Ray Asiroglu
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Ray Asiroglu

Role: Fractional CMO
Region: Gauteng
Delivering business solutions that drive growth and inspire break through marketing interventions.

 

How I Can Help Your Business Grow
With nearly four decades across client-side, agency, and consulting roles, my approach is grounded in insight, execution, and results:

  • Marketing & Growth Strategy: Developing research-led marketing strategies that translate into clear commercial outcomes across B2B and B2C environments.
  • Customer & Market Insight: Using primary and secondary research, customer behaviour analysis, and industry intelligence to identify real growth opportunities.
  • Brand, Product & Portfolio Development: Shaping products, services, and brand portfolios that meet customer needs and perform in-market.
  • Integrated Campaigns & Channels: Designing multi-channel marketing plans across digital, mobile, offline, and traditional media.
  • Organisational Alignment & Buy-In: Driving internal alignment from C-suite to delivery teams, ensuring strategy is understood, approved, and executed.
  • Measurement & Optimisation: Embedding analytics, reporting, and performance review to ensure marketing activity delivers measurable impact.

 

My Competitive Edge
Deep strategic thinking, backed by hands-on execution and real-world commercial experience.

 

About Me

I’m a senior marketing leader with 38 years of experience working across South Africa, Türkiye, and Iran, supporting multinational brands, growing businesses, startups, and public sector organisations.

My background spans senior marketing, strategy, and product roles on both the client and agency side. I’ve held leadership positions at organisations including Blue Circle, Pilkington’s Tiles, Barlows Appliance Company, Argus Newspapers, Grey Advertising South Africa, and The Agency for Advertising & Marketing, where I served as Strategic Planning Director for over a decade.

Through my consulting work at StratRay, I’ve partnered with businesses across healthcare, fintech, insurance, FMCG, automotive, ICT, retail, and B2B sectors. Highlights include launching Cipla OTC in South Africa, building membership growth strategies for Bonitas Medical Insurance, relaunching Sweetie Pie confectionery, and leading strategic planning for major brands such as Mazda, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Diageo, British American Tobacco, Telkom, and Transnet.

Across every role, my focus remains the same: understanding customers, aligning teams, and building marketing strategies that work in the real world. I’m pragmatic, commercially minded, and deeply invested in turning insight into action.


Fun Facts

  • Keen motor rally enthusiast. Started as a navigator in rally events in South Africa and Switzerland, later modified and competed in his own car as both driver and navigator, and went on to establish a local club-level rally championship.
  • While studying in Switzerland, got deeply involved in skiing. Spent his entire allowance on a pair of cutting-edge racing skis, survived on grilled chicken for three months as a result, and has avoided grilled chicken ever since.

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Experience


Commercially Driven Marketing Strategy

Throughout his career, Ray has operated in commercially complex environments where marketing performance, budget discipline, and return on investment matter. He has supported organisations in aligning marketing spend with business priorities, balancing ambition with practicality, and ensuring marketing activity contributes to sustainable revenue growth and brand value.

Marketing Operations, Planning & Delivery

Ray is experienced in building structured marketing planning processes that support consistent execution. He brings clarity to workflows, planning cycles, approvals, and delivery frameworks, helping teams move from strategy to action efficiently. His background enables him to operate comfortably across both structured corporate environments and fast-moving agency settings.

Brand, Product & Portfolio Development

With senior roles across multiple industries, Ray has led brand positioning, product development, and portfolio strategy initiatives that respond to real customer needs. His work spans tangible product launches and intangible service experiences, ensuring brand promises are reflected consistently across customer touchpoints, service delivery, and staff engagement.

Integrated Communications & Channel Strategy

Ray has deep experience developing integrated marketing and communications strategies across digital, mobile, offline, and traditional media. He ensures campaigns are insight-led, coherent across channels, and aligned to both brand and commercial objectives. His work consistently connects messaging, media, and customer experience into unified programmes.

Creative & Strategic Planning Leadership

As a former Strategic Planning Director at leading agencies, Ray provides strong guidance to creative and planning teams. He ensures ideas are rooted in research, strategy, and customer understanding, strengthening briefing quality and strategic discipline while allowing creativity to flourish within clear commercial boundaries.

Large-Scale Programme & Campaign Leadership

Ray has led complex, multi-stakeholder marketing programmes across sectors including FMCG, automotive, healthcare, financial services, telecoms, government, and retail. His experience includes major brand launches, repositioning initiatives, behavioural change campaigns, and integrated national communications programmes.

Senior Stakeholder Engagement

Ray operates comfortably at executive and board level, presenting strategies, securing buy-in, and navigating complex organisational dynamics. He has extensive experience aligning marketing with sales, operations, product, and service teams, ensuring marketing strategy is understood and supported across the business.

Research, Insight & Performance Evaluation

A core strength of Ray’s work is his reliance on robust research and insight. He uses primary and secondary research, market analysis, customer insight, and performance evaluation to inform strategy and optimise outcomes. Data is used as a decision-making tool, not a reporting exercise.

Team Leadership & Capability Development

Ray has built, led, and mentored marketing teams across agency and client-side environments. He focuses on developing practical capability, encouraging accountability, and creating working cultures that value clarity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Partner & Agency Collaboration

Ray has extensive experience working within multi-agency and supplier ecosystems, managing relationships with research partners, creative agencies, production teams, and specialist providers. He ensures collaboration remains aligned to strategy, quality standards, and business outcomes.

Pragmatic Use of Technology & AI

Ray applies technology and AI as practical enablers rather than gimmicks. He uses digital tools, analytics, and AI-assisted workflows to accelerate research, improve planning efficiency, enhance insight generation, and support better decision-making while retaining strategic oversight and human judgment.

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