What is your role in the company and who do you interact with the most?
For a few years I have been Marketing Manager at TeraPlast, where I coordinate a team made up of 3 other people. We started our marketing activity at the end of 2019 and, in recent years, we have grown in terms of operations. It has been, and still is, a journey full of stimuli during which we have erased the prejudices linked to the communication sector. We have now created a broader and more developed relationship and dialogue thanks to which the company marketing area can carry out various projects. The objective is to further structure ourselves in such a way as to also coordinate the other departments, starting from sales.
What led you to take on a position in marketing?
I moved to Milan to attend the IED Institute. I have always wanted to train to become a professional in the communications field and then join the company. Before arriving at TeraPlast, I gained other experiences in the B2B sector. I chose to enter this reality because, right from the start, I found having to build company marketing from the ground up challenging. Furthermore, ours is a particular target because we address both B2B and B2C, multifaceting communication and posing ever-changing challenges. Also being part of the Research and Development team, I have both an aesthetic and technical vision of our products which are poured into corporate communication.
Which social network do you use with the most involvement and which one the least?
We started from a strategy that put Facebook at the center of TeraPlast's communication. In recent years, however, we have noticed that there has been a rediscovery of the world of gardening and greenery on Instagram. People, forced to stay at home during the pandemic, have given space to taking care of their gardens and plants, giving a boost to a sector that had become a niche. This recovery has given space to many creators and influencers who deal with topics related to the world of plants and greenery. Furthermore, since 2018, our products have been made with recycled plastic and are therefore perfect for the green sector. Instagram has given us the opportunity to reach large communities through partnerships with industry micro-influencers. The most distant platforms for us, at the moment, are Twitch and TikTok, even if we are sensing the arrival of our target audience. Twitch and its content mode are still a little distant from the gardening world.
The data shows that having a low number of followers damages the brand image, what do you think?
I believe that this perception depends on the sector in which one operates. In the TeraPlast niche, the number of followers is not yet seen as an important data point. In this case it is a target that prefers content, the useful information provided by the creators followed. It is a community based on communication that aims to teach and provide advice on plant care. The world of gardening still lacks personalities with a large following and is, therefore, devoid of that malice that distinguishes other sectors where the number of followers is important. Furthermore, the tone of voice used in this sector is much more relaxed, calm as it is much more free and sensitive to certain issues.
How important are online reviews, are they important?
Reviews in B2B have a different weight than in B2C. In our case, in fact, B2B reviews refer to the perception of external collaborators on procedural aspects such as logistics, while reviews in the consumer world actually deal with the product and are therefore closer to the purchasing process. For this reason, at TeraPlast we often focused mainly on those left on Amazon. This is the platform closest to the end customer and their experiences: this is where we have paid the most attention. On a personal level, I tend to read mainly the negative ones because I find that most of the time they contain the most interesting comments and the aspects that most of all help me to have a clear idea of the problems that can be encountered after purchasing a product. I like to leave both positive and negative ones, trying to underline my needs and my experience.
Have you thought about enlisting the help of professionals from the social world given the importance achieved by digital platforms and their management complexity?
Since 2019 we have started studying strategies also in the Marketing sector. As regards social media, TeraPlast has decided to collaborate with external entities. We realized that support in this area was necessary, especially to create professional content in line with the brand. We have now internalized communication, also working on the tone of voice to make it more immediate and less institutional. In general, I am convinced that there must be an exchange between internal and external: fusing corporate DNA with the knowledge of professionals allows for the creation of coherent and linear communication.
What are the future corporate communication projects?
Soon we will be online with the new TeraPlast website, more functional and refined in every respect. In the communication field we would like to involve the figures of the gardening scene more widely, collaborating with young realities and with a fresh approach. We want to create a much more open dialogue with these communities to give a more dynamic imprint to our brand.