The bustling metropolis that forms the identity of Dubai today is, in a large part, the collective effort of industry leaders and key players who took a chance all those years ago on a city that was poised for greatness. Long before social media and influencer marketing defined a brand’s success, there were enterprising minds who used their experience, analytical skills and an appetite for risk-taking to break into emerging markets, using their confidence, sheer determination and good old-fashioned hard work to achieve success.

For Kiwi Kaur, the move to Dubai in 2005 – following her stint in the US, didn’t come without its fair share of challenges. But what some took as a hurdle was realized as a potential for growth by her who wanted to be an architect in this dynamic region that was still drawing up its economic roadmap. Not one to ever let gender bias or a traditional mindset hold her back, Kiwi's expertise in consumer insights, marketing strategies and customer retention were key ingredients that buoyed her own career path to follow the trajectory of this city over the years. In an exclusive interview, Kiwi shuns the norms of gender bias and cultural differences to share her recipe for success as a marketing professional in the region.

What are some important aspects of your expertise?

My experience has largely been in market research before I moved to brand marketing. The strong rooting in consumer insights makes customers the core of my decisions A distinct aspect of my career has been my experience working  with both – global blue chip companies such as ACNielsen, Procter & Gamble, Sanofi and regional players such as Mezzan Holding. It has enhanced my skills to work in very structured environments with functional expertise and as well as sift through more obscure environments with exposure to general management and building SOPs ground up. I have also contributed to building teams, structures and SOPs apart from core marketing functions. Anotheraspect of my career is diverse industry exposure – consumer goods, pharmaceuticals (OTC/ OTX) and food & beverage.

From a personality standpoint, these diverse experiences across industries have made me flexible, agile, and confident even while working in ambiguous environments.

Take us through your early years of life. What motivated you to venture into the field of marketing?

It has now been a journey of almost two decades in consulting, market research and marketing. Although in my former years I was set out to do medical studies, I quite enjoyed data and had an inkling for creative thinking all along. Joining my dad was a driver for career in business strategy and marketing. At a very early age, while my dad's business was hitting some headwinds, I joined him and was exposed to almost every nuance of a business. I've done everything from banking to logistics, invoicing, customer relationships, and more. While the business began to boom, I decided to pursue my masters in the US in international management & strategic marketing, against hyped choices like IT or Finance. Despite many ‘NOs’, I believed in my decision and pursued it. Amidst the 9/11 recession and job losses, I began my career; since then there has been no turning back.

From India to Dubai to USA, what learnings did the journey teach you in the formative years?

Eternal thirst to learn & grow, hard work, and mindset to not give up describes my journey. New country, new people, cultural differences; everything was different yet interesting when I moved to Dubai. Back then, business was progressive but conservative for women. ‘Change, is the only constant’ was set into my ways early on. The cultural differences taught me to stand up for myself and I learnt to create opportunities. Moreover, my parents supported me in a big way. They pushed me to be independent & self-sufficient.

“The devil is in the details master the details by using data driven strategies”

Throw light on some of the most critical challenges you face while working with brands.

We as marketers often have to wear different hats. We are strategists, we impact, and we make a difference. Of late, people have begun to realize this, but there are still several misconceptions.Marketing strategy is how a product makes its way into the minds and hearts of consumer.Honestly, there is a lot of analysis, behavioral understanding and creativity involved in it. One of the big challenges is to align your multifunctional team with your vision. Especially, when you are working on small brands in a big organization, it is difficult to get internal buy-in. Building brand awareness, driving category growth, penetrating new markets, developing new products, ensuring ‘repeat’ purchases are some of the key challenges. There has to be a holistic drive of how you bring the brand into the consumers’ hands. ‘Execution’ is the only strategy consumers witness. There should be a strong reason in terms of why they should trust the brand and purchase a product. And then the product has to deliver on the ‘second moment of truth-product experience’ to ensure repeat purchase.

The more recent disruption has been in terms of the rise of the Digital world. Online retailing or eCommerce, has been an absolute new learning for the commercial teams and the marketing teams. Data Science is now core to decision making. Moving ahead, it’s going to get even more challenging to keep a brand relevant for the Gen-Z, to spark an interest and to keep it going.

Despite the challenges, what factors can drive success to a business in terms of marketing?

I strongly believe that marketing strategy is key to being successful; If one can understand the consumer's psychology and bridge it with market data, most positioning becomes easy. In this novel era of information disruption, data-driven pricing, portfolio and communication strategy will set out to build strong brands..

Kiwi Kaur, Marketing Consultant

An adept marketer with experience in Brand Management, Consulting & Market Research. MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, Kiwi has worked with top FMCG companies such as Gillette, Procter & Gamble, Sanofi, and ACNielsen