creativebrief: How has your career path led you to marketing at Groupe Bel?
AL: I went to university at EM Lyon Business School in France and attended very good classes that got me passionate about marketing. When I had to look for the first internship I was in Madrid finishing the Erasmus Program at the peak of the economic crisis in 2008 so I applied to marketing roles in all sorts of different sectors and the odds brought me to an assistant brand manager role on the fresh cheese portfolio (Galbani, Salakis…) at Lactalis Spain. I loved my marketing experience there and decided that food was where I wanted to start my career after graduating. That experience in dairy helped me when applying to Danone in Paris where I worked for 3 years and had the opportunity to lead very early major new product developments and communications campaigns on different local brands. I then decided that I wanted to move to the UK to reach for new opportunities and joined Bel UK as Boursin Brand Manager. I successfully relaunched the portions range tripling its value sales and developed Boursin’s digital cooking platform. I have since been promoted to Senior Brand Manager on The Laughing Cow and lead a transversal project to help generate more breakthrough ideas within the business.
creativebrief: Why did you choose a career in marketing?
AL: I was born in France, grew up in Italy, lived in the US with my family for a year at the age of 10 and in Argentina and Spain while at University so understanding different cultures and behaviours has always been something I had to do to adapt to the new environments I found myself in and I learned to enjoy it. I am now really passionate about people’s behaviours and how to influence them so I love being able to have that at the centre of my daily job. I also love how the changing nature of those behaviours gives a very exciting perspective to our roles as marketeer for years ahead.
creativebrief: What do you think makes a successful career in marketing?
AL: From a personal perspective it’s about making sure that it is a continuous exciting learning path and that all along we succeed in nourishing brands and providing people with experiences they value.
creativebrief: And who is a great example of this?
AL: Even if he is not a marketeer today, I truly admire Paul Pollman (CEO of Unilever).
creativebrief: What do you think are the main challenges facing marketers today?
AL: I operate in a category where 80% of volumes are sold on deal and the number of products is being cut year on year. The retail environment has probably always been very tough but the arrival of the discounters and the price war are making it particularly difficult for manufacturers at the moment to find room for healthy growth, particularly smaller ones. On the other hand, the media environment is more and more complex with high TV inflation, infinite touchpoint options and bigger flows of data coming from each of them. I think marketers require greater leadership skills to influence all elements of the mix and greater creativity to find ways to nourish the brands’ equity and break through effectively.
creativebrief: How do you keep up with constant stream of innovation in marketing comms?
AL: I receive weekly newsletters from our partner agencies and others I like to follow (like Design Taxi), attend conferences and talks as well as follow brands on social media.
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