The changing relationship between marketing and trade

By: Trademagazin editor Date: 2025. 06. 05. 21:02

In the last six months I had the opportunity to represent Hungary in an international award selection process, from which I learned a lot about the changing and interrelated roles of trade and marketing in creating business value.

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/6-7.

Guest writer:
Zsófia Bánhegyi
vice president for corporate affairs
Hungarian Marketing
Association

It was the European Marketing Confederation that launched European Marketer of the Year competition – this is an umbrella organisation for European marketing associations, the goal of which is selecting Europe’s most influential marketing leader each year. However, its evaluation system is radically different from any other award scheme. The four-level evaluation system is based on several criteria, highlighting modern directions and trends that the jury members delegated by 11 countries consider important in terms of effectiveness and excellence, with a particular focus on individual and managerial success in 2025.

What are these? 1. Leadership skills, structure and operation of the area managed. 2. The direct impact of marketing activities on commercial and business results, and more integrated operations. 3. Responsibility as one of the most important new evaluation criteria. 4. The social responsibility of leaders for the development of their broader industry and profession. It was a special experience for me to get an insight into such a complex evaluation process and to showcase the achievements of the Hungarian profession. These results performed well, demonstrating that a modern, new approach to marketing and trade can also achieve in the Hungarian economy too.