(Georgia.Tbilisi) According to research carried out by The FINANCIAL only 46% of companies out of 640 investigated have a position under the name of Marketing Manager in Georgia.
The FINANCIAL’s research was carried out among 640 small, middle sized and large companies based in Georgia. The presence of female and male marketing specialists was approximately equal, with 6% more women marketing managers employed in the 640 entities.
According to the research the highest presence of marketing managers was in the financial sector (69%), followed by the telecommunication sector (63%), consumer discretionary sector (60%), consumer staples sector (57%), capital goods sector (49%), energy sector (47%), transportation sector (45%), healthcare sector (39%), international and local business companies (32%), consumer service (31%), commercial service sector (20%) and non-governmental sector (6%).
The highest presence of male marketing managers was in international and local business companies (64%) as for highest numbers of females – in the transportation sector (61%).
In Georgia, companies mainly focus on teamwork rather than separating duties towards different departments and managers. The main aims of marketing managers in western countries are from defining the concept of an offer to the final stage of its delivery to the consumer and even after sales services.
The FINANCIAL has interviewed key company marketing managers to share their experience and the strategic decisions they have made during their career path. It turned out that most of the marketing managers had graduated from ESM with a degree in marketing.
Tamar Gelantia has been in the position of Marketing Manager of Goodwill since 2009. The strategic decisions she took while working at Goodwill include the project “Top 1,000”, which increased sales by 35%. As well as the Bonus Club Project – Loyalty System, when the company changed the strategy of 5% discount cards to a bonus card system. The achievements of Ms. Gelantia also include G-Mart branding as well as forming service strategy – designing and implementing service standards.
Before starting her career at Goodwill, Ms. Gelantia has been working at Nikora LTD, (2003-2008 years) and later at Arti Group (2008-2009 years), in both her jobs she held the position of Marketing and PR Manager.
Ms. Gelantia has a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Commerce, from Tbilisi, Iv. Javakhishvili State University, from the same university she has earned a Master’s Degree of Economy and currently is enrolled as a Doctoral student in Marketing, at TSU.
Mariam Tsulukidze, Sales and Marketing Director at Redix, one of the leading development companies in Georgia, was employed at many key companies in Georgia before starting her career at Redix in 2007, and later in 2009.
Mrs. Tsulukidze has been working as Strategic Planner and Product Development Supervisor at Geocell Ltd, Head of the Marketing Department at ProCredit Bank, Acting Marketing Director at Magticom Ltd, Marketing Director at Iberiatel Ltd, and Deputy Commercial Director at JSC UTG.
The major achievements of Mrs. Tsulukidze while working as Sales and Marketing Director at Redix were brand concept and identity development, structuring of the sales and marketing department, expanding the sales network and chain, developing a mini call centre, issuing a co branded discount card with the best retailers of home furniture, texture and appliances. During the active marketing campaign sales in the year 2008 were increased by 220% in comparison with the year 2007. Sales in the year 2008 were 1 million ahead than the total sales in the years 2006 and 2007.
Mrs. Tsulukidze holds her Master’s Degree of Business Administration in Marketing from ESM.
Tornike Nikolaishvili, who now leads the Marketing Department, has been working at Natakhtari since 2007, at the position of Marketing Communication Manager, then Brand Manager and since April 2009 he became Marketing Manager.
“I worked in Qartu Universali ltd (Tolia) as Advertising Manager during 2004-2007, there I had the chance to have my first experience in working in the FMCG industry and creating a new brand, which is still on the market and this is the major success for me personally,” Nikolasihvili said. Moreover he had an opportunity to participate in research projects while working in IPM. Mr. Nikolaishvili graduated from ESM in 2004.
“Working in the FMCG industry in a rapidly developing economic environment is replete with everyday strategic decisions. Launching of new products – Natakhtari Kasris, Natakhtari Karva and Natakhtari Extra can be mentioned among successful projects, but more surely I can talk about the achievement of the “So What It’s Winter” campaign – a campaign which aimed to discount seasonality. It is already the fourth year we have held this campaign and sales figures show that from year to year seasonality is decreasing. Also the success of Natakhtari Lemonade on the foreign market gives us reason to be proud,” Nikolaishvili said.
“As a conclusion I can add that it is hard to talk about to what extent one or another project was successful, but the fact that Natakhtari holds more than 60% of the Georgian beer market is probably an indicator that we are on the right path. Being market leader is a huge honour and responsibility as well, because our company is expected to deliver more consumer friendly and consumer oriented decisions,” Nikolaishvili added.
George Barkalaya was appointed Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at Georgian Lottery Company in May 2010. He holds a PhD in Marketing and graduated from the University of Toronto. Before working at GLC, he was Director of the Marketing and PR Department at Bank of Georgia as well as Chairman of the Board of the Georgian Marketing Association.
Tornike Guruli has held the position of Marketing Manager of Wissol since 2009. Mr. Guruli gained an educational background in Tbilisi, Frankfurt/Main and Chemnitz (Germany). He graduated from the University of Technology Chemnitz specializing in Media Communications with the modules of Communication, Media Sociology, Media Psychology, Media Pedagogics, Economic Sciences and Media Rights.
“Thus quality campaigns, branding of Smart, FC Torpedo Kutaisi, AutoExpress and cooperation with Unicard are part of the successful projects of a team of motivated professionals headed by Tornike Guruli with excellent team building skills and feeling the pulse of a customer,” according to Wissol.
Before joining Wissol Group he worked for advertising company Sarke Consulting. What’s more Tornike is an international trainer of the BOSCH Foundation programme of Theodor-Heuss-Kolleg and has been giving trainings in Central and Eastern European countries since 2003.
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