Ravi Raman appointed brand strategist for UPP titles

In the new role he would plan & strategize the brand growth, promotions and the positioning of the various titles, while looking after the Oryx Publishing & Advertising operations in Qatar.

With over a decade of media, brand management experience having associated with brands like India Today, MSN and Cosmopolitan, his first stint in Middle East was in the Sultanate of Oman where he joined as operational controller for UPP. With the group getting into a tie-up with Oryx he shifted base to Qatar and has been leading the growth of its titles Qatar Today & Qatar Al Yom ever since. The group also plans to launch a Women's magazine in August.

Speaking about the new challenge he commented "Building brands is always exciting and especially media titles which reach and influence so many. I am fortunate to be working with excellent titles which command respect for their editorial and design standards, so with that aspect of the product taken care of, everything else just falls into place."

Commenting on the magazines market he added "Keeping one focus- that is offering the reader the best value is core to any media brand's success. We have constantly innovated and offered our readers several new features, initiated several brand awareness programs. This builds reader loyalty which many claim is missing in this market. Personally I don't agree to that, the Middle East is like any other market, give people a good product and they stick with you. Finding what they need and how they need it is the marketer's job."