is the CMO of hp for Spain and Portugal. Degree in Marketing and Communications, specializing in Marketing and eCommerce at IE Business School. Catalina Roa has been working in the Information Technology sector for more than sixteen years. In 2018 she stepped into her current position and faced her biggest career transition challenge: leaving B2B to focus on B2C. From this perspective, we talked to her about the current challenges of a CMO.
This interview belongs to a conversation series with some of the most relevant CMOs on the Spanish scene. The labor social network has been in charge of preparing this series. With the aim of transmitting the essence of the social network, which was originally conceived as a network for the management of work connections and, over time, has evolved to become the reference platform for those professionals who want to be informed and get the opinions of the leaders of your sector.
Many CMOs use the many possibilities that LinkedIn offers to contact a specialized audience, share personalized content and interact with professionals from different sectors. This is a great opportunity for all marketers, because it allows them to learn from the best, through their examples and experiences, and to be at the forefront of the latest trends and developments in the industry.
The post-pandemic: facing the new rules of the game
The pandemic has brought about a drastic change in our lives. Overnight, everything changed. Of course the marketing was not an exception; in fact, it has been one of the most affected industries by the dystopian situation that we have had to live. For Catalina RoaThere has been a total change in three fundamental aspects: first, in the way of communicating, which must be much more specific and respond to concrete and local geographic and social situations; second, what do consumers want, the pandemic has increased the need for an emotional connection; and, thirdly, the acceleration of the digital transformation that was already underway, but that during the months of confinement grew overwhelmingly”.
Consequently, one of the effects of the pandemic was the need to adapt: “we have made a reskilling enormous to give our client a tangible value,” adds Catherine, “This professional recycling would have been unthinkable without the change that all the information generated by Artificial Intelligence has brought about, which gives us a greater perspective to analyze our work.”.
The traits that have been most accentuated in consumers are impatience and the desire for immediacy; Everything indicates that they will continue to be so in the post-pandemic era. For this reason, agility has become a basic concept to take into account in any marketing strategy. It must occur in both directions: in customer service and in processes company internals. On the one hand, by responding to the customer “the important thing now is not so much how but when; clients expect a connection in real time and cannot be dilated in time”, specifies Catalina Roa. On the other hand, in the internal processes “At HP, agility is a management philosophy we live by. For more or less a year we entered into a profound change of optimization of tools, processes and people that seeks to achieve greater agility”.
And it is that, in addition to Economic ROI which continues to be an essential indicator, emotional and social ROI have gained strength since the pandemic. “We have connected with people in a different way, in a more emotional way and it is necessary that we measure that emotionality. As a brand we must understand how we are connected with our customers, what we are missing, etc. We also need to know how we are impacting our society. The client looks at what we offer at an individual level, but also at a social level. He wants to know what are our company values, our commitments social, environmental and future» explains the CMO.
HP’s vision is to create technology that improves life for everyone, everywhere. Thus, has been reporting on sustainability and the impact caused by the company annually since 2001. Catalina points out that “there are three pillars within sustainability pfor HP that are fundamental: the planet, the person and the community«.
Marketing and sales, the union is strength
The changes caused by the pandemic have led to an increase in the relevance of the Marketing department within companies. For Catherine “the objective is to generate business and innovation with responsibility and strategy; we are a transforming agent within the company”. In order to achieve this ideal, interdepartmental collaboration is essential and this is achieved, in part, thanks to the presence of the CMOs in the Management Teams. “Having a voice and a vote is key; not only to explain what we do; but also to facilitate connections and move in the same direction. In addition, it allows us to know the global situation of the company. It is a very enriching collaborative work”, confirms Catalina satisfied.
“ANDIt is necessary to convey the importance of our role to the rest of the company through internal marketing. It has to be very clearly known what we measure, what we are doing and why we do it».
Aligning sales and marketing around a clear path is imperative. “Both departments have common goals and we must always work together. Since the Marketing department share with the Sales department all the knowledge and tools that we know our customers demand. And vice versa“, Explain.
The customer and his experience: the center of the strategy
«The most important thing always, without exception, is the It is also the responsibility of the Marketing department. You have to anticipate what the consumer wants, be relevant to him and generate what he is waiting for. Our relationship does not end in a single transaction. We have to offer you a journey, a total experience that allows our users to stay connected to our brandsays Catherine.
Inside of the journey of the client, Catalina does not forget the physical experience “We live in a hybrid world. Of course, digital marketing is very relevant; but we must not forget that the physical store is still, for many, the place of reference and the small business seller, their trusted person”.
HP seeks to combine the scenarios of the hybrid world with the diversity of today’s society. “We have always worked for the consumer and with the consumer. We work this way internally and take it outside”. For her, this is born within the company: “In our company there are stories of inclusion that show that there are no impediments when it comes to working. These stories define us and we consider them important. From Marketing we try to make external what we live internally«.
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