Nicolae Al. Pop

Development of an Organic Food Mentality in Romania

In recent years, consumers, producers as well as retailers have exhibited a growing tendency toward healthy, highly nutritious, functional, and, obviously, organic foods. Given that many European states have provided government grants for organic foods, these have become more easily accessible to consumers, both financially and in terms of the place where they can be procured. A field research conducted through the observational method reveals that an increasing number of Romanian retailers have included organic food in their assortment, both under the producer and their own brand. The research as a whole identified 15 different ranges of organic food distributed to hyper- and supermarkets as well as to specialty and convenience stores. The retail chains carry a wide range of organic articles and the customers are sometimes willing to pay an extra price of 50 up to 100 % higher than that of the conventional products. Supplemented by a semi-structured interview applied to various experts of Romanian environmental movements (academicians, representatives of producers, processors, specialty associations, control and certification bodies, and authorities empowered to enforce and verify compliance with quality standards, customers), the observation attempted to determine the degree to which organic products are known and the implications of their being consumed by the customers. Although some respondents are not fully aware of how relevant it is to consume mainly organic products, the conducted interviews revealed the respondent’s increased interest in the issues related to promoting health and a lifestyle in accordance with the principles of a balanced diet. It is advisable that the conclusions of the present study should be turned to good account by means of an active marketing policy so that an “organic diet mentality” may be developed among the Romanian customers.

Current Trends on the Private Medical Market in Romania

This chapter focuses on the confrontation between the public and private sectors of Romanian healthcare services of the last decade. Its objectives concern a “diagnostic analysis” of the capacity, structure, and trends of this market. Based on the bivalent feature of the public–private sector, this study will follow the distribution of customers between the two sectors and motivational factors of this approach. The structure of the Romanian medical system became focused on the Bismarck-type medical services, taken from the functional systems of countries like Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, France, and other Nordic countries. This approach, however, has shown itself ineffective due to the corrupt system in Romania that generated big losses. The unbalanced ratio between the employed population and the inactive population contributes to the main premise of underfunding the public sector. Apparently, this element would greatly favor the private system for the solvent. The major difficulties in the legislative system, the disloyal elements of interference in this competition, and the public disorientation and misinformation when opting for the private health system are all subject to an in-depth analysis of this research based mainly on secondary data. This chapter aims to open the premises of a multitude of studies together with field and desk research in order to reposition the private healthcare in the place it should hold within the Romanian healthcare economy, considering the fact that Romania is a European Community country.

Ethical Dilemmas of Future Technologies

The rapid advancement of technology raises ethical issues that need to be addressed in the near future. According to Kurzweil law, technology progresses at an exponential rate. Ethics, on the other hand, advances much slower and doesn’t keep pace with the number and complexity of issues brought by technology. Considering that technology’s speed of evolution won’t slow down because ethics can’t keep pace with it, we argue that all those ethical issues that are already present in the public space should be discussed and sorted out as soon. Otherwise, they will become deeper and generate even more problems. The chapter discusses at length about the cognitive and body enhancements, achieved through either medical or bionic implants, and the changes that these enhancements induce in our behavior. Computers and the internet are some of the greatest enhancers ever and they managed to change the attitude of the millennials and Generation Z towards ownership and work. Our goal was to raise questions regarding the challenge of ethical and moral principles and values by the rapid development of technology. We then argued that the future of research lies in the realm of technology and that neuromarketing, unlike traditional research, has predictive power thanks to the brain scans. It was not our intention to solve or find answers to any of those issues that we raised. For some of them, it might be too soon to draw a conclusion. And for the others, there are competent bodies that can enforce suitable measures.

Ethical Considerations regarding Stakeholders in Neuromarketing Research. Empirical Insights from NMSBA Corporate Members, TAAN Advertising Agencies and Romanian Companies

The main challenges arising from the business environment nowadays are related to customers’ polyvalent behavior, to their continuously changing wishes and diversifying needs, and to the increasing number of stimuli to which they are exposed and which are meant to capture their attention. The truth is that it has become increasingly difficult to approach targeted consumers by means of specific advertising messages and by emphasizing a company’s performance. Given the current context, we discussed two issues: first, the usage of neuromarketing techniques in order to better understand and influence consumers, second, the question of whether this approach is ethical or not. In order to identify ways in which various stakeholders, activating in the field of neuromarketing research, apply a code of ethics while developing research, the authors implemented three qualitative studies, using the interview as a primary data collection technique. Thus we tested the degree of interest and involvement of the NMSBA member companies regarding this issue and the ethical challenges posed by their work (study 1), the extent to which international advertising agencies design, develop, and/or implement ethical advertising campaigns using neuromarketing techniques (study 2), and thirdly, the perspective of the Romanian beneficiary companies on the impact of ethical principles applied in neuromarketing research (study 3). The highlighted results present a number of remarkable scientific conclusions, but mostly enlightening from a practical and applicative standpoint. Furthermore, these three studies reflect a unique set of findings due to the added comparative dimension which includes an international perspective, as well as a national, Romanian one.

The Development of Medical Business Through Relational Marketing

The Romanian private medical system has had a significant increase during the last 10 years, and in this context, consumers have more treatment options, a fact which in turn generated a fierce competition in this sector. In this context, private medical companies are increasingly preoccupied with gaining as many patients as possible in order to increase their profits.

Quo Vadis Romanian Marketing: The Future and Contribution of the Romanian Community

Marketing research in Romania faces a crucial question: where to turn its investigations and in what proportion it should turn to fundamental studies, in the field of meta-theory, respectively, to stimulate the applied researches, directly required by the business environment. The response to this dilemma requires a change of mentality among the decision-makers in the economy, in general, and among marketers, in particular. Civil society, through its requirements, including the field of marketing communication, can also play a significant role in solving this problem. After a brief overview of the beginnings of Romanian marketing, which it compares with its current status of development, the study marks the main orientation directions in the fundamental research, and in the applied marketing research. The study also presents, in the framework of fundamental research, the holistic approach of processes and market actors as well as the study of the surprise mechanisms and consumer behavior anticipation. The main directions in the applicative research focus on the essential characteristics of the contemporary marketer and its partnership orientation, to promote a vision, where the marketing is to be viewed as an investment rather than a cost, to explore ways to achieve excellence in the field.