The investment promotion agency of Bulgaria, InvestBulgaria, hired Bloom Consulting to develop its branding strategy during a critical moment in its history:Bulgaria’s integration into the European Union. Due to the work of former Prime Minister and King H.M. Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Bulgaria had made remarkable socioeconomic progress. Nevertheless, the government was aware of the fact that that Bulgaria could not rely on its achievements to date, as its lack of a favorable brand perception was limiting further growth and strategic venture capital investment in the Country.
Therefore, Bloom Consulting, in collaboration with the Bulgarian Government, created a short- to medium-term strategy projection for developing Bulgaria’s investment brand, with the objective of defining the Country as a stable center for venture capital investments, with the potential to attract €50 million per year in Venture Capital by 2015.
The results of our strategy were spectacular:our ten-year projection was achieved in only three years. The stagnating investment growth in 2005 (the year we initiated the project) was entirely reversed, with venture capital investments vastly increasing by €560 million in the first year. This result was ten times greater than what we had originally projected, and successfully moved Bulgaria from the thirteenth to the first position of the 2010 CEE ranking.
