H. What do you believe are the greatest challenges facing the sector or industry you would like to specialize in at IE? What role do you hope to be able to play in this sector or industry in the medium term?

1. What are the greatest
challenges facing the sector I
am going to specialize in?
Sohil Ayoub

2. Consumer behavior
• Consumer behavior is the psychology of how customers think and feel
when choosing between two alternative brands, products or retailers.
• The psychology is influenced by the surrounding environment (culture,
family, friends and media).
• How marketers can adapt to consumer changes and creating effective
marketing campaigns is a challenge.

3. The challenges
• Consumer’s taste and preferences are always changing.
• Many competing brands are being introduced in most of the industries.
• That’s why marketers have to be always up to date with everything that's
happening around.
• And always come up with new ideas to keep customers from switching
and staying loyal to the brand.

4. The challenges
• Nowadays, consumers are the ones in control of what they purchase.
• They evaluate everything before making their decision, from prices to
competing brands or even reading the ingredients on food labels.
• Making the right market research and marketing strategy will definitely
give you an advantage over other brands in the market.

5. Market research
• Market research is the process of gathering and interpreting information
collected from target markets or customers.
• Its an important factor for companies to maintain competitive advantage.
• Market research techniques can be divided into qualitative methods
(focus groups, interviews), and quantitative methods (surveys, secondary
data).

6. The challenges
• The quality of the research being conducted.
• The data might not be representative, some of the respondents might be
dishonest or might not provide accurate data.
• When the insights are not totally accurate, there is a high risk of having a poor
market research.
• Which leads to weak marketing decisions from the company.

7. Sales
• Sales is the activity of selling products or services to customers.
• It’s a very challenging and versatile job.
• Selling is the final stage in a marketing process.
• Sales representatives must be fully aware of their products.
• And, they should have various techniques and skills in order to gain and
retain customers, and to achieve the companies' desired goals.

8. The challenges
• Many sales people fail to execute the job, due to lack of productivity and
efficiency, making them unable to sell.
• Rejection also affects sales, being rejected multiple times decreases the
confidence. Every rejection must be a lesson learned and an opportunity
to fix what's wrong and improve.
• Many competing brands entering the market with lower prices.

9. What role I hope to play in this
sector in the medium term?

10. What next?
• After completing my master’s degree at IE.
• I hope to play a very important and leading role in:
1. Being a consumer expert in various industries.
2. Being an expert in sales and advertising.
3. Know how to interpret data and help in predicting future trends.
4. Being up to date with all the current trends and ahead of competitors.
5. Being able to adapt to any cultural or environmental changes.