1. 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

3. 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.

4. “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].

5. An alternative look
“Global Advertising Failure in Bulgaria” (in Symplokē magazine, 2001)
by Josh Parker (observations from journey in 1998):
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

6. 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.”

7. 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)

8. International face of Bulgaria; advertising
mimicry
Brand “Vekho’
It is written
with Latin
characters
“These automobiles
are made in Bulgaria.
For its roads, for its
“Caprice”, a perfumery
drivers.”
brand

9. What happened then?
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

10. Move with the times?

11. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

12. 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;
R E F E R E N C E S:
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.