DDC’s Brand Ambassador -Interview with Ioana Prigoreanu
Ioana is our brand advocate who enjoys developing marketing strategies and translating them into business objectives. She is passionate about coaching and inspiring people to achieve personal and professional success. She is a solar person, loves animals and her dream is to live by the beach. As a child she wanted to be a TV News Presenter and her favourite song these days is ‘Remind me’ by Tom Grennan.
How important is it to have good marketing?
How important is a first impression? Research shows that first impressions are long lasting, resistant to change, and they have behavioural consequences. I would like you to imagine this: you have created a very healthy business, offering amazing, innovative products or services, you know your quality is much above everyone else’s on the market, but nobody knows about you. Marketing is that part of the business that educates, informs, attracts, and convinces people to choose you. Marketing is a first impression. It is the values of the products/services you share.
How does marketing contribute to the success of a company?
I believe that marketing is critical for every successful and sustainable business as it is a tool for creating the path between the customer and the brand. Through marketing a company can increase the awareness of its services, culture and values, drive growth, create commercial advantage, boost sales, or create revenue options.
What do you like about your job?
I really like when I am challenged to put on my creative cap. Working for an SME it means that my role is broad, from internal comms to digital, to designing, copy writing and so on. I like that it is diverse and there are many things that I enjoy doing. Few of my favourites are: creating activities to boost our internal comms and engagement and people development, I find designing really relaxing and always love playing in the back end of our website.
What is the most challenging thing about your job?
Getting high-quality content from site. I would love to have a professional photographer everyday with our teams on site.
How do you find your market?
An exceptional understanding of audience behaviour allows me to define strategies and to tailor the content directly to the recipient. To know my market is paramount for the success of the brand. It is an on-going process of analysing customer base, conducting research in the market both offline and digital environments, analysing competition, creating personas, and mapping the customer journey.
How do you stand out from your competitors?
I am proud to be part of a team of experts in the field and in my opinion, this is a fantastic advantage for every marketing person. As a team we strive to deliver services that are superior to our competition and that bring value to our stakeholders. Creating USP (unique selling proposition) and UVP (unique value proposition) help me in defining and managing a brand that is aligned with our organisational culture. The USP and UVP helps me to connect with our target market, to build relationships and collaborations, and showcase the benefits we offer to our clients.
What is different in this industry than in other industries?
From a marketing point of view, working in an industry that is highly regulated and legislated by the government you can still be innovative and creative; however, things must be within a clear set of boundaries in terms of risk management and legal obligation. The marketing must be both legal and compliant.
There are many factors and services in the supply chain and when you market you have to look at the big picture in terms of Road Infrastructure and Build Environment and not only look at the drainage services that we offer. The supply chain is so extensive in two areas: all the services as well as the number of companies. Promoting your supply chain means also promoting the values of the clients and the relationships and collaborations that you create. You must have the capability to understand the different messages and market on different levels supporting the government agenda in terms of ESG and Employee Wellbeing.