Faculty of Marketing, ASE Bucuresti, 15 Years of Gold

It’s time again to consider honoring the Faculty of Marketing, the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE Bucuresti), which deserves our respect and attention for the 15 Years of Gold during 47 Years since the Introduction of Marketing Education in Romania, for its vision, hard work, and significant contribution brought in these years to recognizing Marketing as a distinct Academic Specialization, in providing a first-class Marketing Educational Environment and direct access for businesses to qualified labour considerable impacting on the Economic and Social Field.

On November 15, 2018, the Faculty of Marketing (ASE Bucuresti) celebrated the 15th Anniversary of its founding, providing a new occasion for reflection on the evolution of Marketing science application in business practice, from customer-centric (2.0) to human-centric marketing (3.0), and from 3.0 to 4.0 (touching the human spirit), considering consumers’ attitudes and behaviors influenced by the fast-developing digital economy, integrating traditional and digital marketing, better executing data-driven personalization and understanding prospects and buyers who are communicate through messaging apps installed in their mobile devices, delivering the best value and experience, making the difference between unsatisfied customers and disaffected customers etc.

Professor Călin Vegheş, Dean of the Faculty of Marketing of ASE Bucharest, thanked for the significant message sent by Professor Nicolae Istudor, Rector of ASE Bucharest, and reviewed, with professionalism and elegance, both essential aspects of the evolution of the Romanian School of Marketing, as well as the current and prospective endeavors and challenges. He then gave the floor to colleagues from the faculty leadership – Vice Deans Mihai Orzan, Ioana Cecilia Popescu and Ionel Dumitru – and to Marketing Department Director, Professor Laurenţiu Anghel, as well as to Professor Răzvan Zaharia, former President of the ASE Senate.

Other distinguished Professors took the floor to give their thoughts on this special celebration, such as: the first Dean of the Faculty of Marketing, ASE Bucharest, and the first Romanian with both a PhD (Indiana University, US, 1975: “Modelling the demand for consumer durables în Romania”) and a MBA (Indiana University, US, 1973: Marketing and Quantitative Analysis) in Marketing in the US  – also specialized in Marketing within the framework of the Central and Eastern European Teachers Program at J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, US, 1993 – Professor Emeritus Iacob Cătoiu (http://www.crd-aida.ro/our-team/iacob-catoiu/); the former Marketing Department Director, Professor Virgil Balaure; the former Dean Professor Valerică Olteanu – of course in the presence of both other distinguished Professors of the Faculty of Marketing (such as Nicolae Al. Pop, Gheorghe Orzan, Nicolae Teodorescu, Ştefan Boboc, Carmen Bălan, Felicia Stăncioiu, Iuliana Cetină, Mihai Diaconescu) or other faculties within the ASE Bucharest, as well as of the many guests from other valuable Universities in Bucharest and across the country.

It is worth recalling that the reputed Professor Iacob Cătoiu, a true symbol of the Romanian Marketing fascinating world, is an Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee, being the distinguished representative of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies (ASE Bucharest) who was personally involved in the formation, in 1996, of the Romanian Distribution Committee. As a Member of the Board, Professor Iacob Cătoiu was directly involved (together with other distinguished Board members, such as Professors Valeriu Ioan-Franc and Virgil Popa, Dr. Aurel Vainer, Vice-President of CCIRMB, and Professor Gheorghe Zaman, Director of the Institute for National Economy) not only during the initial working visit of the Professor Léon F. Wegnez, Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, A.I.D.A. Brussels (also Administrator Secretary General of the Diplomatic Club of Belgium, and Co-Founder of the Diplomatique Gazette Brussels, General Manager of the Royal Belgian Committee for Distribution, and Member of France’s Academy of Commercial Sciences), but also in the preparation of the 24th International Congress of A.I.D.A. Brussels, organized in Bucharest, at Athénée Palace Hilton, on 18-19 May 1998 (Diplomate Conference Room; Regina Maria Room – Romanian Products Exposition; Dinner Reception at The Palace of the Romanian National Military Circle, May 17, 1998; Folklore evening with the Artistic Ensemble of the Romanian Army at The Palace of the Romanian Parliament, May 18, 1998).  

It is also well-known that next year, in 1999, reference was made to the Romanian Distribution Committee in the study “Marketing issues in transitional economies”, Springer, 1st edition, August 31, 1999, Rajeev Batra, William Davidson Institute (at the University of Michigan, USA), Business & Economics, page 167, for acknowledging the specific Romanian undertakings of adapting to European and world economic structures.

On the other hand, it is also worth remembering:

• what it was underlined in 1996 by the “Position Paper, Chapter16: SME” (http://www.mie.ro / Negocieri/Romana /Documente_ pozitieRom/CAP16-DP) at Point 3 – “Capacity to implement the acquis communautaire… • In the field of commerce and distribution, in 1996, the Romanian Distribution Committee was established as a legal association, affiliated to the International Association for the Distributive Trade”;
• the Thanks (Letter) received in March 1997, by the President of the Romanian Distribution Committee from Riccardo Garosci, the European Rapporteur for the “Green Book on Commerce” prepared by the European Commission, for the “contribution to the professional development of European Commerce”; next year, in May 1998, Riccardo Garosci, Vice President of Economic and Monetary Commission of the European Parliament, European Rapporteur for „Green Book for European Commerce”, and President of the “Commerce and Distribution” Intergroup of the European Parliament opened the works of the 24th International Congress of A.I.D.A. Brussels, organized in Bucharest, at Athénée Palace Hilton;
• the “Latest E2E News and Updates” officially posted in 2016 on the webpage of the reputed Consumer Goods Forum, CGF Paris (http://www.crd-aida.ro/2016/12/latest-e2e-news-updates-from-the-consumer-goods-forum-paris/), where reference was made to an historical link (AIDA, CIES, CGF).