Monica Pesce

Consultant and globetrotter

Monica Pesce - Consultant and globetrotter

Category Archives: Being a consultant

What is the link between GNSS and women’s professional growth? Or about multiple personalities

In September Sara Rosso was speaking at PWA about “Personal branding”. Some key points were presented and discussed and attention was drawn towards the concepts of consistency and focus of your personal brand.
That’s where my question to Sara came up: how do you handle multiple personal brands?


What if, like in my case, you have a professional brand linked to your bread-winning position as Partner in a consulting company who is in charge of the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) business unit as well as a not-for-profit professional brand linked to PWA Milan board position as President?
Some debate rose when I asked the question and two alternative options emerged:

  • Do you really need to put the two personal brands together and/or promote both of them?
  • Can’t you find a link between the two personal brands? What is the common denominator?

I found the second option way more puzzling and stimulating as I am not really sure about the answer. Apart from me as the physical container of these two personal brands is there something more?
The two contexts – supporting the European Commission in Brussels in understanding the market and economic opportunities of such an innovative technology and leading the Italian chapter of EuropeanPWN aiming to foster the professional growth and achievements of women – in fact have a few things in common:

  • Global perspective and context – leveraging on the benefits of diversity in terms of nationality, perspective and gender
  • Vision in action – when you have the objective to envision how the future will be and what benefits it will bring, but at the same time you have to make sure what you propose is feasible and actionable
  • On the edge of innovation – be it the futuristic concept of intelligent cargo system or authentication of the signal or be it the social and cultural innovation we are contributing to bringing excellent professional women to Italian boards or through our mentoring program
  • Networking opportunities in a professional context – whether the goal is to learn something about an innovative GNSS-based service, help a peer reach a board position or look for business opportunities, both contexts allow you to meet amazing people with amazing stories and experiences

My personal brands at a first glance look like two opposite edges with nothing in common, but in the end there is always a very rational reason behind the fact that opposites attract.
Does this all make sense to you?

 

10 must-do in your marketing function (part 2)

I have recently focused on the role of marketing, in Italian companies in particular. In the first post – 10 must-do in you marketing function (part 1) – I presented the first 5 key activities your marketing function should perform regularly. I believe they represent the basics of any marketing function and are to be found in almost every company.

Now I would like to share with you the following 5 key activities, which are probably less frequent however they do represent the building blocks of an effective marketing function.

6.  Strategic positioning assessment – Are you exactly where you think you are or getting closer to where you want to be? What do people think of your brands and products? And your customers? How frequently do they buy your products? What is your product unique value proposition according to them? And according to you? The list of questions you should answer to is very long, do you ask yourself such questions at least every two years?

7.  Trends and new opportunities – Your sales representatives will get back to you with the most unexpected and creative suggestions  and information, do you have your own way( (people, processes, …) to identify new trends? Do you regularly monitor the context around you to identify new opportunities (be it new markets or new selling channels)?How do transform these opportunities in real business? Are you directly in charge in the start-up phase or do you immediately involve the sales department?

8.  Measure results – You have invested a lot of money in a new campaign, you have completely changed your packaging, you have renewed your logo and brand identity…did you benefit from all that? Which are your goals and how many did you achieve? If you are willing to increase your brand awareness, have you measured it before, during and after your campaign? If you have changed the pack to make your product more visible in stores, are you measuring how sales are consequently improving? Strategy is nothing without an effective execution and a punctual measurement.

9.  Innovation, change and courage to lead the market – Are you one of those marketers who looked at social networks a couple of years ago and thought “This is never going to affect me!”? Is the most used sentence in your company “We always did it this way?”…wake up before the fast speed new world hits you hard. Even customers in their 60s and 70s are no longer conservatives and loyal to traditions, so why should you? How does your company relate to innovation, whatever it refers to (sales, marketing, product, …)?

10.  Fine tune goals and strategies – if you regularly perform the above mentioned activities, you should then use them to regularly verify if your goals and strategies are still aligned with context and results or whether you should fine tune them. A long time ago – or at least it feels like it was a long ago – companies used to define their strategies in the medium term. Today the world around you changes so quickly that your goals and strategies should probably be checked, reviewed and fine tuned at least once a year

Photo: freefoto.com

Rigamonti – A new suit for a traditional product

As a consultant it is hard to express the way you feel when you finally see the outcomes of a consulting project become reality. In marketing projects in consumer goods this is even truer as you can see the outcomes in your everyday life as a customer.

Apart from the tv advertisement you might have seen on television some weeks ago, you can appreciate Salumificio Rigamonti’s new marketing strategy on their new website.

No need to say you should also taste the special bresaola they produce!

Rigamonti and VVA in the media below, just to mention a few:

10 must-do in your marketing function (part 1)

I have already discussed about the limits of marketing management as developed by most Italian companies in my previous post “Marketing in Italy…what a tragedy!”.

I would like now to share with you the 10 key activities your marketing function should perform regularly to improve you company’s market performance, based on my direct experience as a consultant.

The first 5 – presented in this post – are probably covered by most companies, while the following 5 – look for part 2 to be posted in the next days – are mainly applied by multinational companies operating in Italy.

 

Do you agree with the points described below and what is your own experience on this? Do you think I am forgetting anything and would like to add your points to my list? Does this only apply to Italy or is it applicable to small-medium sized companies all over Europe? Share your opinion and experience with us!

  1. Communication and promotion – Whatever company you look at, you will always find a function – at least an individual – taking care of both communication plans (advertising, brochures, fairs, …) and promotion plans (in store activities, special editions, discounts, …). This is the very basic (and far from ideal) activity related to marketing. What role do the new media and viral marketing play in your sector? Does your company work on them?
  2. Market evaluation and monitoring – Especially when market data are available (consumer goods sold in retail chains, as an example) marketing will monitor the evolution of your market share and that of competitors. Is this monitoring directly related to communication and promotion? Do you try to evaluate the impact of advertising (your and your competitors’) on the market share? How do you use the information you collect?
  3. Competitive intelligence – From the basic info collected chatting over the phone with your sales representatives to a structured mystery shopping activity, most companies monitor the behaviour and evolution of key competitors. What kind of information do you look for? How do you use it?
  4. New products (to be developed in cooperation with R&D and sales department) – Some sectors renew their “whole portfolio” more than once a year (Fashion) some others will do it less frequently (High Tech), however you might need new products to keep your market share and growth rate, especially in mature markets. How frequently do you launch new products? And how is you interaction with R&D and Sales?
  5. Segmentation and targeting – Different products appeal to different targets, this is a basic concept of marketing. We are very good at segmenting the market when we launch a new product, but tend to forget about segmentation and targeting when the product or service is already well performing on the market. Do we regularly verify our coherence with the planned segmentation, especially in terms of price? McDonald’s in the Italian market is a good example: they launched the concept, positioned it, helped it grow…at some point they discovered that it was becoming a low-cost chain and that their target customers were poor people that could not afford a more expensive meal. All their previous customers were leaving. The company had to make huge efforts to bring the chain back to its previous positioning.

photo: freefoto.com

Time versus perfection – which one to prefer for an effective go to market strategy?

Some weeks ago I was having a coffee with a powerful Italian woman who has spent probably the last 20 years in the US and we were discussing – probably from a philosophical point of view, as Italians do in front of a coffee – about the difference between Europeans and Americans (or should we say Anglo-Saxons?) in the way they approach business and how this impacts our economy.

Americans are for sure very pragmatic and always think big, while Europeans seem to be more thoughtful, perfectionists and are sometimes afraid of becoming too big. This very much applies to Italians too:

  • we created pizza, but not PizzaHut;
  • we have an everyday tradition on coffee but neither invented Starbucks nor Nespresso;
  • we probably created ice cream, but did not launch Haagen Dazs;
  • we have the most beautiful museums, pieces of art and history in the world, but are somehow afraid to transform this into an industry.

The time it takes us to develop the idea, make sure we all agree with the idea, create the product or service, test it, discuss it again…someone else might already be on the market! And we might miss the momentum. We want to make sure the product or service is simply perfect, as we seem to be obsessed with quality.

But only think of one, very successful example: iPhone. The new release of the product (iPhone 4) has been launched when the technology was probably not perfect yet and we are talking about a very expensive product with apparently some relevant problems related to its core functions! However, Apple decided to go to market and solve the eventual problems afterwards. It looks like their decision was the right one.

In this case, time was more important than perfection.

Do you think this strategy applies to these products (or this company) only or that it could apply to other product categories?

Should we become more pragmatic and develop a quicker approach to our go to market strategy, especially considering how fast the world is moving now? How would this different approach impact your company, your products and your customers?

photo: freefoto.com

Don’t fall in love with your product, fall in love with your customer!

There are two crucial moments in the life of a company (and of a product) that require that you – the entrepreneur, the CEO, the General Manager – ask yourself if you are too much in love with your product:

  • When you are in the development phase or about to launch it
  • When you reach maturity and sales after a while start decreasing either overall or in specific markets

The golden rule – as Enrico Valdani always tells us – says that products are sold not because of their intrinsic quality and “beauty” – or at least not only because of that – but because there is someone (the customer) willing to spend money on it. Because customers see in that specific product, made both of tangible and intangible features, enough value added to justify the investment in terms of time and money to own it.

After a while in consulting you realize how many times you meet an entrepreneur and you hear him declare “Our product is excellent, the best in the competitive arena”. At this point the first question that comes to your mind is “Does the customer agree with you? What you offer is what he expects?” and you sometimes find yourself confronted with an unexpected and surprising reaction: the appreciation is given for granted and the idea of offering a product that the customer does not value is simply rejected.

Entrepreneurs must be very humble and courageous to be willing to find the truth. You might discover that the intrinsic quality of the raw materials you use is “too intrinsic” for the customer to appreciate and the only thing he will perceive is that the product is too expensive.

You might learn at your expenses that one of the key feature of your product is exactly what the customer does not like (do you remember how Muller challenged Yomo by offering a less sour and more creamy yogurt?) or that you focus on technological and tangible features while your target customer is looking for design.

If you are humble and courageous enough, there is an easy way to learn the truth: ask your customers!

You can choose qualitative research if you wish to understand why and how the customer selects a specific product and what are the features he is looking for: focus groups, if you want to assess user needs, collect information on perceptions and test products or concepts, or ethnographic research, when the goal is to understand how the customer behaves during the purchase process.

Quantitative research is your option in case you need to evaluate the market potential or collect data that have a statistical relevance – that you might want to use to define a business plan. Today quantitative research is more affordable thanks to new technologies, that will allow for a web survey as a valuable alternative to traditional phone surveys.

Social networks and blogs represent an innovative way to create a communication channel with customers and co-generate innovation, implying however the ability to be transparent and willing to share ideas and answer to challenging questions or negative comments.

Whatever approach you might choose, one of the keys to success is the ability to find a way to listen to what your customers or prospects think, appreciate and look for and use these data to improve or innovate your products.

photo: freefoto.com

How consulting has changed in the last 10 years

When I joined VVA Consulting, immediately after my graduation, the world was different. It was the year 2000 and terrorism was something that did not bother us.

At that time our clients, most of them, bought consulting services mainly related to strategic development. VVA Consulting’s DNA has always been related to strategy, marketing and innovation, so what clients expected from us was innovative methodological approaches, sophisticated but yet easy to use (and interpret) forecasting and performance evaluation tools, support in the definition of innovative products, services and formats.

Our task was to challenge them on an intellectual and strategic basis, their task was execution.

Then the world changed, fear spread and an economic downturn followed. What our clients were asking for was less oriented to strategic development and more focused on efficiency and effectiveness: process reengineering, cost rationalization and portfolio optimization. Our task was the assessment of data and the reengineering of processes, their task once again was execution. During this phase a request for support to implementation started to emerge.

Today, hopefully sitting on the tail of the worst economic downturn ever, our clients are looking for strategic thinking and development closely related to operations and implementation, they want the consultant to somehow become part of the organization and take care of execution too.

Together with this increased concreteness new needs are emerging: more and more our clients are looking for a more structured support to the CEO, helping him build a network of relationships and contacts that will allow the company reach its objectives – reduce costs by finding new suppliers, enter new markets by selecting the best commercial partners, identify a potential investor, …

We might sometimes miss the pure intellectual and strategic challenges, however we clearly perceive our contribution to the success of the company is more tangible and our support truly valuable.

When the downturn will finally be over, what will our clients be asking for?

photo: freefoto.com

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