Solid leadership has helped many brands navigate the uncertainty of the last year. Being a strong leader means having vision, a finger on the pulse of the culture and the ability to listen and be flexible.
At a recent Brand Innovators’ C-Suite & Marketing Leadership International livecast event, leaders from successful brands in Europe have shared their insights on growth and innovation.
“We fundamentally focus on growing the business and the sales,” said Antonio Marques, EMEA CMO at Restaurant Brands International. “The key thing is we really put our energy into finding all of the opportunities to strengthen the brand equity across the three brands. We are driving the right engaging, relevant communication that is able to strengthen the brand equity while connecting with the consumers. Another big pillar of our work is innovation. How do we find the right consumer insights and how do we translate that into product innovations that are meaningful for people’s lives? Something that we are focusing on very much these days is how we can improve the guest experience not only in the restaurants, but more and more on digital as well. After the pandemic, all of the industries had an explosion on the remote channels and on digital.”
The consumer journey is at the center of all brand and marketing for Procter & Gamble’s Grooming brands in Europe.
“Path-to-purchase is technology and platform resistant. All we know for sure is everything is going to change,” said Pankaj Bhalla, Senior Vice President & General Manager at Procter & Gamble International, Europe Grooming. “In the next 10 years, almost every ecosystem and digital environment around us will change. But if you know how that consumer moves through the chain from search to purchase, the clearer you are and the more resilient you can be in a changing environment, even as privacy laws get stronger and even as its compliance gets widely accepted. Most of the time, we begin digital conversations about platforms, technology and ecosystems and we shouldn’t do that. We should start with the consumer and tell me what he or she does at the beginning and tell me what you want him or her to do at the end and we’ll map out what’s the most efficient way to bridge that gap.”
Vestiaire Collective is trying to disrupt the fashion industry and make it more sustainable for generations to come by creating a high end second hand marketplace online.
“I think today the fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of the CO2 emissions in the world, which is so high that it’s kind of mind-boggling,” said Arnaud Collin, Chief Revenue Officer at Vestiaire Collective. “We always talk about transportation, but fashion is not the first thing that comes to mind. That’s one of the things we aspire to change at Vestiaire Collective. Not only can you find great deals and buy things that sometimes are vintage or unique, but really the core of what we do is all about avoiding producing new stuff and making sure that the existing things can have a second life and be used again.”
Fiverr is transforming the way that small businesses source workers and partners by connecting with freelance talent around the world on its digital platform.
“It’s not about capitalizing, it’s about helping,” said Duncan Bird, VP, Brand Marketing & Digital at Fiverr. “We do tons of research, and we can see that there are increasingly large numbers of people who want to have more flexibility in their work, who want to make the decisions for themselves, and our platform is there to really help and enable them.”
The Lycra brand is seen in apparel across categories and demand for its products have only increased since the pandemic. The brand’s leadership is focused on innovations in products and communications as a way to keep up with the momentum.
“Innovation is part of our core strategy. We have at minimum 2-3 different innovations launched and announced in a given year,” said Denise Sakuma, VP, Brands, Marketing Comms & Merchandising at Lycra. “This is because we are present in different regions with different consumers, cultures, and also different garment categories. The whole pandemic was a big disruption for everybody, for consumers, for the business, and it was a big wake up call. The trends of casualization, versatility, easy care, inclusivity were already there. The pandemic just accelerated it together with sustainability. We were really fast to respond to the market. Innovation and the ability to have communication channels and collaborations among the value chain allowed us to be on a pole position in a situation like a disruption.”
