What was your journey until taking on this role in the company?
I graduated from the Hotel Institute and worked for 15 years as a chef. I then entered the sector doing masterclasses and consultancy activities: companies contacted me to provide training and to test their products. The companies built the systems and I, together with other colleagues, tested the equipment, adapting the menus to the equipment. From here I joined Lainox as Product Application Manager: I was responsible for commercial training, product development and the dynamic organization of trade fairs. I then changed roles, working as Country/Area Manager and subsequently as Area Sales Director. I therefore followed the entire Pacific Ocean area, Asia, the Emirates, Portugal, Romania and Russia. This path allowed me to make my own a philosophy that I also wanted to bring to Friulinox, where I joined about a year and a half ago. Our role is to create a synergy between the salesperson and the chef who will use the equipment. For this reason, when we have the possibility, we prefer to hire resources who have had experience as chefs or as elements in the catering sector. We need figures who can provide support and who can give a precise explanation of the machinery. Now I am Vice President and I also follow the foreign side: I still travel a lot but not as much as I was used to previously. I mainly coordinate offline communication but I also supervise the online part.
What do you think about the use of social media in the B2B market segment?
I believe that social media is a very important source that should not be underestimated. Friulinox's competitors use them and in general I see that they are widely used in our sector. However, I have noticed greater attention paid to platforms on foreign markets: there is a greater awareness of the potential of these channels. In Italy we still need to overcome the prejudices linked to social media and start investing more, both in terms of resources and in terms of money. Abroad there is more desire to create content and a strategy designed for your brand.
Which social network is more in line with your business model and which is less?
Friulinox is present on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Although it is mainly from a B2B perspective, the first platform is perhaps the one furthest from our brand. It is a channel that requires high investments, in which we struggle to involve our target. Facebook and Instagram are more similar to our business model: they allow us to address the end customer directly who, knowing us through social media, will choose our products and request them from the retailer. Here our target perhaps already knows us thanks to trade fairs or in any case has heard of us previously.
The data shows that having a low number of followers damages the brand image, what do you think?
I think there is still a different perception when you read this data but I don't think it's as important as it once was. For us, at Friulinox, the engagement and quality of followers is worth much more. We prefer a smaller but active community that responds to and interacts with our content. Furthermore, it must be considered that the public is not always targeted and therefore "dirties" the data a bit.
How important are online reviews, are they important?
This is an aspect that should be taken care of in the best possible way: it is one of the first data that is read when searching for a brand, a place or a service. At the moment in Friulinox they are not very important even if in the future we want to follow them more carefully: the B2B sector is a bit particular because reviews do not yet count that much. Personally, I use them a lot, especially when I travel or when I buy products. It is a fact that has an important weight for me: by reading opinions online I get an idea and I also make decisions about it. I prefer platforms like Amazon and Booking which are closer to my needs as a business traveler.
Have you thought about enlisting the help of professionals from the social world given the importance achieved by digital platforms and their management complexity?
Before my entry, Friulinox collaborated with an agency that also followed the digital part. Now marketing is more internalized: there is a team of 4 people who manage online communication and is supported by an external company that takes care of the graphic part, such as brochures, and the operational part. The site is managed by an internal and an external resource who work in synergy. Social channels, however, are completely internalized. External support allows us to have a broader and more comprehensive vision that perhaps we would struggle to notice on our own.
What are the future corporate communication projects?
For Friulinox, communicating also means investing in demonstration activities. Dedicating time to our chefs in our retailers allows us to communicate the brand, the quality of our products and the results achieved thanks to them. Ours is, therefore, a communication that puts the customer at the center and wants to tell how you can expand or improve your business. The best way to make ourselves known in the round is to let people experience the technical characteristics of the products first-hand. We would like to create a weekly tips appointment: advice from our specialists on the world of catering and cooking combined with our products.