What part of Poland's image do you think is the most exportable?

design, no? Swedish design is popular why not Polish?


Who said it must be a mass appeal? Niche things are also a good business.

Tell me an example if there was a shop in the USA with lets say British items or French what would it sell and what things would have a mass appeal?

People have heard of it. For decades. That makes things a lot easier. Even centuries of Swedish style, given the fad for Gustavian decor a few years back. Poland doesn't have anything unique in that way. And if people are going to buy something new, why Polish? Why not Russian or Czech?


There are British and French brands in supermarkets around the world. Poland does not have the same association with quality or the same established brands. Do you remember those Polish clothes that used to be in British shops back in the seventies and eighties?

Hard to build an image on niche products though, unless you're a microstate.

I've already give an example. £owicki folkclore inspirations are unique, aren't they?


Poland have also traditions in design. If you mean historic then meble kolbuszowe or gdańskie are things which springs to my mind... but it hardly can inspire. Then in 20s and 30s we had Warsztaty Krakowskie and £ad.

Also Polish design of 50s and 60s was top notch... too bad that some products couldn't been produce and sell abroad due to political reasons.

Now there is retrive of Polish design and designers are trying to create modern items some are inspired folclore because they know that's something unique. You are talking like there was never a Polish design... but the truth is that you just don't know it. And that's why the promotion is important.


May I ask about details? Let's say that masks wants to set a shop in NY with British items. What should he sell there? T-shirts with the Queen? No, that was popular during Sex Pistols, that is some 30 years ago.


Do you mean Biba?


Because masks will set up Polish store not Russian or Czech :)


In New York there are many snobs who will be intrested in niche fashionable products. It's all about targeting the proper clients.

But isn't the problem with Polish products is that the whole image of "Polish" is essentially "working-class, gritty, moustache" and not the kind of thing you'd use to show off to other snobs?

It's the same reason why moronic Polish snobs are going mad for second hand Dutch furniture rather than the excellent Polish furniture.

No. Some designs won international contests. That's why I gave an example of Moho carpet earlier. It's Polish, it's folk and it's cool so much that you won't have any problem about reading about it on foreign design blogs.

Sweet, but available already and who would buy? I'd add that every region in Europe has some folk art that is 'unique', the UK more than most.


As an alternative to Biedermaier it's nice, but what makes you think other countries don't have the same or better?


Some was good, but again other places had good furniture too.


Actually I do know it. My home in Warsaw is full of the stuff. I just don't think it's special enough to bring a return after promoting it. Everywhere else in Europe was making furniture too.


WTF? Go and have a look n a hypermarket at British products and figure out why the export figures are what they are.


No dearie. Biba wasn't a Polish shop. It was a briefly fashionable clothes shop (with one branch) who's part-owner happened to have come from Poland. Plenty of tourists but most of the country never set foot in the place nor was there much from Poland on the racks - most was designed in-house by British designers. I remember going to the restaurant there when I was a kid - a lovely place but one that went bust. The Polish clothes that were on sale in stores around the country were a very different kettle of fish. Nasty polyester jackets etc - that image unfortunately remains. On top of that Poles are very visible in the UK and you can't market a country as chic for fashion when people see its citizens in the street every day dressed dowdily and especially when they spend time moaning about how poor and grey and hard to live in Poland is!


Perhaps he should. It would be easier to get the footfall.
Personally I would think about selling Polish linen. Not by any means unique but good quality and easily marketable. Some of the glassware too, but not the tasteless stuff that is sold in PL. Make it for the market it will be sold in.

How Poles in 70s and 80s could establish a brand in the UK? Poland was PRL back then so your question is weird.


Were there Polish clothes in the UK???


That's silly. Do you say that average French people are fashionable?!


But Americans don't have this kind of folk.


Biedermeier? What Warsztaty Krakowskie or £ad have to do with biedermeier?


Those who want to have a cool and unique house. You're probably much older than me that's probably why you like more classic things.


With Czech design? I can think of any czech design product, can you help me?


Good that you can acknoledge that...


I don't ask you about products sold in hipermarkets (probably potatoes in Europe are also from Poland) but about products which are associated with Great Britain, which masks can sold in his small shop? :)

And there were plenty of clothing exports to the UK and elsewhere. Biba wasn't one of them. BTW, Krakus was an established brand back then.


Lots. But very much at the bottom end of the market.


On the whole they dress well. Poles haven't yet created a positive impression about the way they dress in the UK. Unfortunately I've only heard negative comments.


Britain exports enough already - easily enough to obviate the need for a small shop.

For Polish products, what about Boleslawiec pottery. Not the kitsch stuff, but some of the better designs. Denby from the UK sells quite well across the Atlantic (in fact it's their main market) - Boleslawiec could imitate this.

Hahahaha what a wimp! Cry to the mods mods mods!

semtex, crystal glass, and child prostitution

I'm not sure about the first and last, but the Centrum Czeskie Towaru (excuse me if the koncowki are wrong - I've got a crunching hangover) on Marszalkowska sells plenty of crystal. And Czech glassware has been in the shops in the UK for years. Skoda cars and Bata shoes are fairly universal too.

the "i'm an alcoholic but i still get the job done" inspired t-shirts would sell well - and no I don't think they're accurate but that's what people want to believe. The t-shirts that have polish inspired humor on them are pretty good too but for all I know, they're rip offs of other ideas.

I think Poland would do well to export its hospitality. It has a wealth of lovely resorts that are largely undiscovered. Waking up to a hearty breakfast and looking out to beautiful hills is sth that many people can associate with and appreciate. This cannot be underestimated.

So Poland's resorts and scenery should be dismantled, dug up and exported. Hahahaha what a stupid proposal!

DE, I can forgive your lack of English understanding. As a teacher, I need to understand peoples' differing levels so can I refer you to the OP, which the Mods often suggest anyway, to see what 'exportable' actually means!? Given your lack of wink marks, I presume that you don't get it yet.

Are you serious? It gives me a feel of my grandma's house...


That's strange, given that people in Poland struggled to obtain any products in those years. I wouldn't expect a good quality or a fashionable clothes because it was a mass production of a few patterns.


My friend who was there said something contrary. That women there were dull and mundane, certainly not fashionable.


No wonder if there dominates a cerain type of people who rather don't follow the fashion... blond, tanned, pink t-shirt, jeans, not to mention the guys. You know how we call them in Poland.

How about the style of those young & afluent who live in Poland?


Johnny why is it so hard for you to give an example? Ok, let's make it simple - masks ask about t-shirt prints - what British thing should be on it to sell it? James Bond? Queen? Simon Cowell?

Ok, maybe t-shirts with music groups would sell well but besides that?

Mods?


Oh yes. **** yes. There's so much that hasn't been exploited (except the Baltic Sea) to Westerners - Czechs/Slovaks/Hungarians know about the mountains, but there's still so much to see.

Always thought that Poland needed to present one image abroad, instead of the current mess where every city and region is promoting itself. Euro 2012 was their chance, but they've blown it.


A lot was exported for hard currency, rather than used to satisfy domestic demand. I don't know the name of the Polish organisation that did this job, but in East Germany, the "KoKo" did a great job in the 70's of exporting East German products to the West.


Usually just a copy from abroad, unfortunately.

So do some of the things that the UK exports. People still buy them. And the Boleslawiec range is bigger than you might think.


So much was exported.


Nothing exceptional. Followers rather than leaders.


Tee shirts and other touristy trash sells by the bucketload to the young and undiscriminating. I'm not sure who Simon Cowell is, but the other two examples you give are available on tee shirts. What I see in the shops around the world are expensive foodstuffs and posh shoes.

Asks what items from Poland would best sell in a shop in New York City. Niether Polish resorts nor Polish landscapes are viable items for such a shop because they are not exportable. Images of Polish landscapes and resorts are exportable but I doubt a shop dealing exclusively in pictures of hotels and landscapes would be viable. Perhaps you are suggesting the thread starter open a travel agency. If so you need to state that more clearly.


Seanus you are the one who doesn't understand what this thread is about, and your pretentious offer of "forgiveness" makes you look even more idiotic.


I pity your students.

I think, like in so many other things in life, delph, it's a question of balance. I think there has to be a regional aspect to some extent given the diversity that exists but there does need to be a 'Polishness' given that people ask themselves, 'do I want to go to Poland?' and not to one specific region. Regions give identity and that can be an intricate issue that doesn't need to be tampered with. However, I think you'll agree that many Poles have enough patriotism about them to come together and feel proud of their nation.

2. To cause the spread of (an idea, for example) in another part of the world; transmit, thefreedictionary.com/exportable

You want to spread the idea of Poland as a beautiful country as tourism is an outward-oriented growth sector. I see it in these terms but, being an American, you might see it as one of purely tangible goods to be traded. I refer you to European 'tourism enjoyment' literature.

Exportable means capable of being exported and this encompasses ideas as shown in the definition. You can promote Polish tourism in this way, kapisz?

'Such things can be objects, pictures or slogans that might inspire pride or admiration for poland, while also poking fun at it.'

He also mentions Wall Street and Hollywood. Can you export them too? He's American and he seems to have the same interpretation as I do. It's selling an image abroad, that's what he was getting at. Poland needs to sell its natural beauty to attract interest from abroad.

I tried to look on the sruff they have on Denby's site and can't find anything designers'. Just a plain cups and glasses. Could you show me what's their flag product?


Does they have something which a young couple would like to buy to their new house?


Unfortunately? Fashion is international. Poland is not a middle East to have it's own distinguish fashion. I was just asking if they look good or not.


The British guy who invented Idol, Got Talent and X Factor and resell license to many countries making fortune. He's already a celebrity in your country, the UK.


Oh, I'm sure that football fans would be very intrested in mountain hiking...

Thing is, for major tournaments, the usual football fans tend to be replaced by people who can afford it - ie, people with money.

I know for instance, a group of very rich lawyers who are coming to the Irish games in Poznan.

Plain? Classy. That's why it sells.


Why not check it out?


So trashy popculture.


The ones who can afford a week away and the huge cost of ticket are likely to have all sorts of interests.

Concepts and ideologies can also be exported abroad. Panopticism and hegemony, for example. Exportable looks at the ability or features of the thing which makes it able to be sold abroad. Those that operate in the tourism industry want to sell what they have abroad by raising awareness. It's like advertising. They are selling a service. DE, you must read between the lines more.

Masks, the Polish flag is the most exportable thing, I'd say.

I can buy similar in many hypermarkets. Actually I found only one table set worth looking on, the rest was plain and ordinary... and we are looking for distinguish national export product.


I've check it and have found nothing, that's why I say it's granny's style... of course I like the fact they keep the tradition on, but I wouldn't buy it because I like modern style designs. Happy though they have their fans such as you :)


Yes it is. It supposed to be a joke, can you imagine people buying Simon Cowell t-shirts? ;)


And I think that these kind of people are more intrested in a night in a pub that sightseeing anything.

How come, Wroclaw?

I'd have thought that this event would give a hugely marketable image to take abroad?

keep it general and it's ok, but the thread had moved on to hotel prices on specific dates.

Why not look at it in real life?


I googled him, and no, I can't.


You'd be surprised.


Makes sense, however I'd say that the main reason they're hosting it is Poland's image.