JEDDAH – The SAMENA (South Asia-Middle East-North Africa) Telecommunications Council needed to achieve greater marketing efficiencies and excellence, said Andrew Hanna, CCO, VIVA Bahrain and Chairman CMO Committee, SAMENA Council, during his introduction speech on the goals and objectives of the committee at the first annual Chief Marketing Officer Day held recently in Manama – an important initiative that highlights the need to influence regional perspectives on achieving marketing excellence within the telecommunications industry. CMO's of today are faced with many challenges due to the dynamic and rapidly evolving regional telecommunications industry, as is the case with customers' needs and demands. “The environment that we operate in today requires tactics, diligence, and awareness of value creation by understanding the changes that are taking place around us. We need to share our diverse experiences, jointly tackle challenges and analyze the impact of global marketing trends in the MENA region in order to shape the marketing capabilities of the regional operators", Hanna added. “The CMO day is a great opportunity for all of us gathered here today to identify new means of engagement between our organizations, to take our businesses and the regional telecom industry from strength to strength." Attended by CMO's from several leading region organizations such as Axis, Batelco, Etisalat, Ericsson, Kalimat Telecom, Omantel, Sudatel Telecom and VIVA Bahrain among others, the CMO Day provided an opportunity to discuss topics imperative for the development of the regional telecoms industry. Bocar A. Ba, SAMENA Council's recently appointed CEO, said “CMO's are responsible for not only building strong brands but also ensuring growth in revenues in highly competitive environments; and hence regional telecommunications CEO's have identified the need and importance of their marketing officers to converge, share ideas and explore collaborative efforts. Having realized this need, SAMENA Council launched the CMO Committee last year to provide the regional telecommunications industry with a forum for sharing best practices, innovation and ideas; advocacy for regulatory agenda; and to provide networking opportunities."“This CMO Day is the first initiative by the SAMENA Council CMO Committee, and sets the precedent for several future initiatives that, with the support and involvement of our members, will aim to not only contribute to the development and growth of the telecommunications industry, but also advocacy for policy making and regulatory changes", Bocar added. Topics that were discussed included digitization, smart business, emerging market trends—including those associated with multi-brand strategies, 4G technology adoption, social media, customer behavior, return on investment, and value-creation for the entire ICT ecosystem. — SG
