Focus on the product
Brand Management: when strategy and creativity create value
Where everything revolves around brand and product, this is the place that marketing strategies are planned and trends codified. Brand Management is now a critically important department for a company – but what exactly does it do? We talk to Michela Rosan, Brand Marketing Manager at NaturalLook.
Michela Rosan has the typical curiosity of one who faces the challenges of marketing on a daily basis, always looking for results that will create added value. To achieve this, she has need of methodical analysis, creative solutions and a well-organised structure. And, last but not least, a generous portion of passion and commitment. We asked her a few questions to help us better understand:
Michela, how is Brand Management structured at NaturalLook? What are the daily activities of you and your team?
“Our Brand Management department has as its main focus the brand itself: we therefore interpret the values of our brand partners for the Italian market. In this way, we can develop strategic thinking tailored to the target group, namely the retailers and the end consumers. Our activity on the one hand involves maintaining a constant relationship with the brands distributed so as to identify their needs while, on the other, keeping in daily touch with management in order to produce a solid, cohesive marketing plan that focuses on issues such as brand positioning, collection segmentation, distribution quality and product contingency. The work entails both balancing and harmonising.”
The Brand Management department at NaturalLook is currently structured in three areas: Michela coordinates a seven-strong team that is close-knit, autonomous and competent – and, for her, invaluable.
How is Brand Management organised at NaturalLook?
“We are organised into three “cores”, as I like to call them. Product Management takes care of product life: this where we study trends, monitor competitors and analyse sales data. This department has the task of researching the consumer and market needs of a territory by visiting points of sale. In order to ensure that deliveries reach retailers on time, monthly forecasts are planned, i.e. the analyses necessary for the purchasing department to buy in the collections for brand partners. The product manager additionally has a broad technical knowledge of the products and will therefore present the collections to the sales force.
Then comes Trade Marketing, which provides support to Product Management and Sales. This is where the communication of the new collections takes shape, subdivided into all the available touchpoints: B2B portal, showrooms, trade fairs, newsletters, catalogues. Together with the interior design team, they also design display spaces or shop-in-shops so as to create an attractive shopping experience for the end consumer.
Finally, Consumer Marketing is responsible for brand and product communication directed at the end consumer, creating visual and textual content in support of the brand image for each touchpoint: from social media and the website through to newsletters. This type of marketing has to be consistent with the brand’s tone of voice, all while embracing engaging storytelling.”
What do you suggest for a footwear brand that wants to be represented in Italy?
“In Italy, style, the quality and narrative of the brand, as well as relationships with retailers and consumers all count for a lot. In this sense, it is essential to know Italian culture – which varies so enormously from region to region – and the channels to which the footwear sector refers – e.g. the fashion, comfort, sports or orthopaedic channels. NaturalLook is a reliable distributor that knows its way around, knows how to create trusting relationships with retailers, and knows how to nurture strong commitment with the consumer.”
One final question: what is the best memory that you link with NaturalLook?
Michela’s face lights up in a broad smile. “I actually have two! The first was a corporate event in 2013, when I first started at the company. We were in the garden of the founder of NaturalLook, Ewald Pitschl, and it was there – between barbecues and chatting – that I realised I was part of a company that really cares about people. And then there was last year’s Christmas party: an unexpected foot of snowfall and coming home at 5 am… but how we laughed!”
Professionalism, human warmth and daily enthusiasm for the job: where else but here?
