A Very Simple Explanation
Eduard Dinu:
Romania, the country of a functional market economy that does not work. Because there is no competition.
A very logical explanation by Mr. Dinu about what is currently happening with the economy. In terms of marketing, branding and design domains, no one should be surprised of how they are still in the early stage of development; I would even venture to say primitive state of development, 25 years after our so-called change in the economic system, intended to become capitalistic. As long as there is (almost) no competition between products and services, branding and design specialists are not (too) sought after either. Not even comparing Romania with countries that are close to us, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic or Poland, is in our favour. From what I’ve seen in these other countries – such as ongoing projects and how people pose and solve problems – branding specialists and designers really have a lot of work to do. An important argument in favour of my statement is that companies and specialists from Germany, Austria or Switzerland that work in the field also work on projects in those countries. And this means it’s worth it. And this is of course only because it’s lucrative. Pragmatically speaking, no German specialist would go work for companies and brands in Central and Eastern European countries if it wasn’t a good idea from a financial point of view.
In Romania, where the economy is still dysfunctional and uncompetitive, and the vast majority of money comes in fact from the government, with few exceptions, there really is no reason to develop a strong sector of specialists and companies working in branding and design, realistically speaking. Since companies do not really need branding and design, they have no reason to pay for such specialised services, which they would only need if the competition was tough and if the need for differentiation would be more visible. In Romania, such services are often seen as pointless palliatives. And they actually are.
A good barometer for how advanced a certain economy is – in my opinion anyway – is the rise in this type of service. Just take a look at the United States, England or a few European countries and then compare them with Romania. We will find that we might as well not exist in this respect, because we do not have a functional competitive economy.
In reality, there are very few companies that need branding and design in Romania. And of these “very few” there are even fewer that turn to existing specialists in these domains – whose numbers are also low.