Snapshot
The manager: Milena Staykova
The job: brand manager of Devin Spring Water
The company: Devin AD
In brief: For her success in promoting Devin's new line of mineral water, Staykova was awarded winner of the competition Brand Manager of the Year 2006. Her duties include setting prices, positioning products on the market, advertising, packaging, distribution, research, presentations and following sales trends. A large part of her work includes meeting people from various companies and acting as Devin's PR. Devin has two lines of water - mineral and spring; carbonated fruit-flavoured soft drinks under the line Everdrink; Icy iced tea; Fitness sport drinks; and supplies and distributes water machines and hand pumps. Devin is certified by ISO 9001:2000. The company has about 220 employees.

The final round of the competition Brand Manager of the Year 2006 was held on November 14 2006, in Sofia's Kempinski Hotel Zografski. A total of six participants had made it to the third and last round.

The competition itself started in August. Thirty-five companies applied in five different categories. Milena Staykova, senior brand manager of Devin Spring Water, a division of Devin AD, participated in the group Introducing a New Brand on the Market. Only 22 of the companies that registered were selected to continue on to the next round.

Then, a series of 10-minute presentations followed. The energetic managers introduced themselves, the brand name and finally, their own personal achievements. A jury of 123 appointed specialists then evaluated each of the participants. A total of five winners, one in each category, received a distinctive award. The victors then went on to the final round of the competition.

The consecutive 10-minute presentations in the auditorium of the hotel were judged by a large audience of journalists and businessmen-experts in the field of marketing and advertisement. Each of the jury then voted for his or her preferred participant and the winner was appointed Brand Manager of the Year.

Staykova ended up in the most competitive group. Although mobile phone service provider Vivatel mustered up the most points and Devin was a little behind, the jury decided to give the young woman the chance to present inside the auditorium. Even today, she can only guess the reasons for her success - "Maybe they liked my presentation and appreciated the way we succeed in launching the new brand, I do not know," Staykova told The Sofia Echo.

The competition Brand Manager of the Year was established four years ago by the Bulgarian Marketing Association and the full-service advertising agency Euro RSCG Sofia, and it has quickly gained speed, prospering all the while. Each year its participants are more competitive than those the year before, which makes winning only the more difficult.

However, to participate, one should have a quality product to present. Staykova, for instance, had been planning and thinking about the market rivalry for many years. The opportunity this year was quite timely as she had just introduced a new product line to the Devin brand - Devin Spring Water.

Staykova describes her corporation as a leader on the bottled water market, with an intimate team and no international experience. Their budget is not huge, either, so she is proud that they have managed to establish themselves on the market scene as good players. Hard work, refined tactics and faith are her key to success.

Wining the award makes Staykova an optimist - an optimist for the future and of the fact that there are some really good experts in Bulgaria. The challenge of the competition itself is rewarding, too, as she had the opportunity to come against the people she practically learnt from while in college.

Staykova went to university a few years before 1989, when communism fell. So, before the political changes took place, she believed just like everybody else that her future would be in a factory. Staykova decided to study for and received a degree in chemical engineering.

Later, however (after 1989), she realised that business offered more opportunities and she felt determined to pursue a new career with a more appealing field. Hence, she ended up majoring in marketing and advertising at the University of National and World Economy.

Initially, she worked in an advertising agency. However, soon she realised that she found management much more intriguing and spent the next years as the brand manager in Devin.

The brand manager of Devin says her philosophy for success is based on two factors: high-quality products and efficiency within a cohesive team. Everybody at Devin - whether it be the executive director or the distributor - is very well acquainted with the goods and their purposes. Hence, they form one quite flexible team that is able to achieve long-term as well as short-term goals.

Competition on the Bulgarian market is tough, though. Staykova deals with it by striving to always offer her clients the best possible water products. Both water varieties Devin sells - mineral and spring water - are of the highest purity. Thanks to Bulgaria's phenomenal nature, Devin's task is to only ensure that the mineral resources are perfectly manufactured so customers can safely trust their favourite brand.

Nevertheless, competition does exist: Bankia has years-long international experience and Coca-Cola's support. Yet, Devin is a definite leader on the market scene - they possess a remarkable 30 per cent of all sales.

Despite the approaching historic date - January 1 2007, the day on which Bulgaria officially joins the European Union - Staykova is not worried abut consequent changes. She doubts that European water brands will replace Bulgarian ones. As she puts it, Bulgarian customers value the taste of home water and given that European water is much more expensive, it could not dominate the home market in the near future.

Right now, she clarifies, Devin is the most expensive mineral water in Bulgaria. It could not be otherwise, though - quality has its price, too.

Staykova's job is quite dynamic, strategic and never repetitive. Her responsibilities account for a quite intense list: positioning products on the market, setting prices, advertisement, packing, research, presentations, following sales trends. Through her work, she meets many people from various companies every day who constantly impress her with the quality work Bulgarian specialists accomplish.

No two days in her career are alike, either. And it doesn't stop there: even as she leaves her office, billions of tasks and plans stick fresh in her mind. When she comes in the next morning, Staykova does not know whether she will stay until six or until later in the evening. And on it goes again.

Staykova has a pretty clear idea of the strategy of the manager in a company. He or she should be cordial, yet his or her sight should be concentrated both on the near and far future of the company. He or she should very carefully examine the market every single day and be aware of the competition. A good manager is also alert of any changes on the international scene. He or she should always be well informed of all peculiarities concerning his or her field of work and be capable of profoundly analysing the facts and making good prognosis of the future.

A brand manager should also be very down to earth, as he or she needs to realistically persuade the common customer of the need to buy the product promoted. However, there should always be a plan B in case stronger competition comes along on the market.

One of the most challenging moments in Staykova's career was introducing the new product - spring water Devin - which, in fact, won her the award. Her team's task was to predict the degree of interest among customers so they could develop it accordingly. Still, they had to make it a product with mass appeal so it could remain on the market scene. They had to see its essentiality very clearly, for otherwise they would not have been able to firmly position it and declare its purpose and importance.

It is impressive that they accomplished their goals through a focus on paper advertorials. They also used short television commercials, just to show the new water line to the customers all over the country in a proper timeframe. In fact, the company introduced an educational campaign, rather than an advertising one. At that point, one would not have seen a sign saying "this water is the best". Rather, they tried to teach the common buyer that there are different types of water - mineral, table and spring.

Mineral water has its origins deep beneath the surface. Spring water, on the other hand, is very slightly mineralised and has a shallow-water basis. Finally, table water could have numerous sources, but after the manufacturing process, it has a non-distinct taste all over the world. Kinley, for instance, is table water - if you bought it in France, it would have the same taste as the one bottled in Bulgaria. Mineral and spring waters, on the other hand, are different due to their unique source and taste.

By educating the public Devin, wanted to give its customers a choice - so when they step into a store, they know their preferences and differentiate not only between trademarks, but also between water types.

The point in having so many kinds of water is that one can alternate them. Bulgarian mineral water has a low mineralisation, and the human body can quickly get accustomed to its ingredients. That is why it is a good idea to occasionally buy a different type of water and "refine" or refresh your body. It would then better process water itself, too.

Unlike other water brands, Devin is appropriate for any age group. Generally, doctors do not recommend that young babies drink mineral water, because it usually contains more sodium than a bottled spring or table water. The organs of a three year old are too fragile for mineral water, explains Staykova. Other groups of people that should avoid mineral water of high sodium content are those suffering from high blood pressure or heart diseases.

Yet, Devin is not among the harmful and forbidden brands, she happily concludes.

Of course, Staykova's favourite moment in her career so far is winning the Brand Manager 2006 Award. However, she is also truly glad when she makes a difference for her customers: when they become more educated and aware of their choices and available products; when type of water and brand do not mean one and the same thing for them anymore.

Working through their campaign could not have been easy though. Staykova and her team had to alert the public to a new product on the market, and persuade them that it is useful and that they indeed need it.

To achieve those accomplishments, Staykova says that a manager needs to be brave and fearless, determined and critical; he or she needs to often make risky decisions but always have faith in what he or she is doing. Most importantly, however, a manager needs to know what he or she is doing each step of his way - after all, each mistake could confuse the customer and cause needless losses.

Those qualities Staykova has applied into her private life and her home, too. As a wife, she needs to plan and organise her many chores and manage each aspect of the housework. As any busy person nowadays, she makes compromises with her personal life, however. She does not spend as much time with her family as she would wish. In the last few years, while working on the new brand, she would even stay up late in the office or take her work home on the weekends. That is why she sincerely admires people who manage to achieve a balance between their professional and private lives and she tries to do it too. In the end, though, she knows that her family loves and supports her and always shares her joys and successes.