The annual festival for small and medium-sized businesses, held under the auspices of Delo.ua, has been running for ten consecutive years. This year’s event brought together more than 100 speakers, including representatives of businesses across various sectors of the economy, as well as figures from government and civil society. On the marketing strategy stage, among other topics, participants discussed how to create memorable service and enhance customer loyalty and trust through personalisation, sales tools and external communications.
Davydenko took part in the panel discussion “Customer Experience as a Competitive Advantage”. The conversation also featured representatives from the brand marketing agency Grape, the PR agency Velyki Istorii (“Great Stories”), Paint Digital Agency, the MAUDAU marketplace, Gunia Project and Uklon.
The Metinvest director commented that any interaction with stakeholders is an investment in Group’s reputation. “And these investments must be effective, especially when engaging with customers,” he added.
How to turn challenges into opportunities
The start of the full-scale war in 2022 disrupted Metinvest’s plans to open a mining and metals university in Mariupol, where construction of an ultra-modern campus had already begun.
“On 16 February, we were on a visit to Mariupol, and several floors of the university had already been built. But once the invasion began, the question arose: would we be able to preserve the university?” Davydenko recalled.
The greatest challenge was to rapidly shift from the planned in-person format to online learning and maintain contact with prospective students who had remained in frontline regions or relocated to other Ukrainian cities. “We had to ‘change course mid-air’ to make learning possible at all in this new remote format,” the director explained.
Today, the first cohort of master’s students have already graduated from Metinvest Polytechnic and the fourth intake of bachelor’s students has been completed. The university is implementing a dual-education model, combining online classes with hands-on training at the Group’s enterprises.
What customer experience is built on
Davydenko noted that the foundation of stakeholder engagement is timeliness and predictability: “Timeliness is paramount. Not faster, not rushed, but exactly when it is needed. And predictability creates clear expectations in interactions with partners and customers.”
In 2022-23, Metinvest faced a major logistical challenge: the Black Sea was closed, while European customers were expecting products from Ukraine. The Group understood that in such circumstances, what mattered was not only delivery times, but also the way in which communication was handled.
“The most important thing is to manage the customer’s expectations. You must be honest about the problem in advance, explain what is happening and do everything possible to meet your commitments,” the Metinvest director explained.
This approach creates not just a positive customer experience, but a brand experience: one in which the Group remains reliable even in times of crisis. “This is what builds a steel-like reputation: always fulfilling your promises, no matter the circumstances,” he added.
Davydenko identified reliability as Metinvest’s key competitive advantage: “I am not exaggerating when I say that international creditors and partners have seen over the past ten years that we always fulfil our commitments.”
How stakeholder engagement shapes reputation
At Metinvest, it is emphasised that repeated engagement with audiences is the key element in shaping long-term reputation. “Reputation is like a company’s valuation on the stock exchange. It’s not about what it is worth today, but about expectations for the future,” said Davydenko.
Repeated interaction enables the Group to build relationships with customers, communities, partners and employees: moving from initial awareness to knowledge, understanding and trust and ultimately to concrete actions and cooperation. “Reputation is an assessment of our ability to build long-term partnerships that benefit all parties,” the Metinvest director added.
As a result of such engagement, some people become employees, others become suppliers and others learn about the role of the metals sector in the economy: that steel accounts for 6% of GDP and provides hundreds of thousands of jobs. All of this helps to create a modern image of Metinvest and build reputational capital for years to come.
How to measure reputation
At Metinvest, reputation is measured systematically and on several levels, from daily analytics to annual research. “Our measurement is a continuous operational process. We look at reach and the timing and frequency of contacts, and analyse how and where people consume information,” said Davydenko.
Unlike the traditional marketing approach, the Group takes into account the information habits of the entire audience. “In PR, it’s not just about contact through targeted advertising, for example on social media. We need to understand how news and information are consumed across a city and the country,” he explained.
Metinvest therefore applies a mathematical approach: it analyses communication channels, determines the optimal frequency of contacts, and evaluates content daily and weekly to assess whether it meets audience expectations. “We constantly review what we say, how we say it and where we say it, to ensure that it remains effective,” the director added.
An additional component is the annual reputation assessment, which shows how perceptions of Metinvest are changing and how well this aligns with business objectives. “Reputation characteristics must be connected to the business. We need to understand how we influence the Group’s performance indicators,” he said.
Davydenko is convinced that in the future, reputation will become a full-fledged financial asset. “Soon we will reach a point where reputation will be assessed not as an intangible asset, but as a financial one. It will become part of a kind of financial reporting: digitised and linked to business results. Perhaps in a few years, a separate term will emerge for this: ‘reputation finance’,” he suggested.
What is the key message for the international audience?
One of the Group’s most significant achievements in recent years is that the business has continued to operate even after the loss of its assets in Mariupol and Avdiivka, as well as the suspension of operations at its facility in Pokrovsk.
“For the international audience, this is a message not only about Metinvest’s resilience, but about the strength of Ukrainian business as a whole,” said Davydenko.
The Group is demonstrating that the Ukrainian economy is holding firm and that businesses are capable not only of sustaining their own operations but also of supporting the armed forces.
“Through this example, we want to show that Ukraine is part of Europe. On the front line, it defends European values, and at the same time, it is an economic partner, not a competitor,” he added.