What was your journey until taking on this role in the company?
I graduated in Communication in Padua and then moved to Turin to attend a Master's in Marketing and Communication at the IED. I lived in this city for 5 years and this is where I started my professional journey. I worked for some multinationals in the world of spirits, such as Bacardi and Diageo, in the Customer Marketing team, covering various roles over the years, following both the Horeca and GDO channels. After some changes in the company and a combination of events, about 5 years ago, I decided to return to Veneto. Initially it was a difficult challenge because the environment and the way of interpreting the company are different from what I was used to. After another training course, I joined Fiorenzato, where the marketing department did not yet exist. At that time the brand was starting to expand and it was decided to also expand communication. The objective was, and still is, to involve all our audiences in the B2B market, from the roaster to the micro roasters who open their premises and cater to the customer. In my opinion, the coffee sector has many affinities with the wine and spirits sector: in all three, those who are passionate seek quality and are willing to invest in it. Unfortunately, coffee is still seen as a commodity, something to drink on the fly, often without even sitting at the table. I therefore take care of all the communication and organization of international fairs and product marketing.
What do you think about the use of social media in the B2B market segment?
I believe that the B2B market is a bit particular: the goal is to involve those who will use your product, whatever it is. From here we start generating the request, the awareness and all the communication with those who can give you the most useful input on the use and features of the products. Fiorenzato is a B2B reality: on the one hand it listens to the precise requests of roasters and distributors, on the other it takes into account the needs and feedback of the baristas who use our coffees every day. Our competitors are increasingly present on social media, so much so that in the last two years they have, in turn, expanded their staff to invest resources in marketing.
Which social network do you use with the most involvement and which one the least?
Although Fiorenzato operates in B2B, the main platform for us is Instagram. This is the channel that rewards us the most and where we have the greatest following. The contents we create are mainly designed for this social network and are then also shared on Facebook. In my opinion we could focus even more on YouTube and use it as a platform to create videos explaining the functions of coffee grinders. We will probably arrive on TikTok in the future because it is an expensive social network both in terms of investment and implementation times. We collaborate with influencers, ambassadors and creators on multiple levels: some products are highly appreciated by the community and it is therefore easy for partnerships to arise.
The data shows that having a low number of followers damages the brand image, what do you think?
I think it depends a bit on the platform and the reference market. It is a fact that has much more importance in B2C where perhaps the user also feels more at ease in seeing that particular care is taken of their social channels. The B2B market is still based heavily on trade fairs and the offline network. Obviously not all social networks are "right" for a brand and it is therefore probable that there is some unbalanced data. The Instagram pages of Fiorenzato and Pietro Grinders (our new manual coffee grinder) have a clear disparity in the number of followers but also a substantial difference in engagement. The first has much more following but a little less interactions than the second. Furthermore, we must also consider that a company perhaps invests more resources in one channel rather than another, as we do with Instagram and Facebook.
How important are online reviews, are they important?
The reviews left to us are practically always from people who want to purchase or have one of our products repaired on site. Fiorenzato, however, does not deal with retail sales: it is therefore a purely proximity and geographical area aspect. For our distributors around the world it is practically irrelevant because it does not concern any of the services they deal with on a daily basis. Even in my personal life I tend not to use reviews: I read them every now and then because I prefer to inform myself on social media. When I go to a restaurant, for example, I prefer to search for the place on Instagram to get an idea based on the content I find.
Have you thought about enlisting the help of professionals from the social world given the importance achieved by digital platforms and their management complexity?
In Fiorenzato we collaborate with different entities, each with a specific role. We have support on the social side, from the creation of the editorial plan to the creation of the contents and support at the fair. We then collaborate with a product design company that supported us in the company rebranding, created the new logo and designed Pietro. Even with regards to websites, we rely externally on an agency in Turin.
What are the future corporate communication projects?
We have very recently launched new products from the Fiorenzato Home line and therefore we certainly want to push these innovations with a 360° marketing plan. For these products, communication will focus not only on photos and videos but also on satellite activities during fairs and on partnerships with ambassadors and creators. There will certainly be a communication dedicated to Pietro, because it is an innovative product and different from the others. As regards the main brand, however, we will work on brand equity and product awareness.