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Johan de Geer
Stipendiet finansierade en undersökning om relationsmarknadsföring i Ryssland. Under två månaders tid i S:t Petersburg kontaktades och djupintervjuades femton utländska managers, med syftet att undersöka på vilket satt de använde relationsmarknadsföring och hur viktigt de ansåg att detta var for deras verksamhet. Vidare intervjuades fyra lokala experter, inom olika marknadsföringsområden, för att få en allmän bild av marknadsföringsklimatet i Ryssland. Studien gav ovärderliga insikter om hur utländska aktörer anpassar sin affärsverksamhet till det ryska affärsklimatet och vilken vikt de personliga relationerna har i det arbetet.
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Vad har hänt sedan du tilldelades GELS-stipendiet?
“The GELS Award gave me an unprecedented opportunity to familiarise myself with Eastern Europe in general and the former Soviet Union in particular. Having returned from St. Petersburg in the late summer of 2001 with a lot of new knowledge received from my interviews with the foreign managers there, I was definitely bitten by Eastern Europe and the opportunities available in this part of the world. During the final phase of my studies at SSE, I continuously interacted with people who had similar interests and experiences. In doing so, I got in touch with the company Chumak in Ukraine. The company was founded by Swedish entrepreneurs and funded by former Tetra Pak owner Hans Rausing. It produces and sells food products (sunflower oil, tomato paste and ketchup, mayonnaise, and pickled vegetables) on the Ukrainian market, and is one of the most known consumer brands of the country.
The Managing director of Chumak, Johan Bodén, recognized and appreciated many of the findings in my GELS project, and was impressed by my general interest in the region. Therefore, I ended up changing my initial plans for my Master’s thesis and decided to base it on the Ukrainian market for Sunflower Oil. The thesis was named "Branding the Unbranded - How to make Consumers of Unbranded Oil Sold in Bulk Start Buying Bottled Branded Oil?" In the process of writing, I visited Ukraine five times over a six month period, and I learnt a lot about the country and Chumak The thesis was very well received, both at SSE and at Chumak. As a consequence, I was offered the position as Marketing director of Chumak upon my graduation from SSE. Looking back, the GELS award contributed significantly to the exciting jump start of my career.”
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Johan de Geer
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