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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 –
17th-19th
May 2012
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.
“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].
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):
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.”
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)
“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’
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?
Move with the times?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Durankev, Boyan
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Barber, Benjamin (1996), Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism’s Challenge to Democracy, New
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& 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.
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