Dana-Nicoleta et al. (1997) formulated a grid with four clusters of Eastern European countries, based on the dimensions of “Marketization” and “Westernization”. This is a useful construct to simultaneously highlight both similarities and differences across these countries, so as to tailor marketing approaches. Referenced in this 4-cluster model is the macroeconomic perspective of a “three speed Eastern Europe” (Lynn, 1993). A later section of this paper draws on these ideas to select three countries for discussion.

Marketline (2014) estimated the European advertising industry to be worth about $25 billion in 2013, and expects it to grow to $31 billion by 2018, at a CAGR of 4.2%. Almost half of the 2013 market was in the Western European countries of the U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Italy. This indicates that there is room for growth in Eastern Europe as those economies transform and new consumers enter various markets. It may also mean that traditional media usage is not very entrenched in Eastern Europe, thereby opening the door for new age digital media to thrive.

Alexa, Alexa, and Stoica (2012) write about the opportunity for expanded social media usage in the general Romanian population of Internet users. About 50% of these users have Facebook accounts, of which 80% are between 13 and 34 years of age. If these numbers are reflective of other Eastern European emerging markets, there are potentially vast markets of young consumers reachable via digital marketing.

Bester and Jere (2012) investigated whether consumers’ involvement with a cause, and the way in which the message is framed, influence purchase intention. They found that the former significantly influenced purchase intention, while the latter did not. In a similar vein of the benefits of cause-related marketing to society, Kuznetsova (2010) discusses the potential for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to contribute to socio-economic development in Russia's emerging market economy. She mentions the low social trust in post-communist countries, wherein the public does not believe private businesses care about social needs. In such conditions, CSR may actually be a vehicle businesses can use to increase both public and state trust. She provides useful quantitative data on the attitudes and perceptions of Russian managers toward CSR and the public image of firms. Marketing efforts of companies interested in these post-communist markets should consider such data.

A paper by Yoo, Donthu, and Lenartowicz (2011) proposes a 26-item “CVSCALE”, which assesses individual cultural values based on Hofstede's five-dimensional national measure. Such a measurement may be very useful for foreign companies seeking to enter new markets, or even for local companies in times of significant cultural change. Data from such measurements may be useful in choosing technologies, and in crafting methodologies for local use of the chosen technologies.

McKenzie (2010) studied the retail sector in the transition economies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who joined the European Union in 2004. An interesting point is made that one reason for high retail growth in these three Baltic States is the desire of their people to demonstrate social change, i.e., a break away from Soviet to Western concepts. Results of a 5-year retail survey empirical study (2003-2008) of Baltic shoppers’ perceptions of shopping behavior are discussed. Key findings are that (a) Baltic consumers’ brand attitude formation is not strongly oriented, (b) store loyalty is not strong, and (c) retailers must not consider these countries as one market. Vincent (2006) also stresses that technologies and marketing programs applied in one European country may not produce the same results in others, due to differences in cultures, market maturity and the stage of the “online evolution”.

McKinsey Global iConsumer Research (2012) provides the following insights into how digitally connected US consumers under 35 years of age are changing marketing requirements. Given the effects of globalization and the Internet on youth around the world, we can reasonably assume similar behaviors of such consumers in many countries (McKinsey & Company, 2013). Compared to older consumers, these young consumers are much more likely to do the following:

• 1.

  Own smart phones, tablets, internet enabled gaming consoles and internet video boxes.

• 2.

  Adopt VOIP, video chat, social media, mobile apps, on-demand video, and Over the Top (OTT) video (internet video on TV).

• 3.

  Pay for premium digital content and purchase apps.

• 4.

  Spend over three times the number of minutes on their mobile devices, especially for browsing the web, using social networks, VOIP, or video chat.

• 5.

  Displace e-mail with social networks, particularly Facebook.

• 6.

  Show stronger affiliation to certain brands.

Peng (2006) describes the blurring of legal and illegal boundaries in the post-Soviet transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Many of these countries still rank poorly on corruption indices, such as those published by Transparency International (2013). Such corruption is also described by Vachudova (2009). Companies pursuing Eastern European markets should not underestimate the challenges posed by corruption to their ability to conduct business legally and ethically. To overcome this barrier, they should institutionalize anti-corruption focus, processes and structures, as an integral part of their market strategies in these countries.

Groom (2014) describes the state of flux of European Union regulations that are being designed to increase consumer data privacy protection. While it is not clear when new laws will be adopted, or what specific impacts they will have on marketers, it is very likely that companies will have to invest in processes, systems and personnel to comply with more complex regulations. This serves as a caution for any European market penetration strategy that relies heavily on cutting edge technology.

Vissa and Chacar (2006) note that the impact of social networks on venture outcomes is particularly relevant in emerging markets, to mitigate the lack of strong institutions. Gelbuda, Meyer, and Delios (2008) have compiled a collection of five papers on the influence of institutions on businesses in Central and Eastern Europe. They offer economic and sociological perspectives on this topic.

Writing about multi-cultural marketplaces, Demangeot et al. (2013) mention the vulnerability of certain groups of consumers who are at risk for harm or unfair treatment. They also describe a framework to develop intercultural competency. As companies target such emerging markets, they would be prudent to follow the advice of Gupta and Pirsch (2014), who write about the ethics of targeting poor consumers at the “bottom of the pyramid” (BOP). Their research indicates that non-BOP consumers will punish companies perceived to engage in unethical exploitation of BOP segments. A lack of ethical practices faces dire consequences in a world of powerful, digital consumer networks.

Digital marketing has lowered the costs of reaching wider audiences, as compared to the traditional media. This makes it tempting to adopt a global standard for branding and customer engagement. Perhaps this is one reason why literature appears to be more widespread on regional or global case studies, while being scarce on deliberate local adaptations. In a sense, some digital marketers may be using a “spray and pray” approach, regardless of a lack of fit with an overall marketing strategy or competitive strategy.

Meadows-Klue (2006) says search engines “connect buyers and sellers together at the very moment of greatest interest”. He reported how the success of search engines transformed direct marketing and customer acquisition in Western Europe and had started to reach a tipping point in Central and Eastern Europe, with Internet ad spending growth rates between 25% and 50% from 2005 to 2006.

Schroder and Spillecke (2013) write about McKinsey's Digital Marketing Factory in Munich, which trains sales and marketing personnel on topics such as search engine marketing, while measuring clicks per day, cost per click, conversion rates and cost per order.

Giudice, Peruta and Carayannis (2013) write extensively about social media in emerging economies. They cover practices and tools for emerging markets, social networking versus social media sites, statistics, Web 2.0, peer opinion, buzz marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth (WOM), amplification of WOM, transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (TECEE), emerging economies, network society, CSR and social media.

David Meerman Scott (2011) has published a popular book on how to use new marketing technologies. He covers social media, online video, mobile apps, blogs, news releases and viral marketing.

Bernoff and Schadler (2010) articulate why every business needs “HEROes” (Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives) to succeed in a world where both consumers and employees have increasingly useful information and technologies available to them. Using stories from real companies, they show how to recognize the impact of mobile devices, pervasive video, cloud computing and social technology, to achieve a competitive advantage, by allowing employees to serve customers better. Specifically for marketing, they explain how to listen to customers, respond to them, enable them to become fans, amplify their voices by connecting them to each other, and seek their ideas to revise marketing and products.

Tonkin, Whitmore and Cutroni (2010) advocate a philosophy of “performance marketing” that calls upon marketers to continuously experiment and improve their approach, by listening to customer clicks, page views and points of interaction. They advise marketers about five realities of the Web: (a) users lead businesses, (b) search algorithms determine which websites, brands and stories are more visible, (c) customers have enormous power via comparison shopping, (d) web users trust each other more than they trust marketers, and (e) low entry barriers online make competition much more intense even for physical stores.

Harrysson, Metayer and Sarrazin (2014) outline some of these new data related opportunities that stem from consumers’ use of social media. They say “a mosaic formed from shards of information found only on social media” may help in the creation of a new product or service. They suggest several principles in order to capitalize on these opportunities: (a) engaging senior executives in social media analyses, (b) creating dispersed networks of people with a deep understanding of the business, (c) equipping employees to browse blogs, create followers and match their interests to in-store retail offerings, (d) using insights cross-functionally across marketing, sales, product development and customer support, and (e) placing the authority to act on data signals as close to the front lines as possible.

Soares, Pinho and Nobre (2012) surveyed university students to understand how social interactions may predict marketing interactions. They report that social relationships are a positive predictor of information disclosure and word of mouth, while they are a negative predictor of attitude toward advertising. They also report that trust is not a predictor of attitude toward advertising. They propose that this may be because social network users’ trust of advertising may involve a complex model of trust; one that separates trust toward their interactions with friends in the social network from their trust of the content on the social network. Marketers must understand these factors to effectively reach social media users.

Kelly (2012) provides a guide to the measurement of social media ROI for different strategies, such as brand awareness and reputation management, lead generation, increasing revenue, customer service and referrals. She explains how to align the use of social media to business objectives and the sales funnel. She reviews available tools to collect social media metrics.

Sponder (2012) provides a broad overview of social media analytics, including topics such as determining the worth of “friends, fans and followers”, measuring influence, combining (“mash up”) data from multiple sources, tools and technologies.

Bhandari, Gordon and Umblijs (2012) suggest an enhanced Marketing Mix Model (MMM) for measuring the impact of social media, by plugging in Gross Ratings Points (GRPs), similar to how TV advertising's effectiveness is measured.

Hieronimus and Kullmann (2013) describe the Online Marketing Excellence (OMEX) dashboard, developed by a McKinsey-Google partnership, in response to the lack of a standardized approach to measuring online marketing performance (Codita, 2011). It uses nearly thirty digital marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Becker (2014) quotes the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, as saying that society now generates as much data every two days as it did from the dawn of civilization until 2003. While there are many such estimates that vary widely among various business pundits and professional market analysts, there is no denying that an unprecedented amount of data is being generated, that the rate of data generation will continue to increase, and that this creates unprecedented opportunities to benefit society, while simultaneously opening new doors for illegal and unethical exploitation of individuals.

A marketing professional or organization that sets out to engage customers with new technologies, and glean insights through new data collection and analytical methods, must first be clear on what metrics would be valuable. A comprehensive guide to Marketing metrics is provided by Farris et al. (2010). They point out the increasing expectations to align Marketing metrics with a company's core financial metrics, and they explain how to gain insights from a wide variety of data. While they cover traditional metrics, such as market share, sales force performance, rebates, reach and revenues, they also discuss digital age metrics, such as specialized metrics for web campaigns, opportunities and leading indicators of financial performance.

Ramos and Cota (2009) describe the practice of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). They stress the importance of aligning online and offline (traditional media) marketing, using effective key performance indicators (KPIs), designing effective analytics, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) marketing campaigns.

Surma (2011) describes the evolution of Business Intelligence (BI) technologies and techniques. One advanced application is data mining for customer intelligence (CI), in the realm of modern marketing. He lists four areas where compelling advances are being made: (a) the convergence of media (radio, television, the press, the Internet) and personalization on portable devices, (b) analyses of user behavior on the Internet, (c) correlation of consumers’ behavior and their physical locations, (d) development of systems that can converse in natural language with consumers. All of these areas affect marketing practices and provide companies opportunities for competitive differentiation.

Blazevic et al. (2013) have developed a scale for measuring general online social interaction propensity (“GOSIP”). The argue that interactivity on online channels is a consumer characteristic, and propose the use of the 8-item GOSIP scale as a trait based individual difference, one that firms can use to connect to their customers.

Davenport, Harris and Morison (2010) use the acronym DELTA (Data-Enterprise-Leadership-Targets-Analysts) to describe the five elements required for successful use of analytics in decision making. They outline a 5-stage model of organizational progress on analytics - impaired, localized, aspiring, analytical and competitive. They also articulate how to embed analytics in business processes and build an analytical culture.

Davenport (2013) has compiled research from many faculty members of the International Institute for Analytics, to explain how enterprises can use analytics to optimize processes, decisions and performance. A model to measure online engagement is proposed as a function of eight indices (click-depth, recency, duration, brand, feedback, interaction, loyalty and subscription). Also described is an analytical path to creating “Next Best Offers” (NBOs) for customers, designed to increase the likelihood of purchase.

Davenport (2014) describes how Big Data (a term that has varied definitions, but is primarily used to describe large volumes of unstructured data) is being used for many new applications that drive efficiencies and/or provide competitive differentiation.

Eddy (2013) reports the results of a 2013 survey of 1000 smartphone users in the U.S. Significant numbers of respondents over the age of forty, and even higher numbers of those under forty, reported how much they use their mobile apps in everyday activities, such as waking up, managing money, doing their jobs, shopping and connecting with friends. Six percent of respondents actually said they could not be happy without their mobile apps! Such demand presents a staggeringly lucrative channel for marketers who have the right mindsets and skills to exploit it.

Bhave, Jain and Roy (2013) conducted a qualitative study of Gen Y smartphone users in India, to understand their attitudes toward branded mobile apps and in-app advertising. They also cite other researchers’ findings on cross-cultural Gen Y attitudes, SMS marketing, QR codes and Bluetooth advertising. The findings from their focus groups and interviews show the extent, contexts and purposes of Gen Y smartphone usage, gender based differences in app usage, correlation between level of app engagement and response to in-app advertising, perceptions of specific attributes of in-app advertisements (location, format, relevance, credibility, etc.), correlation between brand recognition and willingness to share information, and how recommendations from friends drive app downloads.

The outcomes of a focus group study of Gen Y mobile app users in the U.S. are reported by Keith (2011). She uses the study results to classify users into four types; Planner, Collaborator, Freeloader and Gossiper. She stresses that marketers should understand behavioral differences across these types of users, even as they address common needs, such as access to credible content generated by other users.

Save (2014) provides insights into effective mobile device based marketing, based on usage characteristics in emerging markets like India. Many young people in India have only ever connected to the Internet via a mobile device. Many developing countries, which had only small numbers of traditional land based phone lines, have established cellular networks much more rapidly and mobile phone usage has had explosive growth, catering to pent up demand. Local versions of smart phones, tablets and phablets are cheaper and readily available to a growing middle class. As Save puts it, “mobile-first is the new digital native”. These users do not use google.com (or a similar search engine web page) to start their content search. They start with mobile applications which are geared toward specific tasks, such as finding a restaurant. He advocates a 7-step process to design and execute a mobile marketing project in these market conditions.

Willmott (2014) makes specific recommendations for marketers to address the growing trend of consumers browsing retail stores, to touch, feel and try products, only to make purchases online, particularly via smartphones. Forward thinking retailers can take advantage of this behavior by delivering context sensitive messaging to the mobile device, conducting micro-locational targeting within specific store aisles, analyzing customer movements and “dwell times” within the store, offering differentiated service or pricing or rewards, and increasing wallet share.

Hopkins and Turner (2012) provide a comprehensive view of mobile marketing, covering location based marketing, mobile applications, mobile optimized ad campaigns, 2D codes and other strategies. They provide many do's and don’ts for mobile marketing, including both strategic (marketing foundation, 4Ps, 5Cs) and tactical advice (specific devices, popular apps, setting up websites, SMS and MMS). A novel framework for designing campaigns is described, based on whether they should be location centric or not, and whether they are brand-oriented (long term) or promotion-oriented (short term). A list of 17 objectives, called the “17 Rs of mobile marketing” is provided to aid campaign design, as is advice on how to measure the ROI of mobile campaigns. These are useful for companies venturing into Eastern European markets with mobile marketing as one of the vehicles.

Researchers’ interest in mobile marketing has grown over the last decade. Published accounts of practitioners’ experiences with mobile applications are also easy to find. Gupta (2013) says apps will trump immature and ineffective traditional ads (tiny banners) on mobile devices, because consumers will find them less intrusive. A great example of a functional, convenient app comes from South Korea. Subway commuters can order home delivery of grocery items by scanning QR codes on a life size picture of a grocery store shelf, i.e., a virtual store. Winkler (2014) provides an example of mobile applications integrating with search engine marketing. There are many other examples of the power of combining digital marketing technologies. Content management and campaign management systems send rich images to native mobile ads (Marshall, 2014a), while mobile ads are seamlessly embedded within social media (Albergotti and Marshall, 2014; Koh, 2014; Shields, 2014).

It is clear that mobile devices are becoming the platforms of choice for many digital marketing technologies. With sales of smart phones and tablets overtaking the sale of PCs in recent years (Wall Street Journal, 2013), marketers are embracing the mobile medium.

We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the balance of influence, from the physical to the virtual world of marketing.

Digital Training Academy (2012) reports on the success of a Facebook campaign launched by Lay's potato chips in Slovakia. In a country with a population of just over five million, the campaign racked up over 400 000 visits per week, by cleverly linking potato chips to a widely popular national potato dish, “Halusky”. This was a cost effective and appealing way to significantly raise brand awareness.

Business Park Sofia (see reference section for URL) has many tenants. The park's Hewlett-Packard (HP) page says HP is the largest technology company, operating in more than 170 countries. For over 30 years, HP has been present in the Bulgarian market and for well over ten years the company has been the ultimate leader providing products, services and solutions for its customers. HP works in both public and private sectors of Bulgaria and is helping the country meet the E.U. conditions of membership and move towards the information society. The three core business groups HP works through include Enterprise Business, Personal Systems Group, and Imaging and Printing Group.

For high tech companies like HP, Bulgaria provides a pool of well-trained workers at a great price (EBSCO Industries Inc., 2015). Bulgaria has a good network of technical schools and the country was one of the main suppliers of computer technology to the Soviet bloc. Even more appealing to some, the wages for all workers average only $200 per month.

GoalEurope (see reference section for URL) says HP's business groups provide technological solutions for the country as a whole. In addition, the company is working alongside the Bulgarian government to install a faster and more reliable IT infrastructure, which processes national identity documents. Oracle Corporation's Partner Solutions website (see reference section for URL) says OneHP® is a methodology used solely by HP that connects its combined resources to deliver a unique and individual customer experience solution tailored to individual needs. In this way HP is able to help clients develop, revitalize and manage their applications and information assets. Licenses, support, professional services, and software-as-a-service are some of the offerings included through OneHP®, in order to provide an end-to-end solution to customers.

According to the United Nations agency ITU (see reference section for URL), Vodafone has been successfully operating in Albania with sales totaling $195,500,000 in 2010. In fact, in 2012, Vodafone Albania was ranked the 7th largest company in Albania (Draper and Gale, 2015).

Vodafone's website (see reference section for URL) says Albania is a segment of the Vodafone Group Plc, an international leading mobile communication company with significant presence throughout the United States, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. Vodafone Albania's mobile network covers 86% of the territory of the Republic of Albania and reaches up to 92% of the Albanian population in both urban and rural areas. In 2008 Vodafone partnered with Alcatel-Lucent to introduce new attractive services to its clientele, such as voice and SMS packages. The SurePay® project gave users the ability to integrate prepaid services.

With its ability to introduce prepaid services, Vodafone often runs promotions through this channel. For instance, in January 2010, customers were able to take advantage of a promotion called “Vodafone ClubNon Stop”. For a price of 700 Albanian Leke (1 USD=approximately 102 ALL), a customer could get 1 000minutes of airtime for conversation within their groups and 30minutes for all other networks. With another promotion called “Super Recharge”, Vodafone subscribers could receive ALL 2 000 worth of phone time for a cost of ALL 1 000.

Vodafone also offers flexible business packages, one of which is called ‘Vodafone Paketa Professionale’. Options through this plan include 60 voice minutes per month within group for ALL 350, or unlimited airtime within group for ALL 1 100 per month.

Growing in popularity and increasing its customer base, Vodafone Albania decided to partner with Konsort to assist them with surveillance of its network of sites, localize fault sites, rescue data and repair the possible problems on time. Vodafone needed constant surveillance and an improved data collection system in a user-friendly manner, which Konsort was able to provide with its SiteInfo application. Their application was the best solution to cover Vodafone's needs on Data Collection, Fault Management, Site Management, Network Performance KPIs Reporting and Analysis. According to Konsort (see reference section for URL), the SiteInfo System, which was built from scratch, offered complete geographical coverage and availability while predicting sustainability and continuity. A second version was then released to embrace Vodafone's newest technology, 3G. Since Konsort's successful implementation in 2009, Vodafone is a more structured and organized company receiving ad-hoc information, upgraded fault and site administration functionalities and detailed, improved reports for analysis.