As I visited some business partners in Poland, my girlfriend asked me to bring her back some tea from the Polish chain store “Krakowski Kredens” . They have several shops selling delicacies prepared in the traditional Polish way,or rather as they say the traditional “Galician” (south-east of Poland) way.
After its initial creation in 1906, the brand was recreated in 2007 and was up to my knowledge not existent during communism. Its success in just a couple of years rests on a clear view of what customers want. Something that lacks in a lot of mindsets of some local Central European entrepreneurs more focused on a “fast money” rather than on “durable profit”.
The products are high quality. But high quality is’nt enough when not marketed properly. That’s what I admire the most from these guys: their capability of attracting first hand customers with their carefully designed shops and boxes, and keeping them with the quality of their products, the increased range of distributed products, and their private shops conveniently located in shopping malls as well as busy and prestigious streets in Poland’s main cities.
And the final touch of this resides of course with the people who do more than just smile, but are actively capable of recommending products to you, and showing you suggestions. No doubt there is high quality sales management behind all this not only at the corporate level, but at the shop level as well.
nm@E75 