Golin finds out what really matters to Romanians, as shown by a Bold & iSense Solutions survey 

Cristina Blanaru Consumption Habits, Marketing, Studies

Golin Romania has analyzed how brands are perceived by Romanian consumers and what types of information are relevant to them, in a survey conducted at national level alongside the research company iSense Solutions. The results of this research are building a scene where consumers, mostly interested in useful and practical messages and domains such as healthcare and economics, get informed especially from TV and social networks. In such a context, brands, whom Romanians expect to be especially trustworthy and transparent, are appreciated rather for their popularity or prestige.

If people don’t pay attention to your brand, then they are ignoring it and nothing else can fix this. But to make someone willing to listen and act, you firstly need to be relevant to them. Relevance is the most important method of actively listening to the voice of consumers. Thus, BrandRelevance, the strategic tools set created by Golin, serves as the foundation as we build communication strategies, corporate and consumer campaigns, key messages, influencers projects etc.

Irina Roncea,

Deputy Managing Director Golin

According to the survey “Brand relevance. What really matters to consumers”, messages – in order to draw attention – should firstly be useful/practical (69%), informative (56%) or funny/entertaining (35%). Fewer Romanians are interested in inspirational (19%), surprising (18%), popular/fashionable (10%) or shocking information (7%).

Regarding the information sources preferred by Romanians, the ranking is led by TV and social networks, followed by news websites, company website and word of mouth (family/friends/colleagues).

 The ‘screens take over people’ global trend is also confirmed in Romania, as television and internet are more important than people for consumers when they look for information. However, after TV and social networks, which are clearly dominating Romanians’ preferences, there are certain differences between urban and rural and even between genders. Thus, rural consumers get their info from family, friends and acquaintances rather than from websites. At the same time, women are using word of mouth more often than men, a trend which is similar at global level

Andrei Canda,

Managing Partner, iSense Solutions

In 2017, Romanians paid attention especially to information related to healthcare (66%), economics (64%), various purchased products (59%), family/friends 59%, DIY / videos / cooking etc. (57%). However, at global level, consumers were more interested in info related to politics (59%), entertainment (57%), news about celebrities (55%) or economics (49%).

Moreover, the survey shows that information related to science & technology (51%), healthcare (50%) and finance (45%) will be more relevant to Romanians in 2018, while news about celebrities will lose relevance.

By using a tool created by the Golin network, based on 15 dimensions for building relevance, Golin Romania and iSense Solutions analyzed 3 consumption categories which are daily influencing Romanians’ lives: energy, technology and coffee & chocolate.

In the energy category, Romanians believe that the ideal brand should be trustworthy, effective and transparent, but the main brands in this industry are perceived rather as popular, effective and essential.

The results are similar for the technology category, where an ideal brand should be trustworthy, effective, contemporary, innovative and transparent, while the main brands are scoring higher at popularity, prestige and contemporaneity.

The indulgence category is more balanced. According to Romanians, the ideal coffee and chocolate brand should firstly be popular, authentic and welcoming, and the main brands are close to these expectations, being considered popular, authentic and prestigious.

The survey was conducted by iSense Solutions exclusively for Golin and included a qualitative stage (ethnographic interviews), as well as a quantitative stage on a sample of 500 respondents, urban and rural Internet users, aged 18-65 years. The data was collected online through the ResearchRomania.ro panel in August 2017 and are representative at national level. The results of the survey have an error rate of +/- 4,38%, at a confidence level of 95%.