We met with Jaume Alemany, Marketing Director at Damm, to walk around Madrid and talk about the learnings accumulated throughout his professional career. During his meeting with Javier Guadiana in Light & LightsJaume reflects on the importance of execution in marketing and explains why a good idea does not necessarily guarantee good results. His experience invites us to pay more attention to those decisions that are usually left out of the creative discourse, but are decisive for the success of a brand.
And for Alemany, curiosity, observation and perfectionism are fundamental qualities of marketing professionals. He claims to have seen unremarkable ideas that ended up leading to excellent campaigns thanks to their execution, and other promising ones that did not reach their full potential because they lacked good implementation. The reflection questions a tendency that we sometimes find in the industry: that of giving almost absolute prominence to the idea without paying as much attention to the quality of its development.
Jaume explains that marketing is not limited to conceiving campaigns, but must also take care of its less important part. sexy: decisions related to the product, packaging, price and manufacturing processes, since industrial viability or production capacities can condition the proposals that finally reach the market. Therefore, good execution requires both creative judgment and knowledge of the business and the ability to coordinate different areas of the company.
This requirement becomes especially relevant in outdoor advertising, a medium in which Alemany considers it essential to design with real exhibition conditions in mind. Readability, immediate identification of the brand and understanding of the message must be resolved in a few seconds.
In this context, Jaume highlights the importance of the historical capital of brands in outdoor advertising. Those that have maintained a continuous presence can benefit from visual references and associations that are recognized and facilitate identification, contributing to better achievement of communication objectives.
Execution is also decisive in the last commercial mile. Generating preference is not equivalent to getting a sale, especially when the consumer finds it difficult to access the product. Here distribution and availability determine a brand’s ability to take advantage of the demand it has generated through its communication. It is a particularly important issue in launches, where letting the consumer know about something new is of little use if they cannot find it later.
Alemany explains that a company can have developed a good product, established an appropriate price and carried out effective communication, but lose opportunities if it does not have sufficient distribution. Even when the product is available, the final decision can be altered by what happens in the store. To illustrate this, remember how you went to buy an appliance with your choice practically made and ended up purchasing another one on the seller’s recommendation.
The example highlights the limits of advertising influence when there is no continuity between communication and the purchasing experience. Marketing can generate a preference, but it needs the rest of the organization to contribute to making it effective. Hence the importance of understanding the complete journey of the product, from its development to the moment the consumer decides to purchase it.
The conversation with Jaume also addresses the challenge that Damm faced when taking over the manufacturing and distribution of Nestea in Spain, with just a few months to coordinate industrial processes, adapt packaging and prepare its arrival on the market. In addition, the manager shares some of his professional references during the walk, including the marketing strategy books that he recommends to his teams and that have helped him develop his criteria over the years.
