The socialist era has compromised not only the Romanian product itself, designed to meet the nationalist ideology rejecting imports, but also the Romanian product quality, which led to jokes and bitter remarks.
Waves of foreign stuff have overwhelmed the market several years after the Revolution and the Romanian consumers' needs were eventually met, while domestic goods were forgotten.
The situation has gradually changed since then. Traders noticed that goods sell better if the "USA drumsticks" or "Belgium chicken" labels were replaced by "Romanian chickens."
Many producers' associations have started to showcase the advantages of Romanian products as compared to the foreign ones in order to gain ground against the more or less fair competition given by imported goods.
The most organised body having hailed this trend is the Association for Products and Services Promotion-Romania (APPSR). The organisation was established last May aiming to boost the value of Romanian goods and their advantages against the imports.
Valentin Ionescu, APPSR head and a former journalist, founded the Association together with other journalists considering that "It's time that the Romanians realised the domestic traditions and goods ". The Association initiated "Made in Romania," a non-governmental programme to support and boost the production of goods and services manufactured in Romania.
The programme aims to re-discover the national identity in its commercial displays and its slogan is "be proud of what we make in Romania before looking up to the Occident."
The programme was conceived according to the famous American concept "Buy American," subsequently taken over by most European countries. Ionescu mentions the promotional campaign initiated by the Israeli authorities which decided to stick the "Buy white and blue" label, like the national flag, on all the domestic products.
"Made in Romania" (FIR) is based on the collective brand concept that grants the right to use a trade mark of APPSR for all the products and services registered with FIT programme. The trademark is registered with the National Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM) and the association provides its members with periodic reports monitoring the programme's outcomes.
FIR will be also popularised through a nation-wide awareness campaign to promote Romanian products among the population, through the FIR label applied to the goods, which is scheduled to start this spring.
APPSR will collaborate with the PR and advertising companies as well as with the media and will organise workshops and advertising caravans. The Association will launch "Made in Romania" magazine and will open shops bearing the same name at the end of September 2001. FIR promotional campaign will be similar with those organised by large companies or political parties in the electoral races.
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