraine, kidding me about borscht (which wasn’t that bad), asking where Ukraine is and if I had relatives there.
I have no family there, had never even heard of the Dnieper River, and I’m not a history buff.
Nonetheless, I learned so much from the AHI Tavel trip. It was planned as an education with small alumni groups from Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Colby College, Northwestern and the University of Washington plus a few stragglers like us.
There were also several hundred Europeans aboard, mostly from France, Germany and Spain.
The best part of the trip? The people in our group were all very pleasant and well educated, the kind of people who like to learn just to know new things! We enjoyed daily lectures from the cruise staff, a Kiev University Professor who talked about politics and the head of Russian studies at Dartmouth. We also visited so many places we’d all been reading about since our childhood. In addition to Kiev, Sevastopol, small river towns and the fascinating Odessa, three side trips stand out:
· Yalta, where Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt decided how Europe would be divided after WWII. I wanted to sit in Churchill’s chair but had to settle for just touching it.
In a way, this was where the Cold War began as Stalin made promises he had no intention of keeping.
· A secret underground submarine base right in the port of Balaklava. The Soviets built it into a mountain in the late forties at great expense and a few months after they finished, the new subs were too long to fit in it. Central planning at its best.
· We had lunch with a family in their home in the middle of nowhere on the banks of the river where we toasted them with Ukrainian Moonshine they’d cooked up themselves.
As a marketer, I couldn’t help notice that:
1. All Ukrainian street stalls seem to sell the same stuff from Kiev to Odessa: the same plates, dolls, paintings, shirts, etc. One creative person would own the tourism souvenir market if they created unique branded items.
2. The people selling in stores and stalls need help in dealing with European and American customers. They could be a lot more customer friendly. Their first and only answer to everything seems to be “No”.
3. I saw very few Ukrainian brands. Maybe that’s because of the Russian mindset. Based on what I did see, Authentic Ukrainian Moonshine might be an idea.
This was the original gate to the city of Kiev
I missed you while I was away. As always, please feel free to send any questions, ideas, etc. Or leave a comment here.
About Lois GellerLois Geller is President and Owner of Lois Geller Marketing Group and headed agencies in New York and Toronto. Lois taught Direct Marketing at NYU. She’s the author of five marketing books, including Response: The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing. Follow @loisgeller on Twitter.
Well, Elja…I never knew any of the things you just wrote about that region. Thank you for taking the time to write about their circumstances.
As a marketer, I was “itching” to help them try some new products and new techniques in selling their wares. We went to a monastery one day and they had amazing relics there…but the gift store closed at 3pm, and we missed it! They missed us too.
So nice to hear about this Elja…imagine large European retailers owning the markets.
Hi Lois, thanks for sharing this. I lived in Central Europe (bordering the Ukraine) for a while and miss it a lot. I came to love the culture, the folklore, the food, the people. Your story and the pictures make me think back on that time.
I am afraid the answer to some of the marketing issues you mention is quite simple: it’s quite probable that in fact, there is one person owning the tourist market! Those people selling tourist gifts probably work for one and the same ‘company’, which tells them what to sell. Power, entrepreneurship and wealth are divided quite differently there.
As for national brands, not to be a cynic (I’m not, you see), but in many countries in that region, after the regime ended and everything was privatized, all assets were sold off to (foreign) investors. And for those companies not sold off, as soon as the market opened to outside influence, I imagine they had not much chance of surviving. Where I lived, it was the big European retailers, telecom, food brands etc. that owned most of the market.
As for customer friendliness – recognizable. I never quite got my head around that one. I always figured that it was because people were trying to get by under very hard circumstances and out-right poverty. Working seemed to be considered just another part of that struggle. The younger generation is definitely different though, and things are changing fast.
Anyway! I could go on and on! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Terri,
Yes, I wanted to get everyone working on more interesting products…right then and there!
So frustrating about the sameness..like they all received the same memo from Russia years ago.
Yet in Moscow a few years ago, they were being so creative in sculpture, art and products…just hasn’t trickled down to the Ukraine yet.
Nice talking to you, Terri in more than 140 characters. I think of you as a good friend!
Thanks for sharing more details, Lois. Getting the occasional 140-character bits just wasn’t doing it. Must have been awesome to actually see the places of historic events we only hear about in high school history classes. Did touching Churchhill’s chair send a tingle up your arm? Sounds like you had an awesome ‘guide’ to fill you in the history. Unless they can make it all come alive, it can be pretty boring…sorry, Ted!
Can’t believe you didn’t start a marketing seminar there on the spot. You are right about the limited ‘tourist’ products. There was a team of Russian pilots with their aircraft at the Cleveland Air Show a few years back. They were selling exactly the items you mentioned here in the US. I think we paid $10 for our set of nesting dolls….don’t bother telling me how much they ripped us off right here in the US.
Ted, you make me laugh. You’re right I am a “non-history” type. But when I stood on the top of the hill and looked down to watch where The Charge of the Light Brigade happened…it took my breath away.
And above the Yalta Conference rooms, was the homeo f the Romanov’s. Their story was so sad to hear ( though I’d read it before), and their photos were beautiful.
Their son was so handsome, and they fought to keep him alive…then of course all perished.
Yes, you would have loved this trip. I did, because the head of Russian Studies from Dartmouth lectured to us before each stop…and was a great storyteller.
Thanks for checking in, Ted!
As a history major I could drive you nuts asking questions, but you did a creditable job for a non-history type (read “doesn’t bore others with history” like I do.)
I did enjoy the marketing insights. A trip into an equivalent region in China would have given you loads of quaint local marketing anecdotes, but then China has a centuries and centuries old tradition of entrepreneurship.
Yes, Kim…it was a hand-made instrument of some type and he sang beautifully. Never saw anything like it, and the people couldn’t tell me the name…as no one spoke English there!
Thank you for dropping by, and it is good to be home.
This looks like it was an absolutely delightful trip! You’re comment about the subs made me giggle though! It reminds me of the oxymoron of “military intelligence”! There is a picture of a man standing at a table (?), what is that? That’s rather interesting as its legs seem to be limbs. Is it an instrument?
Glad you had a blast and made it home safely!
Kimberly