Maroun Zabbal

· Negotiated and finalized contracts with major suppliers such as printing press, distribution co., paper supply co., advertising representative and Advertising Agency.
· Put together a marketing team and orchestrated full launch program with advertising agency.
· Established brand identity and brand values for the newspaper, including readership profile and penetration strategy.
· Set up commercial strategy and marketing within the advertising industry as parameters for the advertising representative.
· Established research objective and full program for in house and out sourced research.
· Established a CRM program backed by an elaborate call center and enriched by a detailed data base, designed to support distribution, content, marketing and advertising sales.
· Achieved sizeable readership base, spectacular brand positioning and noticeable advertising revenue within first year of publication in a highly competitive environment that witnessed the birth of 5 new daily newspapers within the same period.

Based in Kuwait and Beirut , established and ran the group’s regional office, that planned, audited, supported and developed the group’s 23 local operations through the basic functions of finance, IT, marketing, production, sales, distributions and product development.

Contributed actively in the expansions and growth of the group through strategic planning and execution in the major areas of production distribution and aggressive marketing of the company major products.

Main Responsibilities:
-General management of the branch (team of 40)
-Follow up of major clients portfolios
( General Motors, Pepsi Cola, fromagerie Bel. Etc…)
-Develop local businesses
-Maintain healthy and productive relationship with local partners.
-Interact as a decisive member of the regional and worldwide network.

Major Achievements:
-Brought the agency to the N#1 spot in Kuwait both at turn over and professional reputation levels.
-Achieved a 300% growth in portfolio and turnover.

Main responsibilities :
-Established the agency from scratch including a fully staff of 25 in various departments.
-Develop and manage local and regional portfolio of clients.