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WHAT is ACTUALLY NEW in BULGARIA as BRANDED AREA? BEFORE/NOW Dimitar Trendafilov PhD Candidate – New Bulgarian University, Sofia International workshop: Brands, Dreams, and Spaces: Making Markets through Marketing and Consumption in Post-Socialist Economies? Sofia – 17 th -19 th May 2012

What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

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Page 1: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

WHAT is ACTUALLY NEW in

BULGARIA as BRANDED AREA?

BEFORE/NOW

Dimitar

Trendafilov

PhD Candidate –

New Bulgarian University, Sofia

International workshop:Brands, Dreams, and Spaces:

Making Markets through Marketing and Consumption in Post-Socialist Economies?Sofia –

17th-19th

May 2012

Page 2: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?
Page 3: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

Preliminary notes

Beyond the Iron Curtain, 1967 (B. Feddersen, Germany):

“No matter how great the demand and how serious the need is for the certain

product, the product will not be imported if the planning commission has decided

that other products are of greater importance to the economy.”

…but a large number of Western companies do good business with Eastblock

anyway; they were mainly big concerns with long history and trading experience

(i.e. they had connections and information about the market opportunities).

Before deciding to import a product from non-communist country, a Communist

country first tried to fill the gap from their Socialist partners.

Even at that time, when two sides of the world had business contacts, there were

some ad materials – trade journals, product catalogues, booklets.

Eastblock needed goods as well as know-how.

Page 4: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

“You have your Lenin, we have our Lennon”

Recycling the Western pop-information in 80’s (G. Bar-Haim, 1989):There is no vacuum in society, thus:

The lack of credibility in ideology propagated by Eastblock authorities and inadequacy of local “labor heroes” as a role models encouraged the youngsters to seek intentionally and with high motivation the more information possible about Western rock, pop, sport, and film stars and to copy certain lifestyles and behavior.The sources were foreign students and few local people who were permitted to travel abroad and brought Western magazines, various goods, video tapes as well as all kinds of rumors and gossips about the life beyond the Berlin wall.The Western system was a symbol of newness, action, speed, fashion, and, of course, of individuality and freedom [predominantly of expression and choice] vs. sedentary, supervised, and unproductive live in their own countries.Eastblock youngsters decode and recode the pop-culture information from the West 1) taking it out from the original context, and 2) using it for different purposes [seeking alternatives and as kind of protest, not for consumption].

Page 5: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

An alternative look

first impression (aesthetics) –

grey Communism vs. colorful

environment of branded streets, buildings and shops

second impression – no advertising efficacy (= B. Barber, S. Zyman).

third impression – big ad signs and billboards vs. knee-shops (windows).

forth impression – advertising as drug.

fifth impression – western advertisements removed from its own context

“Global Advertising Failure in Bulgaria”

(in Symplokē

magazine, 2001) by Josh Parker (observations from journey in 1998):

Page 6: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

Brands ≠

products but = ad paraphernalia

Parker puts several points under discussion:

a lack of disposable capital in post-Soviet Eastern Europe

the disability of western corporations to predict the dynamics of these societies when they launched their global marketing plans in new territories.

home-made marketing using American brands and characters

Coke + hard liquor

extremely branded public areas (≠ N. Klein)

small traditional groups vs. global advertising

ad images makes impoverishment more visible

“Advertising, it’s been said, is capitalism’s way to say ‘I love you’

to itself. It does not tend to repeat these words to anyone outside the system it creates.”

Page 7: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

Anthropological concerns

“In advertising terms, people in this and many other parts of the world are leaving

in a cultural Dream Time. They see objects for what day are without haze of

commercial associations.”

“But the main problem for Easterners is that while they may buy these

[western/branded] products, their chances of working for the companies that

produce them is, at the moment, small – and since they come from culture where

people tent to see their identities as a function of what they produce rather than of

what they consume, this system of images fails them doubly.”

“…the semiological system used by advertising can’t be understood without proper

training.” (based on William Leiss and Stephen Kline)

Page 8: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

“These automobiles are made in Bulgaria.

For its roads, for its drivers.”

It is written with Latin characters

“Caprice”, a perfumery brand

International face of Bulgaria; advertising mimicry

Brand “Vekho’

Page 9: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

Economic impulse after 2001 (it increased the access to brands and the volume of advertising production)

International brands presence raised

More experience with products and brands

More, various and adequate information sources

More traveling abroad

First post-socialist generation has entered the market recently (it has new kind of memory; it perceives brands and advertising as a fact)

At last brands are objects of consumption and choice, not of protest or alternatives

Mall and outlet “fever” in last years re-defines the perception of brands

What happened then?

Page 10: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

Move with the times?

Page 11: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Page 12: What is Actually New in Bulgarian Brand Landscape?

Durankev, Boyan

(1996) [Дуранкев, Боян], The Beginning and the End of the Third WW

[Началото

и

краят

на

Третата

световна

война], София: Университетско

издателство

„Стопанство”

(Sofia: “Economy”

University publishing house);

Alden, Dana, Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict E.M., Batra, Rajeev (1999), Brand Positioning Through

Advertising in Asia North America, and Europe: the Role of Global Consumer Culture, in “The

Journal of Marketing”, Vol. 63, №1 (Jan.) , pp. 75-87;

Barber, Benjamin (1996), Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism’s Challenge to Democracy, New

York/Toronto: Ballantine

Books;

Bar-Haim, Gabriel (1989), Actions and Heroes: The Meaning of Western Pop Information for

Eastern European Youth, in “British Journal of Sociology”, Vol. 40, №1 (Mar.), pp. 22-45;

Coulter, Robin A., Price, Linda L., Feick, Lawrence (2003), Rethinking the Origins of Involvement

and Brand Commitment: Insights from Postsocialist

Central Europe, in “Journal of Consumer

Research”, Vol. 30, № 2 (Sept.), pp. 151-169;

Feddersen, Berend

(1967), Markets behind the Iron Curtain, in “The Journal of Marketing”, Vol.

31, №3, pp.1-5;

Hamilton, F.E. Ian (1999), Transformation and Space in Central and Eastern Europe, in “The

Geographical Journal”, Vol. 165, № 2 (July), pp. 135-144;

Klein, Naomi (2000),

No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies;

GB: Flamingo;

Parker, Josh (2001), Global Advertising’s Failure in Bulgaria, in “Symplokē”, Vol. 9, №1/2,

“Globalism

& Theory”, University of Nebraska Press, pp.132-144.

Zyman, Sergio, Brott, Armin

(2002), The End of Advertising As We Know It, Hoboken, New

Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

R E F E R

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