National products in Europe

In Hungary the transformation of new or old brands is usually carried out by large multinational companies as the costs of innovation and advertising are high. Experience is that domestic companies do not have the necessary resources for this. Many are of the opinion that it would be important to introduce the concept of ‘national product’, however hard it might be to come up with a standard definition: shall it be related to base material, to the company seat of the manufacturer or to the brand? AMA Gütesiegel in Austria and Label Rouge in France are state-initiated systems for marking domestic products. For instance products with the Austrian trademark are not only made from Austrian base material, but also meet environmental and quality requirements that are stricter than those imposed by Austrian or EU regulations.