Özlem Zülal
CMO
A marketing leader with 15+ years of experience in FMCG, retail, healthcare, and e-commerce. An expert in brand building, innovation, digital, and performance marketing globally; she develops data-driven and customer-centric growth strategies.
Özlem Zülal is a marketing leader with over 18 years of experience in strategic marketing, brand management, customer experience, and growth strategies. Throughout her career, she has worked in global and local organizations within the FMCG, healthcare, consumer goods, and retail sectors; leading significant transformation projects in the areas of brand creation, scaling, and profitable growth.
A graduate of Boğaziçi University's Department of Business Administration, Özlem Zülal started her career at Unilever, where she worked in various areas of marketing, building a strong foundation in brand management, category development, product innovation, and customer-centric growth.
In her roles working with global brands such as Knorr and Carte d’Or at Unilever, she worked on new product development, category creation, and go-to-market strategies; achieving strong commercial results in a short time with the projects she managed. She contributed to reaching a 12% market share within the first year during the launch of the Carte d’Or powdered dessert category.
During her tenure as Global Strategic Marketing Manager at Hayat Kimya, she managed the global positioning, innovation processes, and growth strategies of 7 brands across a vast geography, primarily in North Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Iran, and Turkey. At the same time, she led opportunities for entering new markets, category expansion strategies, and international growth projects.
As Marketing Director at Arzum, she managed a team of 25 people; managing brand strategy, category management, communication, and product innovation processes end-to-end. She won 6 Crystal Apple awards with the campaigns she led; taking an active role in creating domestic and international growth strategies.
Today, as the Marketing Group Leader at Bupa Turkey, she leads multi-brand structures that appeal to different target audiences within an integrated health ecosystem encompassing health insurance, healthcare services, dental health, and distribution channels. Simultaneously, with her digital entrepreneurship experience, she established a private label brand on Amazon; directly managing product development, brand creation, advertising management, and e-commerce operations.
Today, she concentrates her work particularly on brand growth, customer experience, marketing transformation, and data-driven growth strategies.
Areas of Contribution
Strategic marketing and brand management
Brand creation, positioning, and scaling
Customer experience strategies and customer-centric transformation
Performance marketing and digital growth
Product and category management
Go-to-Market strategies
Global brand management and international growth
Marketing communication and campaign management
Innovation and new product development
E-commerce and marketplace growth strategies
Leadership and team structuring
P&L management and commercial growth models
Areas of Expertise
Strategic Marketing | Brand Management | Customer Experience | Digital Marketing | Category Management | Product Innovation | Global Brand Management | E-Commerce | Go-to-Market Strategies | Performance Marketing | Leadership | Commercial Growth