Almost half the world's most valuable brands are personal names - Toyota, Disney, McDonald's, Hewlett-Packard, Honda and Dell, a survey by Interbrand reveals. Nevertheless, Romanian businessmen show more reluctance in linking their names to the businesses they run, and if they do, their decisions tend not to be based on a marketing policy, but on a lot of arbitrariness. What is the explanation, then?
When Romeo Dunca founded his transport firm in 1994, he started with a single truck and without a name for the firm. "(...) I didn't give it much thought. Dunca Expeditii was formed from my name and the activity of my firm," explained the owner and general manager of the shipping firm. Romeo Dunca's decision was not based on any market research or branding analysis.
There are very few examples of "personal branding" on the Romanian market. Probably the best-known domestic brand is Ion Tiriac, who controls a business conglomerate and has an estimated fortune worth almost 2bn dollars. The example of the former tennis player, who is one of the wealthiest Romanian businessmen, suggests that it takes "personal brand equity" that is superior to that of the company for one to use his or her name for his or her business.
From this point of view, another "bold" businessman is Florentin Banu. His name is linked to the Artima supermarket network or Joe (the businessman's nickname during childhood) wafer brand. Brought together under Banuinvest group, the businesses he controls, along with his brother, are branded with the Banu name.
Another example, this time from the dye and varnish market, is Aurel Kober who controls together with his wife Mariana Kober, the entire stake of Kober, one of the industry's top two players.
Still, personal branding is not highly fashionable for domestic businesses. One of the reasons is the still negative perception that is attached to post-December 1989 businesses. The reluctance of companies to use personal branding is not apparent in the domain of professional services: law, audit and consulting services firms, where the link between the brand and the person is so tight that there is no point in "denying" it through a neutral name.
Iulian Padurariu is, indirectly, part of a naming exercise of this type. He coordinates the domestic office of Trout&Partners, founded by Jack Trout, the father of positioning theory. In other words, the expertise of the person behind the name is very important. Starting from the premise that Romanians generally suffer from an inferiority complex, Padurariu believes the way a name can transform from an option into an actual label is, among other things, largely related to confidence, or the lack thereof.
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