Croatian Space Race

I find the ‘war’ between the marketing departments of Konzum and Mercator quite charming. They remind me of the space race between the USA and the USSR in the 1960s. The Americans invent something and overtake the Russians. Then the Russians use that to their advantage and invent something that puts them a step ahead of the Americans. Then the Americans use that and overtake the Russians. The Americans reach the Moon, but then realize that it didn’t pay off too well for them.

Konzum and Mercator are competing to see which of them will be the first to enable customers to make their income last until the end of the month. Konzum’s marketing wizards were the first to come up with the idea of granting a 10 percent discount to pensioners on a specific day of the week at a specific time. It didn’t take long for Mercator’s marketing magicians to see that this was a great idea, and they implemented it as well. Besides the fact that Konzum’s initial competitive advantage was lost, Mercator managed to come up with a new advantage for themselves in the meantime: groceries for a family lunch for only 50 kuna. In no time, the idea was eagerly accepted at Konzum, and now Konzum is enticing customers with groceries for a family lunch for only 30 kuna.

Most other retail chains are out of this race. Either they cannot afford such promotions or they cannot even dream of such high investments in advertising. Most often, they can do neither. All they can do is watch as their customers flow towards Konzum and Mercator. Just as during the Cold War on a global scale, now in the time of recession in Croatia, the retail market is dominated by two great powers. The ‘non-aligned’ can be identified in the discounters, but their strength is limited to times of crisis. When it passes, the market will discard them, and only two great powers will dominate it. Exhausted from their mutual race, but stronger than ever compared to all others.