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Marketing Mag: As a global marketing director, how do you stay up to speed with trends going on in different markets?
Andreas Manero: Well, that’s a real challenge. I travel a lot so I know it’s true that in the world we all live in, there are a lot of tasks, meetings or conversations you can easily do online. But if you really need to understand a market – its reality, momentum, your competitors, your positioning – you need to be there. Ask the questions and then listen to your client’s answers.
Nothing can be done without a good team. This may seem obvious but a great director can only be a great director with a great team behind them – and in my case, a team distributed throughout different regions and following different day-to-day initiatives.
I also would emphasise the importance of talking to a lot of people from different parts of the world to remain connected constantly. Then you get to the point where you can easily identify how different or similar markets actually are, and how the same campaign may need to be adapted.
How do you tailor your marketing message for each specific market?
The concept of message tailoring is actually quite basic, but is something companies don’t often pay enough attention to. Understanding if a product fits in a market is an extremely important aspect to consider.
When we launch a series of new models, the specific model presented or the key visual will often be different. Delivering the right messaging always comes back to understanding the market.
There is always a cost associated with marketing, so how do you ensure that as a business your marketing operations and budget is utilised to the full capacity?
Good question, but I would swap the word cost with investment in this question. In my case, budget management is one of my key roles and responsibilities.
I divide this investment between the corporate marketing budget and regional marketing budget. Each region has their own split that they manage directly, but I always manage the big picture.
The only way to optimise investment capacity is to first have a clear plan of where to invest, and then constantly review and adapt to identify new opportunities or deviations. What personally helps me is having a detailed forecast of the last three to four months of the year, so I can ensure that all future investments are strategic and that the regions meet their budget targets.
What are your current priorities at Neolith?
We’re in an interesting position right now – at both a company and industry level.
At the company level, we’ve just launched two new product ranges – one exclusively for Australia and the other at a global scope. Managing these two new introductions is the key priority for us right now. We’re also entering the last quarter of the year already, so now is the time to meet and deliver our yearly objectives which require consistent attention.
There’s another project we’ve been intensively working on for the last few months – consisting of an analysis of our current product portfolio, finding new ways to optimise at every level – be that productivity, quality, design, availability etc.
At an industry level, it’s globally challenging right now as the construction industry is decreasing in many countries. This also causes a decrease in demand for products like Neolith’s, so we’re actively finding new opportunities to compensate for this.
How do you manage the balance of brand building and achieving commercial success?
This depends a lot on the market situation. There are markets where your market share is already good and you can focus more on branding and brand building. On the flip side, the brand may not be established or introduced, so the priority is ensuring that the specific market has commercial viability before working on brand awareness.
If you communicate branding and generate a lot of demand but the product is not available, the result is always frustration. So for Neolith, we’ll always prioritise one or the other – informed by the strategy formulated around that specific market situation.
How are events integrated into your marketing strategy?
Events are an essential element of our strategy. In our business, touching, feeling and living our products is essential. So every year we’ll activate both big and small events – events related to gastronomy, architecture or even direct training events on our products.
How has technology been integrated into your marketing strategy? Have recent AI advancements been useful to Neolith?
Through the years we’ve seen many different technologies become part of our marketing initiatives. I remember a few years ago we introduced a virtual reality experience with those stereotypical ‘uncomfortable VR goggles’, but now we’ve developed a virtual showroom that uses the foundation of technology in the video games industry, which prioritises real-time raytracing and rendering.
This year we’ve also seen the boom of artificial intelligence (AI), and we’ve integrated this into some of our daily tasks – mainly creative work. I personally ask it questions as if it were just another member of the Neolith team, often seeking out opinions about a range of topics.
I do feel, however, that there is still a significant amount of room for improvement in optimising these daily tasks. For example, I would love AI to start checking my emails and suggesting context-curated answers based on all of the information in the chain. This would save me a lot of time!
What do you see as being the major differences between your Australian and European markets?
I have to say, I don’t think Australia and Europe actually differ that much within our industry. I definitely notice that Australia is more traditional in adopting certain new materials than say Spain or France, which are frequently labelled as ‘early adopters’. But in Europe, there are also some marketers that behave the same way as those in Australia.
What trends do you see emerging globally for marketing leaders?
We’ve touched on AI, so that’s the big one in my opinion. But I’m not referring to integrating it into daily tasks, I’m thinking about integrating it into our entire business intelligence processes.
You’ve been in marketing for 17 years, how have you seen the industry evolve in that time?
This is a long story, but I’ll try to make it short! The industry was super traditional which meant there was little differentiation and risk. Old-minded companies were all doing the same thing led by old-style management.
During these last few years, we have seen a major evolution in terms of product development and improvement of technical properties, but also in terms of communication and branding.
In the surface industry, all but two or three exceptions were commodity products with no brand recognition. Now we see that changing rapidly, and more companies are paying attention.
What advice do you have for Australian businesses looking to venture beyond our shores?
I’m not sure that I’m entirely qualified enough to give this type of advice, but my opinion is that global markets have become more accessible than ever before. Working solely locally is probably only a bit easier than working in a few similar countries, and then that’s only just a bit easier than in a few similar continents.
It’s true that the scale of the business changes, and that can definitely be scary, but in terms of management, businesses are more accessible than ever in an international market. Yes, there are more headaches, but in my opinion, they are worth having.
Andreas Manero is the group marketing director at Neolith. He specialises in product design and marketing, and based in Spain, Manero has been a core part of the Neolith Group for more than 12 years.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Some responses have been paraphrased to improve readability, with every effort made to preserve the original meaning.
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