Branding on the Eastern Front

Written by our Managing Partner, Aneta Bogdan, the book presents the relevant case-studies in marketing and branding and offers an inside look into the Romanian corporate and entrepreneurial milieus.”Our life would be more lucrative and also more fulfilled and aspirational if we understood that, as the Western brands arrived here before the arrival of the Occident itself, as well the Romanian brands would herald to the West our coming of age.”—Aneta Bogdan, Managing Partner Brandient”What is fascinating about the work that my very good friend Aneta Bogdan has been doing for the last dozen years or so is that it seeks not only to create brands in a country in which they had no existence at all for fifty or more years, but that she has done it with such verve, intelligence and creativity. Aneta’s book helps Romanians to contribute to the vitality of Europe.”—Wally Olins Aneta Bogdan is the Managing Partner of Brandient, the award-winning brand strategy and design company with offices in Bucharest and Singapore. She co-founded Brandient in 2002, following an accomplished career of over 10 years in marketing, most notably as Marketing and Communication Director for Connex, where she contributed to building one of the most admired and valuable brands in Eastern Europe (subsequently acquired by Vodafone in a multi-billion dollar transaction).

With hundreds of innovative brand projects under her lead over the past 25 years, Aneta advocates branding and design as business and reputation tools, creating and revitalizing entrepreneurial, corporate and institutional brands in emerging environments.

Aneta graduated Economics at ASE Bucharest, and holds a post-graduate MBA from the Open University Business School. In recognition of her contribution to the marketing profession, she is Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) and a Chartered Marketer.***Her first book, Branding on the Eastern Front is a keen practitioner’s candid account of the assimilation and development of brands and branding in post-communist Eastern Europe. The Brand Consultant is a new occupation in this emerging world, and Aneta Bogdan has been a pioneer in times when the existing Western principles of branding were being tried and tested on new grounds. The book is a premier Eastern view on the debate around the transformative power of branding, including relevant case studies, and an insight into the emergent corporate and entrepreneurial milieus. The author is never average: cynical and idealistic, authoritarian and inspiring altogether — a fresh, unconventional storyteller with a passionate and speculative discourse.

Ultimately, Branding on the Eastern Front is a testimony of how Western-born approaches must adapt to developing economies, as well as a crash course in branding for anyone with the slightest interest in the Eastern, emerging parts of the world — be they entrepreneurs, marketers, or contemporary consumers of any kind. The Foreword to the book is signed by the late great branding master Wally Olins, who wrote: “What is fascinating about the work that my very good friend Aneta Bogdan has been doing for the last dozen years or so is that it seeks not only to...