Current Affairs Producers capitalise on Czech "brand nostalgia"
The Czech Republic seems to have been hit by a wave of brand nostalgia. If you owned a car before 1989, it was most probably a Skoda, you wore Botas shoes, a Prim watch, cooked your dinner in a Remoska portable oven, chewed on Pedro chewing gum and did your washing with the so-called Stag soap. Skoda is one of only a few traditional trademarks that have successfully survived the influx of western brands and products after the fall of communism. Many other household names succumbed to the tough competition, but in recent years old brands have been re-emerging as producers realise they can capitalise on people's nostalgia after they have become saturated with international brands.
In recent years, a number of traditional Czech companies have reported
increased domestic sales and exports, for example the tractor maker Zetor.
The chemicals producer Setuza has successfully re-launched production of
its brown washing soap with a picture of a stag on it - a product with a
tradition of some 150 years in this country. Another success story is the
spectacular rebirth of a caffeinated soft drink Kofola, which was
originally developed in the 1960s as an alternative to unavailable western
products. Lawyer Eugen Zathurecky is a trademark specialist.
"If I am to introduce the drink distributed under the trademark
Kofola, I would like to stress that it is a beverage that has been
continually produced for more than 30 years, since the mid-1960s in the
former Czechoslovakia. This beverage has been maintaining its popularity
and quality all the time and now is able to be a partner [to other
caffeinated drinks] on the market very successfully."
Jawa Pionyr
Kofola is now the third largest soft drink producer in the Czech Republic.
It has recently expanded into neighbouring Poland and keeps on growing. The
Tatra carmaker has been increasing production in the last couple of years,
too, also thanks to orders from the Czech military. Next month, the
legendary small motorcycle Jawa Pionyr will be re-introduced to the Czech
market. This "retro brand" marketing strategy is proving very
successful for the companies and consumers find it easy to identify with
the brands that are considered as family silver even though many are now
owned by international companies. And some of the brands are doing so well
that you can find their pirated copies both in the Czech Republic and
abroad.
