Maria Nazarenko, Director of Marketing and E-Commerce at Comfy, spoke at the conferenceiForum-2023During hisreportsMaria touched on many useful topics regarding the changes that Comfy's creative marketing has undergone during the entire period of full-scale invasion. The speech was filled with interesting insights and useful tips, which we want to share in this article.
Comfy is the absolute leader in 1000 cell phone number list sales of equipment and electronics in Ukraine. The chain has 90 stores and is famous for its customer-oriented service and effective sales per square meter.
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"Speaking when everyone else is silent is incredibly important": Comfy's activities in the first days after the start of a full-scale invasion
We all know Comfy as a brand that prefers unusual creative manifestations and bright advertising campaigns. The playful, humorous, cheerful tone of voice of the brand is liked by many Ukrainians. February 24, 2022 is a day that filled the information space with loud silence.
Maria Nazarenko notes that Comfy did not stop working for a single day. Thus, even on February 24, the first two stores opened, and the call center continued to answer consumer questions and deal with refunds for purchases made the day before. During this period, the network worked a lot, but did not communicate - for a certain time there was complete information silence.
First of all, the reason for the lack of any communications was that it was difficult to determine what physical and emotional state Ukrainians were in. But there were questions that simply had to be answered - how to support a child, what services are now free for Ukrainians, etc. And Comfy gave these answers:
“Speaking when no one else is speaking is incredibly important. You get a lot of warm reactions just because you speak,” says Maria Nazarenko.
Creative Marketing Comfy
Maria recalls how, at the end of February and beginning of March, the main question for brands was about the position they were taking. If you are in an occupied territory, will you cooperate with the occupiers to save your goods? Will you stand there and pretend as much as possible that you are just a business? Will you actively resist?
Comfy has been taking an active position in donating to the army and the front since 2014. Maria recalls a discussion with the team on February 24: it was decided that Comfy would only work if Ukraine existed, and only in Ukraine. On the same day, the company donated the first million dollars to a special account of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to help the army.
On the resumption of advertising campaigns and the importance of understanding the context
Maria Nazarenko explained why it is important to understand the context during communication activities. When you receive a specific task, it always goes hand in hand with other components: the brand's tone of voice and context. War is a very important context, but at the same time, at certain moments we are in different contexts. For example, today we are not the same as we were six months or a year ago. Each time, society is in a different emotional state, and this must be taken into account.
In the spring of 2022, Comfy began working on its first advertising campaign. The commercial “My Home is Ukraine” best answers the question of how the brand is going to continue its work in the future.
"Returning to the context, today it is hardly possible to make a campaign about being a pro-Ukrainian brand. If you are not a pro-Ukrainian brand today, then you cannot work in Ukraine. The only thing you can count on is getting a lot of questions from your clients. There is a specific time to answer specific questions," says Maria Nazarenko.
Later, the context began to change, and everyone asked the question: can we sell it now? At the end of August, Comfy celebrates its birthday, but at that time many brands did not do so. Maria recalls that a pattern had already formed in society that it is actually possible to celebrate birthdays, because we have survived and will survive in the future. So Comfy launched an advertising video dedicated to the celebration of its birthday with a collection for the Serhiy Prytula Foundation.
Creative Marketing Comfy