22 May 2026
The market is ready for high-return professional marketing, but business owners' reluctance to invest in brand-building keeps strong specialists in a permanent job-hopping cycle.
Lola Vaisova — Client Service Director, Cheil Uzbekistan.
It is genuinely difficult to define marketing in Uzbekistan concisely, especially when the task is to share thoughts not on one specific area but on the whole picture. Yet, drawing on my experience across different companies, my observations increasingly come down to the following.
Marketing in our country has undergone very rapid development over the past few years — it is a dynamic and exciting field. In my view, the market is no longer empty: there are plenty of projects, momentum, and activity, yet it is not oversaturated either.
These are excellent opportunities for companies that know how to work fast, locally, and with a deep understanding of their audience — for those capable of adapting quickly to change.
International brands are entering the market, e-commerce is growing, and banks, retail, and real estate are developing rapidly. The economy is expanding — and with it, competition is intensifying, making marketing increasingly essential.
Businesses are increasingly focused on the quality of their marketing proposition, not just the costs. Where evaluation was once based on the volume of money spent, today more and more attention is paid to metrics, data, and return on investment.
First, there is no clear distinction between formal marketing and real marketing. We still live in a reality where marketing is perceived in a distorted way. In many companies, marketing is still reduced to SMM alone, the marketing budget is reduced to one-off expenses such as producing 300 branded pouches for a pharmacy chain, and advertising is seen not as a tool for long-term business growth but solely as a way to drive sales here and now. As a result, effectiveness is measured only by short-term indicators, without a strategic approach, forecasting, or planning several years ahead.
Second, the unwillingness or inability to pay sufficient attention to analytics. A company that lacks internal CRM analytics and does not measure ROI is at a serious disadvantage compared to those that have implemented these tools. The ability to assess your market share, correctly identify competitors, and — most importantly — build an accurate consumer profile already accounts for 50% of all marketing success.
Third, localization of the marketing proposition. It is critically important to speak the consumer's language — and this refers not only to language per se but also to understanding their values, feelings, and cultural context. I have observed how the arrival of expats in companies quickly introduces systematic approaches, strengthens expertise, and improves business processes. Yet the lack of understanding of the local audience often leads to mistakes and loss of interest in the product.
It is also worth noting that many brands are afraid to try something new. They choose familiar, safe tools, use the same channels, and do not take the risk of creating something truly distinctive that could sharply set them apart from competitors.
And perhaps one of the key problems is the lack of a strong educational foundation. There is no institution that systematically trains specialists. As a result, strong marketers are forged on the job — in businesses, agencies, and international companies. It is a long journey, often driven by trial and error.
Today, a market is forming in Uzbekistan where a good marketer can deliver disproportionately high results. The market is ready for this. But in practice, we see strong specialists moving from company to company, encountering business owners who are not yet willing to give marketing the attention it deserves.
I would characterize the current market as a startup market: even major brands are not always prepared to invest seriously in reputational marketing, and the situation with social responsibility is even more complex.
This is not just about advertising — it is about long-term work in which a brand builds itself through trust, public value, and sustainable reputation. In such an approach, a business becomes a constructive partner for the country, rather than merely a supplier of goods and services.
I find it fascinating to watch how many fintech companies and banks today engage with young people: launching educational programs, hosting open-door days, offering internships, supporting local startups and young professionals. Notable examples include TBC Bank Uzbekistan, Ipak Yuli Bank, Click, Payme, and Pepsi.
However, in many cases such initiatives come exclusively from the companies themselves. I would like to see more active involvement from the government — for instance, through the creation of a unified platform where major players could collaborate, pool their efforts, and implement significant projects together.
Imagine a platform where a company can choose a direction aligned with its product and goals, partner with other brands, and launch large-scale initiatives. That is the level of collaboration that would benefit all market participants.