Poland low on national brand chart

Do you have a link?

I don't remember any "Orlen"....*scratches head*

Ask Zeti, her post :) Read a bit further up in the thread..

Yes I know. I was to give an Italian example of a disaster of railway cisterns made in Poland... the Italians were stressing that the cisterns were MADE IN POLAND. But it was investigated that the cisterns were ok and the disaster was fault of Italians workers... something like that or similar.

About Orlen...I found this one: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PKN_Orlen


So they are actually using the Orlen brand name too, between others...and I too have no idea why they should have problems, and of course they don't have any!

What crap are they talking about???

The crap I've just heard on tv. I swear I did not make it up! ;)

*grumble, pout, grumble*

;)

I've never seen a star or Orlen station in Germany... On a side note, I stop at the place that looks like it has clean bathrooms..

Mistake. They don't know what was the reason but nevertheless:


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Viareggio_train_derailment#Details

GATX=General American Transportation Corporation

I dunno, the bordertown residents are probably very familiar with Polish fuel brands ;)

It is interesting about the product brand names (Orlen, Smyk, Wedel, etc.), but I believe the country branding issue had to do not with individual brand names but with the brand image conjured up by the name of the country itself. The word Poland, Pole or Polish either does not ring a bell world-wide (except for the 'late Pope and Wałęsa' - usually pronounced £olesa) or does not really evoke anything positive. Does the name make a foreigner keen about buying a Polish product, or visting the country or sending a son ro daughter there to study?

No, of course not. Until Polish universities start ranking amongst the top in the world, parents will probably be apprehensive. Same goes for products, are there any Polish producers known for their quality around the world? I mean, for the latter, it's something measurable. Which Polish products should I as a German buy? Or I as a Frenchman, Italian, Swiss, etc?

Chopin Vodka? Right, Poles need to get some marketing plans going.

Spirits are actually a good start. Sobieski with old man Willis, Belvedere, Chopin...

Damn, I didn't know they had Bel too. Vodka snobs delight. Well, yeah liquor is a start, no doubt. Probably a decent margin on that stuff.

Unfortunely, marketing is an integral part of business: building a brand's identity, etc. Appealing to different demographics. It's more of an art than hard core logic. I'm not sure Poles have gravitated to that idea as of yet.. but I'm sure they will.

The winners are the brands you never hear about. Poland and Germany are very much alike here. Lots of hidden champions that you've never heard about. It's good that way :)

: - ) .. It's good for you the consumer.. but if they've got the good basic product (which I kind of suspected was the case over there) .. learn how to present it to the Asians.. US and reap the benefits. Isn't Red Bull ,Austrian or something?

Yea, they are. But, the Austrians also do quite a bit aerospace wise that you don;t hear about. Same goes for Polish companies in manufacturing...and IT for that matter. Lots of SMEs making the money. Look at Germany, the big boys aren't driving the economy, it's the medium sized businesses. The ones building forklifts, bearings, rock crushers, panels for aircraft, screens for plasma tvs, etc. Poland should follow the same model.

Hell, the US should follow that model.. What are the Czechs doing? Similar to the Krauts?

Yup, and I agree with you on the US. There used to be quite a few hidden champions in the US. They were knocked out by regulation which favored huge companies (cost of compliance). Poland can absolutely not allow this to happen, or else it's doomed.

I hear you.. Well, I think still a lot of R&D is done by smaller companies in the US. Big companies outsource a lot of it. I'm pretty sure that Apple just bought the patent to the iPod, etc.

What's an SME.. Small Market Entity?

If there's hidden gems as you say, what's the problem.. they don't want the global presence or something? I know Europeans go about business in a lot different fashion. Less glitz and b.s., however sometimes you need that stuff.

Yup, but less and less. You are starting to see a lot more innovation coming out of our "supplier nations".


Small to Medium Enterprise. Not VW and Siemens.


Not to actually make money. The hidden champions are mostly private companies...which is "crazy" today considering how much you could make floating a profitable company...and that's the exact reason that they're successful. Private ownership, management has the companies best interest at hand. That makes winners. Less distance between owner and worker. Better feedback system.

What, no suitcases of cash? ;-)


Peaks and valleys.. this is natural for the most part. I don't think our ship is that far adrift. Besides our infrastructure is largely there while they're are still building theirs. Problem with us is it's all .. me, me, me. Little cohesion.. this is where the Krauts and Japanese shine.


It's sounds nice and quaint and it's effective to a degree with the homogenous population (for the most part, what a few Turks? ) the Euros have.. everbody on the same page, similar to the Japanese I suppose. However, to grow globally and do it effectively is a little trickier. You need to understand different cultures , supply chains. However, to hear you describe it, I'm envious, because it sounds like a lot less headache than working for a big boy.

I did recently see Consumer Reports auto special recently.. they all gave BMW , Mercedes and Audi even Porsche pretty low grades for quality, defects etc. And they're are typically pretty objective .. and usually praise the hell out of those companies.

No :( Only govt. handouts.


The problem in the US is with the accountants, not with the people. Throw on top of that regulation that is second to none in developed countries, and you have a huge mess. Tax rates kills the thing entirely. Over the last 30 years, the US has shifted from innovation to surviving on handouts that the gracious government provides (follow corp income rates). SMEs in the US are dependent on govt. contracts. That is disgusting, but, unfortunately true.

Germany has nearly as many foreign born as the US. The difference is, they aren't all thrown into college. There is a strong apprenticeship program which I think would do incredibly well in the US.


Indeed you do, and the best way to make connections, and adjust to changes, is with a direct line to a decision maker.


Those aren't the hidden champions :)

Right, individual states are starting to talk about this. Indiana for instance. Funneling kids towards the technical colleges.

Oklahoma was pushing it too. The thing is, you have to have on the job training meshed in. That is what makes the German program successful, in the US, we have vo-tech, but that's not enough. The business/education relationship in Germany is much tighter. That is, 2 days of school, 3 days of apprenticeship. We don't have that in the US :(

That's true. I think that German customers are very true to their brands. The same situation as with Spiele Max happened to Bauknecht, which is being owned by Whirlpool these days.

And if they prove themselves, get good grades, they have a good chance to get a real job in the firm where they make their apprenticeship. A huge motivator!

Poland's mission statement could be a combination of ZA WOLNOŚĆ WASZĄ I NASZĄ (For your freedom and ours) and GOŚĆ W DOM, BÓG W DOM (When a guest enters the home, God enters the home).

No glitz and BS? Telling a member that elections are to be curtailed until a deal is done?

With sovereigns listing, the business climate in fact the whole of the EU, is in question.

youtube.com/watch?v=Fyq7WRr_GPg&feature=player_embedded

express.co.uk/posts/view/213573/Get-Britain-out-of-Europe

Poland is a young country. What 20 years old?


They were knocked out by the politics of feeding our manufacturing to East Asia and in return we get slave labor rates, more profits for owners and shareholders and international political leverage. We finance the whole mess with cheap money. Of course they justify all this with blab about "Free Market".


Consumer Reports is anything but objective. Do you think Toyota's problems just started a year or two ago?


In the US try getting operating capital from anyone else. Lots of Luck. More of that Free Market baloney.