Magazine: Visible and invisible games – Business Days 2013 (Part 2)

Poór Zoltán
ügyvezető igazgató
GoodMills Group

On the second day of the conference the morning was dedicated to agriculture. GoodMills president-CEO Zoltán Poór was the moderator of the section, who in his introduction summarised the changes in the weight of agriculture in the national economy in the last100 years. Dr Norbert Potori, agricultural and rural policy director of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute (AKI) told grey and black economy’s share in agriculture is 20-30 percent. In our agricultural export structure the weight of processed products is growing, but the majority of these are bioethanol, pet food and goods belonging to the ‘tobacco and other’ category. We are lagging behind in the field of livestock farming. The second presenter, Bonafarm Group’s sales and marketing director László Szilágyi spoke about how they implemented vertical integration at Bonafarm. He added that they already started building the Bonafarm brand, products are trademarked, the Bonafarm Master program educates consumers and they organise group-level promotions, too. Dr László Elkán, director of the tax advisory division at PricewaterhouseCoopers gave a lecture on the practices of the tax authorities (NAV). He opined the main problem is that the authorities don’t focus on uncovering tax evasions; instead they try to find mistakes at companies which operate in a fair manner. Csaba Csontos, the coordinator of ISA Hungary spoke about how a significant part of consumers are looking for added sugar substitutes, for instance sweeteners. He shed light on the advantages of the latter and informed participants about the work ISA does to improve the acceptance of sweeteners by society. Work in the foreign trade section started in spectacular fashion: participants returned from the coffee break through a cloud of smoke to find the moderator, export specialist András Köves and conference host Zsuzsanna Hermann dressed up in full Harry Potter gear. In his introduction Mr Köves told that although 20 years ago demand was great for Hungarian groceries in both East and West, today competition is fierce in Western Europe and we have neglected the Russian and Chinese markets. Shurygin Leonid, trade counsellor of the Russian Federation’s Embassy in Budapest pointed out that his government is dedicated to deepening Hungarian-Russian relations. In his view those Hungarian food companies have a chance in the Russian market which offer good quality products at medium price and have reliable local partners. Trade expert Zoltán Kocka has been living in Azerbaijan since 2009. Azerbaijan imports products in the value of USD 10 billion a year and it is very difficult to appear here with ready-made products. According to Ban Yongzhi, commercial secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Budapest, Hungarian groceries have a good reputation in China. He thinks logistics is one of the biggest obstacles for these products. The secretary also told that imported groceries have to be inspected and certified in accordance with the Chinese regulations. György Földesi has been living in Saudi Arabia for 2 years. In the Arab country 80 percent of groceries come from import but Mr Földesi has only seen few Hungarian products in stores. There is great demand for high quality processed ready-made products. Júlia Csizmadia, head of export-import sales at SGS Hungária Kft. stressed that countries outside the European Union have their own strict import requirements, but SGS can help throughout the whole process from product inspection to customs clearance to paperwork. Ágota Baloghné Kiss, head of the CTS division at SGS Hungária Kft. called attention to another worldwide trend: the necessity to check potential business partners. SGS is a global company that can help to find out the truth about any company in the world, including bank details, with the help of local experts. After the lunch break brands entered the spotlight. Brand Association general secretary Zoltán Fekete moderated the section, where the first presenter was Tamás Ács, the president of Brand Association. He introduced their main objective: creating a business and regulatory environment where strong competition between companies stimulates innovation and sustainability. In order to achieve this goal, the association makes great efforts to engage in constructive dialogue with the ministry, the retail sector and consumers. Unilever Hungary managing director András Gyenes revealed their ambitious goal of doubling their sales while reducing their production’s environmental impact to half and playing a more positive role in the life of society. The challenge is especially big because 68 percent of environmental burden is generated by consumers, which means the company has to change people’s consumption habits too. Grant McKenzie, head of division with Kékkúti Mineral Water revealed that Nestlé minimises the environmental impact of production in Hungary, for instance by using less packaging material and water. They also educate consumers and in their innovation activity try to make food healthier by revising the ingredients of more than 140 products. The second brand building section started with a presentation by two Nielsen experts, Eszter Melisek and Ágnes Villányi. They surveyed the changes in domestic retail in the last few years, e.g. consumers switched to cheaper groceries, branded product sales reduced by 13 percent in volume between 2006 and 2012 – in the same period private label products increased their sales just as much. Only real innovations can set their feet in the market: 70 percent of new products don’t survive the first year. Product of the Year managing director György Kövesdi and Coca-Cola Hungary’s marketing activation manager Róbert Percze discussed their experiences in connection with the award. Mr Percze stressed that manufacturers need to find ways to communicate their products’ added value to consumers. Mr Kövesdi spoke about how measurements prove that POY winner products sell better if they use the logo. The next presenter was Dávid Kétszeri, senior expert with GS1 Hungary who introduced the company’s SafeBrand service. This service has been available since August and offers reliable data for supporting online sales, constituting a dynamic and cost-effective tool to reach consumers on digital and mobile platforms. Csaba Siklósi, commercial director at Hungexpo spoke about SIRHA, a new food trade fair which will take place in March 2014. Henrietta Horváth, customer relations manager with call centre company Paradise Solution was the last presenter. She revealed the results of a study her company had done on the importance of customer management work in finding and keeping loyal customers. A short coffee break followed before participants immersed themselves in the exiting world of human resource management. Randstad Hungary CEO Sándor Baja was the moderator of this section, and as the first speaker he called attention to the boom in the field of HR. Nowadays to find the best person for a job requires a proactive approach, the best tool for which is online databases. An important source of data and probably the best channel for self-marketing is LinkedIn.com. Republic Group owner Tamás Barna brought a case study on how his company adapted to drastic changes in the consumption and industrial environment. In his view these days briefs are more and more about problems and not tasks. One and a half years ago his company started relying on the knowledge of senior experts instead of junior ones. Work in this section ended with Mr Baja discussing the challenges of working abroad with Péter Szabó, one of Unilever’s managing directors, who is responsible for operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia.

The most persevering participants closed the day with sitting in on the Trade Marketing Club meeting, where Ildikó Kátai, general secretary of the POPAI Hungary Association introduced the ways and means of retail in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Retail keeps changing end leaves store buildings behind, therefore POS marketing tools have to follow it, being present in every channel with the help of technology. Customers use gadgets to find and compare goods and services and they share their knowledge with each other using social media. Traditional retailers open online stores, while online retailers build stores and pick-up points. At the Gala Dinner the Vegas Showband made guests dance and illusionist Danny Blue made everyone stare in awe. Dr Gábor Csirszka was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to him by Chain Bridge Club president László Hovánszky. Friday was the third day of the conference and the first section concentrated on ATL communication. Chain Bridge Club member István Justin was the moderator. He first gave the floor to Ákos Kozák, the managing director of GfK Hungária, who shed light on what lies behind the numbers. He pointed out that currently we spend 24 percent of our income on groceries and this proportion has to be reduced to 15 percent. NOSALTY managing director Ágnes Zalai analysed the online shopping habits of women. Nosalty, Hungary’s most popular recipe website has 1.2 million visitors a year, 66 percent of them are women (older women and the 15-29 age group are overrepresented). László Pintye, director of Sanoma Média’s magazine division stated that print media isn’t about to become extinct: it is still print publications which have the most stable and durable business model, because the end user and the advertiser sides are in balance and not cyclically dependent. He proved that complex campaign mixes enhance the message. Katalin Miczinkó, commercial director with Ringier spoke about the advantages of advertising in sport-themed publications. Many people are interested in competitive sports and next year there is going to be a football World Cup, which offers great opportunities for advertising but requires thorough preparation. A brief coffee break preceded the start of the second section, where Bernadett Strasser-Kátai, managing director of MONA Hungary moderated the discussion on BTL communication. Krisztián Fazekas, product marketing manager with Sodexo Pass Hungária gave an overview of prize draws and games. His company not only issues vouchers but also organises and implements complex online prize draws related to them. They do research to find out about consumer attitudes and preferences. Márton Kalinowski, managing director of HiperCom talked to participants about a new research initiative. Kinet uses cameras mounted on store shelves to get to know consumers better and a real time database shows partners how many customers stopped in front of the given shelf, which product they took off and how many of them. There was a roundtable discussion in this section, where experts analysed the efficiency of POS communication tools and discussed trends. Attila Fodor, communications director of CBA told that innovation plays a key role in winning customers. In his view the efficiency of tools depends on time, product and store category. Viktor Aradványi, store manager of Interspar Szentendre agreed that customers like innovative ideas, the things they know from ads. For instance those displays are preferred which aren’t made of paper, easy to place and call attention to the product, but their design suits the store’s interior. János Dorogi, store manager of Auchan Szigetszentmiklós made it clear: Auchan changed a lot in the last 10 years. Today shoppers want a good price/value ratio and they are hungry for information. Miklós Vörös, Tesco Hungary’s support office director put their innovative approach in the limelight. In addition to their own ideas they also adopt models from Asia and the UK. Sustainability aspects have to be taken into consideration in POS advertising. Before the curtain came down on the conference, Debreceni Group managing director László Benedek had an exciting conversation with former head coach of the Hungarian men’s water polo team, Dénes Kemény, who has been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Mr Kemény is currently the president of the Hungarian Water Polo Federation. He talked about his past, the ins and outs of team work and team management