Interview with Julia Pichler, B2B Marketing, Canon Austria
Interview Q’s & A’s:
BCM: What experience do you have in your field?
I am involved with areas that include product and sales management for technical hardware, as well as consumer and business products. I have experience in business development which includes both new and existing segments. In addition, I co-ordinate with a range of stakeholders to provide solutions focusing on visual communication and storytelling to articulate value proposition, rather than through traditional product selling methods. This all helps me to take advantage of technical possibilities and to realise a digital transformation which I can use within my area of expertise.
BCM: Where do you see the potential associated with marketing automation?
A central approach is to prepare and manage content and communication accurately; to apply all channels for the target group and to use collected data for what we wish to communicate, where we believe (from experience and through data collection and fact-checking) that it should be heard/received. If the whole thing can be automated and measurable, then we have arrived at the heart of marketing automation.
BCM: Which of your marketing measures or tools were well received by the customer? Please describe one of your success stories.
We encountered positive results using our cross-media campaigns. On the one hand, it is important for us to have the haptic component always integrated, on the other; to connect the analogue world to the digital one. With a combination of exceptional print products and personalised digital content that has the wow effect; we use a range of different channels and have been able to significantly increase the volume of customer responses.
BCM: Are there any new B2B trends that you are particularly interested in?
Within the field of marketing automation, I am especially excited with regards as to where the journey goes. Whether it can deliver on what it promises, with regards to the mechanics and the possibilities on offer or whether we end up expanding the application fields despite the “New Data Protection Regulation”, remains very interesting.
It is exciting whenever personalised, automated, customer communication can go beyond marketing automation and as such, will likely remain a relevant topic for years to come.
BCM: Thinking about the next generation, is there a topic that is particularly important to you?
Despite rapid changes, we must deal with the respective topics thoroughly. Whether developing and following a strategy from the beginning, or adapting to changes during the implementation process; maintaining constancy is all important. The secret is choosing the right level of consistency and flexibility.
The original interview was conducted in German for
