OREANDA-NEWS. May 29, 2007. Russian Railways presented its new corporate style at the 2nd International Rail Business Forum "Strategic Partnership 1520" held in Sochi. Attending were various guests and delegates to the Business Forum, as well as over 100 journalists.

The new corporate style was presented by Boris Lapidus, Senior Vice-President at Russian Railways, and Turkhan Makhmudov, Managing Director of BBDO Branding, which designed the new brand.

Changing the corporate style is one of the most important stages in rebranding, which began as early as 2003 with the formation of Russian Railways itself. It represents the qualitative changes which have been taking place at the Company. The new brand will position Russian Railways as a successful company providing integrated transport and logistics solutions and services on a global scale and with the resources and advanced technology to develop rail infrastructure in Russia and abroad.

Turkhan Makhmudov emphasised in particular that this was a unique and one of the biggest projects in terms of rebranding ever undertaken in Russia. The task now was to make the new corporate style acceptable and well-known.

Guests at the presentation were given a demonstration of the various designs of passenger coaches, train stations, tickets and business documents.

Answering questions from journalists, Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, said that "the new corporate style would be presented at the "Railway Workers’ Day," which usually takes place on the first Sunday in August."

The change of corporate style will take place in several stages and only affects transport subsidiaries of Russian Railways. It will be completed by 2010.

Marketing communications experts viewed the rebranding and change in corporate style positively.

Oleg Panoff, chairman of the Board of the holding "Tendentsiya," said "the very fact that Russian Railways has undertaken a rebranding is absolutely the right decision. Every dynamically developing organisation should think about its own positioning and change or correct it where necessary. Russian Railways’ proactive step in that direction confirms that the company is under good management and understands that the visual prt of the brand is just as important as the structural and qualitative changes. The red colour of the new logo is the colour of life, dynamism and leadership – it’s a great choice."

According to Maxim Myssel, director at AB Solution Factory, "the introduction of the new corporate style at Russian Railways has come at the right time because it melds with the structure of the reforms announced by the Company. Today, the new visual aspect of the Company is beginning, bright and modern."

"I see the rebranding process, especially of a state company, as a huge amount of work. First of all, you have to develop an ideology of change and their visualisation, and the most difficult stage, getting it known and accepted, is a task which Russian Railways still has to accomplish. The new logo fits in well to the visual image of many international transport companies. The mere fact of rebranding is a good enough reason to attract attention to the Company", said Igor Ganzha, creative director at LMH Consulting.