Alexandra Gatej, chairperson of Unilever South Central Europe (USCE), one of the leading players on the consumer goods market, has revealed that the company's advertising budget has increased by over 10-15% year-on-year.
Gatej says the expansion of international store networks has had a positive impact on Unilever's domestic business, but their presence will not reduce the importance of traditional retail.
"(...) The reason is simple: a brand cannot be powerful if it is just present in supermarkets. Moreover, Romania is still a country with a large part of its population living in rural areas," explains Gatej.
According to the latest data available, Unilever is the second biggest investor on the domestic advertising market, after Procter & Gamble.
Unilever is present on the domestic laundry detergent market with the Dero, Omo and Bona brands, and accounts for 30.4% of this market, according to the data released for the first half by the Nielsen market research company, as quoted by Unilever. Against the second half of 2006, the company's share of the detergent market registered a slight increase of 1%. Detergents account for a significant amount of Unilever's domestic sales. Apart from detergents, house-cleaning products were one of the most dynamic categories in the company's portfolio this summer. Unilever currently accounts for around 20% of the domestic house cleaning products market in terms of value, according to Nielsen data, as quoted by the company. Gatej explains that one of the specific features of the Romanian market is the tendency for consumers to always try new products out of curiosity.
The company will continue to focus on its established product categories, and does not plan on entering any other market segments in the short term. "There are still a lot of growth opportunities on the segments we are already present on,"
