8Minute Talk show — Farzad Kheiriasl, Marketing Manager at Sabah Dairy
Mansour kiarash: Hello, this is Mansour Kiarash and we are beside you with another 8minute Talkshow today. In this talk show, we are going to talk with Mr.kheiri who is the marketing manager at Sabah Dairy.
Mansour Kiarash: Hello Mr.Kheiri.
Farzad Kheiri: Hi.
Mansour Kiarash: You are very welcome.
Farzad Kheiri: Thank you.
Mansour Kiarash: I’d appreciate it if you introduce yourself.
Farzad Kheiri: I am Farzad Kheiri and I’ve been working in the marketing and advertising field for around 10 or 12years. I got my Business management Ph.D. at Shahid Beheshti University. I started my job career in Damdaran Dairy, I worked at some advertising companies and Zar Macaron Industrial Company. I am working in Sabah Dairy, now.
Mansour Kiarash: what was the biggest challenge you’ve faced in marketing or strategies?
Farzad Kheiri: We have a lot of challenges because there wasn’t enough knowledge in this field, I think it was around the 50th decade which Mr.Ebrahimi published the Marketing field for the first time in Iran. There isn’t enough knowledge about the marketing field in our country neither the professionals nor the managers. One of my biggest challenges that I dealt with was the unknowledgeable managers who couldn’t believe in the marketing field and they mostly include marketers as performers which is not a good idea. Marketers are the masterminds who control and lead the company, The boss participates in marketing conferences and enforces opinions in a field that needs high knowledge which is not a good attitude because marketing needs profession as other fields such as accounting or IT management needs, too.
Mansour Kiarash: I understand, so what did you do to solve this issue?
Farzad Kheiri: We tried to prove our self to those managers and in many situations by achieving excellent success in projects we are cooperating with other companies, we convince them that marketing is a professional field. I’ve experienced this situation both in Zar Macaron and Sabah Dairy.
I started the marketing field at Zar Macaron company with another title, after a few months, we could add the marketing department to the company and Sabah Dairy as well. We started marketing for the first time in this company and our correlation with our producers or sales unit makes our managers believe that the marketing unit can lead the Company so we could successfully pass the challenge.
Mansour Kiarash: Great! As I know your industry has a lot of competitors hence innovation is very important in your job, there’s this question that do you have any special structure for innovating?
Farzad Kheiri: for being an innovator we need to stay at the same level as European countries. Benchmarking from our foreign competitors is mostly used in Iran and it is very useful and effective, although being innovative has 3 different aspects which are individual, corporative, and institutional. You need to be knowledgeable to reach innovation. unfortunately, there isn’t enough knowledge in this case so it’s needed to update our marketing knowledge.
Mansour Kiarash: I’d be very happy if you introduce a book to us which had an effect on you or will help our visitors to reach the top level?
Farzad Kheiri: I recommend “Principles of Marketing” by Philip Kotler for those who want to start marketing. and there’s another book which is “Laws of brand storytelling”. it was my honor to translate this book in cooperation with a very knowledgeable master and there is a hope to publish this book after Nowruz Eve. This is an efficacious book that expresses everything about marketing activities and it affects those who are professional in marketing.
Mansour Kiarash: Brilliant! First book is sold.
Mansour Kiarash: what features may help a marketing manager to stay at top levels?
Farzad Kheiri: Being up to date and studying English essays are very important in marketing. benchmark those companies who worked in Iran in the last two years can help us. I try to study marketing topics. The most important point to stay at a high level is good execution.
Mansour Kiarash: I wanted to know whether you can introduce an expert and knowledgeable person in marketing to interview with in the next talk show, or not?
Farzad Kheiri: I’d like to invite my former manager Mr.Faraji who taught me many things in marketing and He is the sales manager at Zar Macaron industrial company.
Mansour Kiarash: We will invite him to our talk show. Thanks for appearing and spending your time with us.
Farzad Kheiri: That was very nice.
Mansour Kiarash: we talked to a successful manager and we’ll talk with others, too.
