Interview with Faraz Ali Khan from Asbis ME on company’s 30th anniversary

TECHx spoke to Faraz Ali Khan, Marketing Manager, ASBIS Middle East on company’s 30^th anniversary to learn about their work culture, brands association and marketing channels.

TECHx: Asbis recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, how does it feel to be part of this power-house and what’s the work culture like?

Faraz Khan: The key to a company’s success is customer confidence, employee involvement, continuous development of the portfolio of products and solutions. All this can be said about the international holding ASBIS Group, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Customers, partners, and suppliers, who are an integral part of the company, its source of life and its main artery, play an invaluable role in the great success story of ASBIS. I feel grateful to be part of the company, for the years of growth and ready to witness what’s next future plans.

TECHx: Marketing managers have an important job on hand to keep the visibility going. Tell us about the brands that depend on Asbis for their go-to market plans?

Faraz Khan: ASBIS Middle East specializes in distribution of VAD (Value Added Distribution) products and solutions in the field of information and communication technologies from global international suppliers. It currently has its own offices throughout the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) in 27 countries. The holding’s corporate portfolio includes hundreds of vendors and tens of thousands of products. ASBIS Middle East’s key brands are Intel, AMD, Sapphire, Logitech Seagate, Western Digital, HGST, Kingston, Transcend, Toshiba, SanDisk, Supermicro, ESET, TP-Link, Ubiquiti, MicroTik, Mellanox, Grandstream, Mimosa, Lexmark, Canyon and Prestigio.

Our marketing plan is a unique blend of traditional and non-traditional methods. I think that people do judge a book by its cover, but I have figured out ways to attract customers. We’re confident that we’ve got the strategies that will generate word-of-mouth recommendations and build larger customer base.

TECHx: Pandemic has posed quite a few challenges for brands in terms of limited marketing/advertising activities to look at. Tell us about some campaigns that you’ve ran in 2020 which helped brands under your umbrella to be relevant and seen?

Faraz Khan: In marketing we learn new things every day, that’s because it’s always changing. Companies who did not prioritize digital marketing before the economic downturn are scrambling. In digital marketing we focused on online newsletters, which has become an excellent vehicle to share company updates, we emphasized on video creation, as audience love your story, concept and messaging and webinar marketing, as its popularity is still rising for obvious reasons. With growing subscribers for both our newsletter and video channel, it’s one of the few positives we can take out of a difficult year. Apart from digital marketing, we also did couple of gaming experience roadshows for our gaming brands despite the pandemic, offering gamers throughout UAE the opportunity to experience gaming products during the roadshow.

TECHx: What marketing channels have worked for you this year and what kind of opportunities would you like to tap in 2021?

Faraz Khan: Now that we are reaching the final stretch of 2020, the year of the Pandemic, it is a great time to reflect on the lessons you learned and how you can use them to visualize your goals and dreams for a winning 2021. Even without the current crisis, we may have adopted these new and expanded facets of our marketing, but the pressure of the moment makes us look for ideas beyond our traditional efforts. In my opinion, “Opportunities are born from challenges” in 2021, it’s time to fly. Next year I will seek for more inspiration, as this year is making clearer than ever. No one can control Mother Nature, but you can control your marketing strategies. We don’t live in a perfect world and I was excited to figure out how to navigate around the crises and come out of it stronger, wiser and more successful.

TECHx: I personally know how passionate you are about your work and have seen that while working together in campaigns. On the personal front, what drives you, your passion, hobbies, interests etc.

Faraz Khan: My philosophy is very simple that is “Before you act listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive and before you quit, try.” There are three reasons that why I like my profession: people, creativity, and technology. When I say people, I mean customers and their relationship with your product and company. The goal of marketing is to change customer behavior and drive action, whether that’s to build affinity, encourage word of mouth,