Free lancer
ARA Research & Consultancy
Total years of experience :15 years, 5 Months
Provided business and marketing consultancies for local and regional clients of various industries based on qualitative research, covering:
- Concept Development: Shaping and branding new products/services that target specific market segments like; Bank’s Accounts, Media (specialized Newspapers, Radio & TV channels), Insurance products, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains, Entertainment Centers, FMCG… etc.
- Problem Solving: Tackling customers’ drop, hesitation or dissatisfaction towards certain products/services like; Automotive, Restaurants, Bank’s product, Companies’ communications & marketing campaigns, … etc., through spotting weaknesses and comparing real experience to customers’ expectations.
- Image & Positioning: Identifying the image and positioning of certain brands in the market like; Banks, Investment & Real Estate companies, Media, Hospitals, FMCG… etc., and assessing their Logo and Communication.
- Behaviors and Attitude: Detecting patterns in Consumers’ behaviors, and identifying their needs and aspirations in different areas like; purchasing products, Newspapers Readership… etc.
- Work Group’s Environment Assessment: Identifying the causes of employees’ low morale and high turnover, and suggesting motivations tools.
Handled various managerial tasks, and supervised the TV shows’ productions.
• The Managerial Tasks involved:
Business Planning, Reports Writing (to the board and sometimes clients), Webmaster (updates with latest news and achievements on website), Public Relations, Recruitment, and other ongoing daily tasks.
• Operated as Producer on each new TV project:
Assist in the Format’s creation & development (the content), work on Budget, handle the Crew Recruitment and contribute in Actors’ Casting, work on Legal Issues (contracts, permits, copyrights …etc.), handle Marketing & Sales to local & regional TV channels, and maintain good relations with clients, coordinate with all parties involved in the production, control projects’ Execution and Delivery according to deadlines, quality standard and budgets.
Handled the Qualitative Research and the Mystery Shopping Programs entirely, and provided Marketing Consultancies and developed Marketing Strategies for local and regional clients of various sectors, including:
Banks, Insurance companies, Oil Companies, Automotive, Real Estate, Media (Newspapers, TV & Radio Stations), Restaurants, Entertainment Resorts, Hospitals, FMCG Products, Luxurious Products … etc.
• In Qualitative Research, my responsibilities included:
Getting brief from clients, writing Proposals, setting Methodology, designing Discussion Guides, moderating the Focus Groups (dealing with different age groups, genders and nationalities), Analysis and reporting, presenting Recommendations.
• In Mystery Shopping Programs, my responsibilities included:
Dealing closely with clients (brief, follow-up), Budget management, designing Surveys (criteria to be monitored, scoring and weights), Training the ‘shoppers’ (to ensure objective monitoring), managing the field Execution in Gulf and Levant countries (subcontracting fieldwork in certain countries, follow-up, unifying standards, supervising work quality), Data editing & Reporting, Presentation of findings and Recommendations.
The Mystery Shopping programs aimed to provide a managerial tool to clients in order to let them identify the strengths and weaknesses in their performance, to evaluate compliance with the set quality standards, and to track improvement.
Additionally:
- Assessed clients in strategies implementation, and monitored achievements.
- Conducted Seminars to clients’ employees to introduce the new set quality parameters.
Other Responsibilities
• Analysis & Write up of Ad-hoc Opinion Polls (Social and political).
• Analysis & Write up to ‘ARA Consumer Confidence Index’ (2005 - 2006);
A monthly publication in Al-Balad newspaper that measures the Lebanese consumers’ confidence towards economy, finance and security matters, based on a periodic quantitative research.
Established the Mystery Shopping department at Ipsos-Stat, and handled regional MS programs for well-known fast food chains like Burger King and Pizza hut.
Executed Qualitative research; moderation and analysis.
Play Project: “Hiroshima mon amour” by Marguerite Duras.
Thesis: “Increasing Employees Satisfaction and Work Efficiency”