Bulgarian Consumers Research Articles

Selling Exports to Consumers in Bulgaria: Attitudes Towards Foreign Products

ABSTRACT The continuing political and economic transformation in Eastern Europe has created a timely need for exploring profitable opportunities in East European markets. This paper responds to this need to develop “marketing strategies for an expanding Europe.” The purpose of this paper is to assess the competitiveness of European Union (ED) products in Bulgaria. Specifically, this study aims at exploring Bulgarian consumers' perceptions of German, Greek, Italian, and Turkish products and their likelihood of purchasing these products. The construct of country-of-origin is used for this analysis since it is a powerful variable that can be used to gain competitive advantage in international marketing. The results clearly show that Bulgarians are more receptive to products from some countries compared to others but this does not correlate with purchase intentions. Implications and areas for further research are discussed.

Bulgarian consumers’ perceptions of products made in Asia Pacific

Reports the findings of a study conducted among 135 Bulgarian consumers, examining their perceptions of products from five Asian Pacific countries. The most common source of information for evaluating these products was experiential knowledge, coupled with opinions from friends. Among the country origins investigated, products made in Japan appeared to be liked most, while Indian products received the most negative comments. Japanese products were also ranked first in terms of overall assessment, followed by products from Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and India. In general, consumer demographics did not play a serious differentiating role in the evaluation of products from these countries. With respect to specific product dimensions, Japanese goods were also rated more highly than those of other countries, the only exception being on price and credit facilities. Finally, in assessing particular categories of products made in Asia Pacific, Japan again received the highest ratings. Some conclusions are drawn from the study findings, as well as managerial implications.

Consumer concerns about nutritional attributes in a transition economy

In Bulgaria, transition from a centrally planned to a market-driven system brought a substantial decline in real incomes and increase in general level of food prices. Resulting increases in food expenditure shares in household budgets, coupled with traditional diet patterns high in fat, energy, sugar and sodium, could lead consumers to purchase inexpensive and nutritionally unbalanced foods and potentially increase the risk of the incidence of diet-related health problems. Using a consumer survey data collected in 1997 in Bulgaria, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and consumer concerns about five salient nutritional attributes including fat, sodium, sugar, food energy, and protein. Household income, educational attainment level, gender, age and geographic locations were statistically significant in explaining the variations in nutritional concerns of Bulgarian consumers. The results provide a basis for the development of public nutrition policies and health education programs paying special attention to the particular needs of identified subgroups of the population in Bulgaria.

Policy concerns in Bulgarian food distribution

The Bulgarian food distribution system, like those of its Central and East European neighbours, lags behind the West in critical performance areas. Previous research quantified Central and East European food distribution deficiencies on the basis of a five factor model. This study investigates the attitudes of 250 Bulgarian consumers using these same five factors: food processing, quality, cost, availability and retailing. The findings show that the Bulgarian food distribution system does not satisfy consumer wants as well as do systems in other former communist countries in four of the five factors. At the same time, Bulgarian consumers are more satisfied than UK and US consumers in the system's ability to make some foods available. The study also shows that Bulgarian consumers who use privatised shops perceive the system more positively than those who use state and cooperative outlets. The implications of these and other findings are discussed in terms of critical policy concerns for government and industry stakeholders.