MANAMA, 30 November 2007 — The excess liquidity and high potential of growth has necessitated for individuals, companies and even the countries to have an effective branding in the Middle East. The branding can make or break the business, the Chairman and CEO of Memac Ogilvy MENA Memac Ogilvy Eddie Moutran said, adding that branding would continue to serve as a vital pillar of the regional economies’ growth and development.
Moutran was joined by David Kean, an international new business expert who is in Bahrain for the first time to present at Memac Ogilvy’s Business Development Training Seminar being held at the Sheraton Hotel, said that new public relations and advertisement companies have a very promising feature.
Moutran said that Bahrain was doing fine by exploiting its potentials across the vital markets. “But Bahrain needs to do more in line with the fierce competition especially from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.”
“We have a lot of talent and the need is to polish this talent as part of a strategy. Memac Ogilvy will continue to invest in the human resources development and training and the seminar in Bahrain is a part of our commitment to update our colleagues about the developments in the market.”
He added: “Memac Ogilvy has decided to have a permanent training center in Bahrain covering the entire Middle East operations of the company.
We have a long association with Bahrain and the setting up a regional training centre is proof of company’s loyalty and commitment with this great country. Those who do not cherish the past have no future and we firmly believe in it.”
“The most talented group of advertising and PR people from both creative and account management in the region are at the seminar. The aim of the three-day session is about winning new business and growing the business of our clients,” Moutran said.
“I have been here for 35 years and recently the deciding factor in choosing an agency for some is price. We will not compete on price. We are a premium brand and everything we offer our clients has to be premium. This course will help us present what we already know, better,” he said.
“We agreed that all our training courses from now on will take place in Bahrain. It is our spiritual home, where the business started, and it is good to remind ourselves of how it all started,” Moutran said. “It is an easy place to get in and out of, it is friendly and the prices are better than in other parts of the region.”
Highlighting the aims of the training, Kean said: “The aim of the training session was to improve the service Memac Ogilvy offers its clients and discuss ways to build long-term relationships and partnerships through organic growth. Workshops and presentations included personality profiling and behavioral selling techniques, what clients are looking for from an agency as well as brainstorming and mind-sharing techniques.”
“The training seminar is focusing on ways Memac Ogilvy can help its clients to grow their business and in doing so help the business itself to grow. We are looking at ways to grow ahead of the market by focusing on winning new business and growing existing business organically,” he said.
“The sessions also look at ways to grow the business at an exponential rate by winning business at the pitch. Raising the level of expertise is important in this process. We want to be faster and smarter than the competition,” Kean added.
The conference was attended by the managing directors and creative directors from the Memac Ogilvy office across the Middle East and North Africa region.
