Mazda drafts in marketing consultant

Car manufacturer Mazda, has drafted in a well-known marketing consultant to act as marketing director after the company failed to fill the position, which has been vacant for nearly a year.

Alexei Orlov, the former marketing director of Volvo, is now acting as marketing director at Mazda and overseeing Mazda’s marketing department three days a week.

A spokesperson for Mazda, who confirmed the appointment, declined to comment on whether his position would become permanent.

Mazda’s last marketing director, Chris Owens, left last April and John Brewer, the marketing manager, has been overseeing marketing until a replacement was found.

Orlov is well connected in the advertising industry. He left Volvo in 1995 after the car company restructured and merged the marketing and sales roles, diminishing Orlov’s function.

Since then, Orlov has worked as a marketing consultant at various companies including Redrow, the house-building group. He was also chairman of Ray Leach Orlov, an agency which he helped to found.

A Mazda insider said that Orlov is in charge of establishing and implementing “a strategy for all channels of communications”.

Mazda, which is part-owned by Ford, uses J Walter Thompson as its agency. It moved its &£10m media buying business into MindShare last year.