Abstract:

Please allow us to interrupt the stable course this ESOMAR seminar has taken so far. We have not set ourselves the task of presenting you with the most advanced technologies in marketing research, neither do we intend to stun you with sophisticated attitudes to brand building. Instead we simply wish to provide an optimistic report from places, which, until not so long ago, were still very well hidden behind one famous Berlin wall. Our report claims that the theory of brand building works also in ex- Communist States! Furthermore, in the same way as in the West, it holds TRUE that no theory can be successful until it has been applied to talented and bold enterprising activities. We (myself and Tomas Tereba, co-owner of the Czech company TOMA) are very glad to have the opportunity to present to you such a “success story”. It is a history of a local soft drinks brand, TOMA, which has, step-by-step, gained the third position on an extremely competitive Czech soft drinks market.