2.

What does marketing mean to you, and how has your perception of marketing changed over the years
in your career?

I first met the marketing and brand field in 2009. I have met with Red Bull company and this has changed
my life. Why has changed my life? Because I was studying as Engineering manager. However, I have
invited the marketing and brand department of Red Bull in Azerbaijan. I really loved this job because it
this not just not doing some stuff for the company, but also you are doing very creative work. Especially
for Red Bull as they are very unique in their marketing sphere. Because they work with athletes they do
many different interesting entertaining staffs and they do a lot of activities in the market. So, I loved this
field. I understood my student life this is what I am for. I started to work in this field till now. In my career,
I have changed many positions, especially after military service. I have started to work with International
events held in Azerbaijan from Eurovision to the Islamic Games. All of them I worked as the marketing
and brand specialist. I can say that in each position year by year marketing was cardinally changing. Not
just in Azerbaijan but all over the world companies and marketing appearance are not staying in one
place it is moving it is generating new fields and directions. In 2012 people called new media social
media marketing. People did not understand how to use it. Even employees did not believe in the power
of social media. Now this is an integral part of marketing in all companies. So digital marketing is the
most relevant field for the modern marketing field. That was not the same as 10 years ago. However,
People in companies do not pay attention to traditional marketing pay attention mostly to digital
marketing. Because AI now developing. This is the most common thing in the marketing field and all the
visuals, text and content can be generated by AI. I understand that marketing is also will change near half
a year or one year as well.

5. In the context of the Azerbaijani market, can you identify any distinct external factors or market
conditions that significantly influence marketing strategies? How does your bank effectively adjust its
marketing approaches in response to these specific conditions? 11:15

Actually, I have talked about it in my first question. The most impactful thing influencing the marketing
field of Azerbaijan in my experience last 10 years is about prioritizing digital marketing in Azerbaijan. 10
years ago we were calling it new media but people were known about it. Now this is an integral part of
all marketing strategies for all companies. The biggest part of our budget goes to digital, social media,
some search engines etc. This is the influence of the world. This the rules which we do not write. People
have started to use more internet and social media. Companies try to find them all there. In the recent
period, TikTok social media started to be very famous all over the world of course in Azerbaijan as well.
Companies start to think they can also create their own accounts giving an advertisement in this social
network. This is mostly influenced by the external causes. None of the social media platforms or digital
marketing tools are local. We use mostly international tools, we have no local social media channel in
Azerbaijan. We use international channels which are quite active for the Azerbaijani market.

8. How would you describe the current state of marketing in Azerbaijan? What are the key trends and
challenges you've observed in the local market? 7:40

If you talk about trends we need to talk about TikTok. This is very popular in Azerbaijan in the very short
term people have started to use this social media not only in Azerbaijan but all over the world. Became
very popular in a very short time. Honestly, the content in this social media is not very relevant,
especially for the banking field. But we understood that people are there. People spend hours on this
social media. We will try to find good and relevant content for this social media. Trends show that people
use TikTok many hours a day. If our advertisement, our product is there they will see us, they will get in
touch with our brand and maybe they can do purchasing from there. When I worked in the automobile
field with very famous brands like Mercedes Benz, and Volkswagen we were trying to find some
marketing companies especially work for TikTok. Because there are people with big pockets with a lot of
money who spend hours on TikTok and do not use other social media. So that means that in a very few
time, maybe nearly half a year, maybe a year we will see most of the Azerbaijani or maybe International
companies in this social media. Because this is very trendy, people are there and consumers are there.
We will find ways to reach them.

11. What do you foresee as the future of marketing in Azerbaijan? Are there emerging trends or
technologies that you believe will shape the industry?

This is the main thing for all the fields about technology and innovation. People are starting to be more
mobile and digitalized using the internet day by day everyone. That is why I strongly believe that in the
near future, we will see many technological changes, and developments in the marketing field as well. As
we see it artificial intelligence is very influential in the marketing field, design field visual field. That
means most of the content generated for marketing purposes can be generated from the AI from Chat
GBT etc. And even if some old people do not use it, modern people very frequently use these
technologies. This shows that in the very near future maybe some of the fields totally adopt AI
technology. I believe that in the near future, we will see more tools or channels which are used in
marketing for content, visual and design parts.