30 SLOVENIA – SERBIA RELATIONS
Brands
A Tasty Relationship Economy in a popular sense lives through brands. In these terms both Slovenes and Serbs know and praise each other through a series of products, most of which end up the stomach. By Jaka Terpinc
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moki is definitely the king of salted snacks in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The soft crispy bean-like snacks with peanuts have been around for decades and have long been the region’s essential party-time snack. Even when the country broke up and many international competitors rushed in, no similar product came close to rivalling Smoki’s popularity. Even today, the crisps remains tasty, addictive and omni-present, and it’s safe to say the product needs no additional advertising in order to keep ruling all over its shattered homeland. Smoki is produced by Serbian firm Soko Štark, which was purchased by Slovenian Droga Kolinska, which itself was recently taken over by the Croatian Atlantic Grupa. Despite several changes in ownership, Smoki remains a recognisable Serbian product just
as another brand from the same owner, Cockta, remains a legendary Slovenian beverage.
Trust and fame
This example highlights that the tragedy of Yugoslavia could not destroy the trust and fame of brands that were mostly invented by socialist economy. Moreover, people still identify them by origin (Serb, Croatian, Slovene) and yet at the same time as their own. Focusing on consumer products, we could say that exchange of brands between and Slovenia and Serbia applies mostly to the earthly pleasures called eating and drinking. Serbia’s Smoki, Crvenka’s Jaffa Cakes, Beers, Plazma keks (tea biscuits) all fare very well in Slovenian stores. Serbs on the other hand recognise Slovenia’s Mercator (retail), Fructal (juices), Radenska (miner-
Cockta Cockta was developed by Slovenijavino in 1952 and could be regarded as the first “modern brand” in the Socialist Yugoslavia. It had everything: a visual identity with the “designer” bottle, smart promotion, and most importantly, a unique taste based on thorough experimenting with herbal extracts. 71m bottles were sold in its first decade in the markets of former Yugoslavia, what resulted in additional filling plant in Belgrade. Its sales kept rising up until 1967, when western competition. A strong promotion campaign for the redesigned bottle in 1975 led it to a new high in 1983 with 37m litres (over a litre and a half per capita throughout the former Yugoslavia). The breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s meant the end of Cockta in Serbia. It returned in 2001 when a humble 1.2m litres were sold. Ten years later, Cockta is definitely back – in 2010 sales had risen to 18m litres. The Slovenia Times
al water) and Kranjska sausages. According to Serbian advertising expert Mihailo Tešić, the licensed mayonnaise Thomy is often mistaken as a Slovenian brand since it was formerly manufactured in the small Balkan country but is actually a Swiss product owned by Nestle. Apart from the foodstuffs, older people associate Slovenian devotion to skiing with related products and therefore also recall Alpina (ski boots) and Elan (skis) as well as furniture made by Lesnina. These used to be notable brands, today either discontinued or lost in international competition. When it comes to trust, Tešić mentioned Fructal juices as a real mark of quality. The same goes for Laško beer, but it may not be particularly popular. “The stereotype of Slovenes is that they make good products, the prices are OK – a bit more expensive than ours. Essentially they make the same stuff as Serbs only better. With a better technology, more investment, better packaging – that’s it!”
The taste of the former homeland
Even today brands mostly prosper based on fame gained in the times of the former Yugoslavia. Little has changed afterwards. For Slovenia, a discovery could be Serbia’s Voda water, perhaps due to its simplistic name and breakthrough innovative square packaging. Some others have been rediscovered because of increased
availability on the market, such as Serbia’s Knjaz Miloš mineral water in Slovenia or Laško beer in Serbia. Although retailers don’t want to reveal any information on the sales of particular brands, a glance at the supermarket shelves speaks for itself. The already mentioned Slovenian retail chain Mercator, which has spread all over the exYugoslavia believes in established brands of local producers: the ones that people want and trust. At the same time they make opportunities for their suppliers to expand their marketing range, while the rest – branding, quality and pricing policies – are still up to them.
Smoki The first of its kind party snack in south-eastern Europe was created in 1972 by Belgrade based cake, chocolate and candy factory Soko-Nada Štark. As such it was a huge success and quickly conquered the Yugoslav market. Its distribution to Slovenia was discontinued in 1991 but it has since slowly re-entered the market. According to Droga Kolinska, the past four years have seen an intensive rise of its sale in Slovenia, around 20 percent annually. The launch of Smoki Party Pack (a big package) made it the best selling product in its category in Slovenia, taking a 45.5 percent share.