Russian Standard Vodka - Brand Positioning

Roustam Tariko launched the "Russian Standard Vodka" in 1998. A year later, he also found a bank under the same "Russian Standard" umbrella, which is still Russia's leading consumer lender today.

After two years of successful Russian market launches, the company started international expansion. This was accompanied by a new line of products called the Russian Standard Platinum and the luxury brand Imperia.

The "origin story" of the brand name is built around the 1894 myth that the most outstanding scientist in Russia, Dmitri Mendeleev, received the decree to establish the Imperial Quality Standard for Russian Vodka and that the "Russian Standard" is the only vodka compliant with the highest quality of vodka approved by the royal commission headed by Mendeleev in 1894.

This story, however, has been based on a popular myth that claims that Mendeleev's 1869 doctoral dissertation "On the composition of alcoholic drinks" contains a statement that 40% is the ideal strength for vodka and that this number has been subsequently rounded to 40% to make calculations easier. However, Mendeleev's dissertation was about alcohol concentration levels above 70%, and he never wrote anything on vodka. Furthermore, when Mendeleev was nine years old, Russia's government introduced the 40 percent standard strength in 1843.

The company opened a new distillery with 4 million cases per year in St. Petersburg in 2006.