BG BRANDS IN THE WESTERN WORLD

Can a Bulgarian brand be successful in a western market and what should be considered before launching it?

The Challenge:
Our Client wanted to support a local startup business in launching a new product – a healthy food proposition designed for the mature markets of Western Europe.
The Client wanted to get insights about the perceptions towards the concept, the package and the product itself, as well as towards the overall category purchase behaviors of the target group;

The Approach:
We designed a qualitative survey, consisting of:

focus group discussions with targeted respondents.

Since the initial product launch was planned for the UK market, the execution of the project was lead by LOGO Research (survey and research instruments design, analysis, reporting and overall project management) while the fieldwork (including the recruitment of eligible respondents) was executed by a local partnering agency.

The Outcome:
As expected, the understanding of the “healthy” food notion in the UK appeared quite different compared to the existing perceptions in Bulgaria.
The importance of “the organic origin”, the main shopping channels and the quality expectations turned out to play a different role in this market.
“The experts” appeared much valued reference for the “healthy food” (yet being defined differently than in Bulgaria). The product itself demonstrated high relevance and purchase interest among the target group.

Our analysis revealed that the high levels of acceptance are due to the credibility of the concept and the liking of the package design, while the name and the main color of the package are barriers which need to be addressed.

Based on our conclusions and recommendations the client developed a specific plan of necessary actions to be taken prior to the product launch in order to ensure the success of the product on this specific (and quite different) – market.