– Please tell us about yourself, about your career at the Beko Company.

– I have been engaged in marketing of home appliances for more than 10 years. I received my first education at the Kazakhstan University of International Relations and World Languages and some time later, I've got master's degree in marketing at the Almaty University of Management.

I joined the Beko company in Central Asia in 2020, almost immediately after its opening. In the previous workplace, I was proceeding with the same categories of goods, in the same region, and therefore integration into the business processes and corporate culture of Beko was actually not difficult for me.

But I faced with other big difficulties: since it was a period of a pandemic and hard lockdowns, we were forced to get acquainted with colleagues, partners, suppliers, recruit a team, establish business processes and remote work being completely isolated from each other. It’s one thing when a team that works well must switch to remote work, but starting everything from scratch remotely - is a completely different challenge. Still, I believe that in order to ensure maximum work efficiency, proper organization of communication and document control, a fully functional office with all necessary conditions is the compulsory requirement.

Only a year after I joined the company my colleagues and I obtained an opportunity to start work in the new office. Our office is beautiful and stylish, situated in modern business center which is located in one of the best city districts. Here we can perform like united team. And I have not seen people working in office with more enthusiasm than we do.

— What attracts you in marketing work?

– Main reason is this: marketing can never be boring. During my previous professional experience, I was lucky to work abroad, where I was responsible for the region that included Turkey, CIS countries, Africa, and the Middle East. So, maintaining close daily contacts with the countries of this region, I learned a lot about their mentality, culture, characteristics, needs - cause in fact, my work was to realize and use all this in the organization of the brand activity without harm to its identity.

Now my activity is focused only on Central Asia, and, working more specifically and closer to the market, I still continue to discover new information that was not available to me earlier. This is driven by constantly changing and transforming market, introduction of new, modern marketing instruments, latest researches and regularly updating information. Thus, in marketing there is always something new to discover and learn about. I believe that no marketing expert at any stage of his career is able to say that now he knows everything for sure.

– What prospects have appeared for Beko in the Kazakhstani market recently? How did the market change?

- For a long time before opening of the company division in Central Asia, Beko equipment was sold here without any special promotion, without implementing its own pricing policy and presenting the full range of the goods - product mix. In general, only basic models at affordable prices were available. This happened due to various technical and strategical reasons, but as a result, consumers gained a misconception about our brand.

The main purpose of the Beko team in Central Asia, including executives, is not only to sell more goods, but also to sell more premium goods. To achieve this, my colleagues have performed a herculean work: the product line was expanded, pricing was revised, logistics processes were adjusted, a local warehouse was opened, the quality of customer service was improved, the shares on the shelves in distributing stores were revised as well as the promoting team. The marketing task is to enhance the effect of all these activities by influencing end consumer minds, providing them with information about the brand, its products, technologies to make buyer decision making process more easy and the purchase process - enjoyable. Beko is the very high-quality, technological and reliable brand - everyone should be aware about it.

Today, Beko becomes the most reliable partner for our distributors and dealers, as due to the current geopolitical situation in the world, many European and Korean players in the home appliances segment of the global market are forced to reduce production and supply volumes. And it means undoubtedly enormous potential for our company.

– What methods and channels does the marketing department use to promote Beko products in Kazakhstan and on the regional markets? What about the CA countries?

– In contemporary world, as you know, there is a shift of the advertising share towards digital media. So in Kazakhstan we are not an exception in this sense. Digital marketing is one of the most effective channels with wide variety of instruments available to convey the necessary information to the most specific target audience. The advantage of digital channel is its easy trackability and measurability thanks to which we can find out more details in the portrait of our buyer, allowing us to adjust approach and strategy for further activities.

However, in such countries as Mongolia and Uzbekistan, where Internet coverage is mostly limited to the capitals, we use TV advertising to reach the regional consumers as well. Nevertheless, the share of digital communication is increasing there too, so it is just a matter of time.

- What challenges department is facing today?

– I have already mentioned the main goals of the Marketing Department. But more specifically, these challenges include improved market representation, increase the presence of the goods, highlight the goods with branded stands and our technologies with advertising materials, increase awareness about products and technologies by means of the promoting team, social media accounts and website of the company. And moreover, to become pioneers in terms of careful consumption, preservation of natural resources and sustainable development.

– Does Beko use charity events as the part of its marketing strategy? If yes, could you say a few words about it?

– Yes, charity is an integral part of the corporate responsibility of the Arçelik (Beko) Company. In 2020, during the first and the most serious wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beko donated five lung ventilators to the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan. A little later, in spring of 2021, during the second wave of the pandemic, we managed to transfer six more lung ventilators to the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan.

- Please tell something about the department team.

– At the moment, our team consists of four persons including me (except for the product marketing team).

Evgeny Ulyanov is the most faithful and delicate team member, at the same time he is effective leader of the field force. The whole team of promoters and supervisors: their training, motivation, achievement of planned goals, performance monitoring - everything in his area of responsibility. He has extensive experience in FMCG and tobacco industry.

Ainura Dzhaumytbayeva is a trade marketing specialist who provides the entire region with retail equipment, shop-in-shops, promotional materials and many more. By the way, she has the longest experience in the field of household appliances - more than 15 years.

Aiziya Alibayeva - intern of the Marketing Department. Despite young age, she is the most multi-tasking employee of the department, she successfully supervises the SMM project, launches and maintains all our websites, adapts creatives for digital campaigns, provides controlling of marketing invoices, and manages the document flow of the Marketing Department.

Each of them is a great professional with rich experience, they are also very cool people, and together we share in the common cause.

– Tell us, please, about your plans?

– We intend to improve the effectiveness of marketing activities in order to increase volumes of internal and external sales. Furthermore we will continue analyzing consumer needs in order to offer the best product. The launch of new brands and new categories of goods is not that far off, then we will become even more creative.