What is your vision of marketing in relation to your role in the company?
I have always seen communication as the possibility of choosing how to express oneself. In my team we communicate and innovate. These are two concepts that go hand in hand. We experience innovation as the possibility of altering the pre-established order of things to do new things and communicate them. Marketing plays a very transversal role in every business and area of the Bank. We manage marketing projects that have an impact on business and the communication aspect is just one of them. Ours is value-based marketing. We create and embrace projects whose values we share and position the Bank through the story of these initiatives. Fact 100, the advertising we do for pure awareness purposes covers 10% of our cake. We also combine an internal communication strategy and sustainable initiatives with external advertising and communication planning. The relationship with the customer is fundamental and, although digital helps us facilitate some processes, at Cherry Bank it is not used as a substitute but as an enabler.
What was your path to taking on a senior role in marketing?
I have always had a passion for communication. I studied Communication Sciences, publishing and journalism at the University of Trieste and subsequently worked for both a local newspaper and two Venetian television stations. However, I understood that journalism was not my world, because it was too individualistic. I am a person who loves being in contact with others, I like to express myself using all forms of communication: words, gestures, looks, smiles. I worked for 8 years in an agency and then moved on to the world of financial communication. Today I lead the Marketing and Communications team of Cherry Bank, which is made up of three curious and creative girls and four boys. We like to share, give birth to ideas, contaminate ourselves and we all have different biographies that enrich the team every day.
What do social media represent and how much do they matter for your reality today?
For our Bank, social media represents an internal and external positioning channel as well as a conversion channel for digital products. They are mainly a Customer Care touchpoint, intended both as a support to manage any needs of our customers and prospects, and as a source of improvement thanks to the feedback we receive which allows us to respond and provide support to customers in very agile times. Monitoring social channels and forums is a fundamental part of our strategy, in fact on our website we have a section dedicated to FAQs relating to some services. Thanks to the feedback we receive from users, via social networks and contact centers, we refine the processes and implement new FAQs to provide an increasingly high-quality service. We analyze the drop points to improve processes and move gears that allow us to quickly provide assistance to customers by adjusting the aim to constantly improve.
Which platform is more in line with your business model and which is less?
It's one of the questions we asked ourselves when working on Cherry Bank's launch strategy. LinkedIn helps us with recruiting, conveying institutional communications, such as press releases, interviews and participation in sector events, reaching an audience of professionals and stakeholders. Facebook is the social network that amplifies our range of action for contact and relationships with customers and prospects in organic and ADV flows, also offering a useful support channel for Customer Care. Instagram is the community space, in which we give voice to the most human side of our Human Bank, the cherries. We tell our beating heart and share the values of the team and the Bank. YouTube is both the library of in-depth videos on the services offered and the Bank's special projects and a complementary Care channel with tools such as, for example, video guides.
Given the growing relevance of the world of social media, combined with the multitude of activities reserved for the marketing office, have you ever thought about entrusting your company's social pages to professionals?
We like to invest in young talents who bring their contribution to the team, enriching it with value, freshness of thought and a lot of curiosity. However, this does not mean that we do not rely on external agencies to help us create content. Our team includes an internal Social Media Manager who manages the Bank's editorial plans and at the same time coordinates various suppliers. We are convinced that being supported by "external minds" is a source of enrichment.
What are your future plans in the company and your passions beyond work?
Before being a Bank, Cherry Bank is a Project that all of us cherries have embraced. The first corporate communication project is and will remain internal communication, being the well-being of resources and the driving force of the corporate strategy. Internal communication is the natural completion of the marketing strategy, it is a strategic lever that positions resources as the company's first ambassadors and is an element for digital transformation, as well as being a prerequisite of any smart working plan. The Bank's communication strategy has always been to position the Institute through the promotion of its values, its people and the services we offer. We are working on new digital products and green projects. Furthermore, in the office, we have a "wish board" because we have no shortage of imagination and we add our ideas every week. They start from us, from chats with the business, from reflections on competitors and from a careful look at the market, all seasoned with the futuristic eye of our CEO. In every idea there is part of us. Sooner or later we will realize them all.