EXPERT OPINION
Ramstore – the key
milestones of excellence
World Monitor had a pleasure of visiting new Ramstore facilities in
Almaty and having conversation with Mr Kilic about the 19 years of
the brand’s quality work in Kazakhstan.
Ramstore is 19 years old this year.
What are the key milestones you can
outline?
Onder Kilic,
Marketing Director,
Ramstore Kazakhstan LLP
As was mentioned Ramstore was built in
Kazakhstan 19 years ago. This building
is the first supermarket and also first
shopping mall in Kazakhstan. The key
aspect after all these years is that we are
still here, in this market. We are inspired
to be working on this – it is our strategic
plan.
During the past years Kazakhstan
experienced various stages of economic
crises, but due to our financial discipline
and ‘know how’, we sustained through
it. Many companies went bankrupt, and
some competitors closed their business
because of economic difficulties. But
Ramstore continues to be at your service.
Another aspect is that we were always a
leader. I do not mean externally. I’m talking
about in the ways of implementing new
things – our innovations for the clients.
Even today our promotion mechanisms
are very different from our competitors.
We have a ‘first come, first served’ promo
concept. As part of this program, our
customers can buy products participating
in the promotion at a discount of 70%.
We practice a loyalty system that our
competitors don’t have – it includes a
bonus system and additional activities
in the store. Participants of our bonus
system not only save on purchases, but
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also earn on them, with the opportunity
to pay with bonus units. We can easily
call ourselves the only supermarket chain
in Kazakhstan.
Other competitors work differently: some
work in the hypermarket area. These are
small stores that look like discount stores,
but they have a limited assortment.
Others function as gourmet markets.
Ramstore is a pure supermarket for
everyone, because we don’t have
customers ‘clusterization’: there is no A
or B or any specific type of consumers
we work for. For us the inclusive nature
of business is primary. Everyone is our
customer. Ramstore aims its marketing
and communication strategies at
everyone – a wide range of clients.
I joined Ramstore in Kazakhstan a year
ago. I can assure you that Almaty is the
most exciting market for me personally.
The city life and doing business here
is challenging even after 18 years
of previous experience, there is still
something I can learn. This is a different
way of doing retail business because
the customers’ habits are different.
The population is very diverse with
many ethnic groups that have different
demands that we need to meet. We need
to define our assortment and promotion
strategy based on these diverse public
preferences.
The unique feature of people in