Abstract:

In order to develop and implement effective marketing strategies, Western companies entering the East European countries should be well acquainted with the in-depth social and cultural processes that are taking place in these societies and how the markets are related with and influenced by them. The study and correct interpretation of these processes requires a change in the currently established relationships between research buyers and suppliers, on one side, and between Western research companies, coordinating projects in East Europe, and East European research companies, on the other. The general conclusions of the paper are based on the results of a marketing research project (1994), conducted by MAP - a Bulgarian full service marketing research agency, for Mobikom (a Partnership between Cable&Wireless, Bulgarian Telecommunications Company and Radio-Electronic Systems). The research project had to answer the question whether the current skimming marketing strategy should be retained or replaced with another strategy. During the execution of the project both parties, the Client and the Researcher, worked in close collaboration, from formulating the objectives and hypotheses, through detailed discussions of the questionnaire, till the interpretation of the results and the formulation of recommendations. This close “open” relationship allowed the interpretation of the results to leave the restrained frames of the empirical data from the research project and to apply the extremely useful background and semiotic information that the researcher had.