[The Big Idea is a distillation of conversations held during our Cannes Expert Interview Series. The full conversation with all of our experts can be found here.]
In today’s fast-paced, consumer-driven market, brands face the challenge of capturing attention while maintaining a strong identity. These excerpts from our conversation with Cecilia Alexandre, Senior Marketing Director at the Heineken Group provide valuable insights into how marketers can navigate these challenges, ensuring their message resonates with consumers while staying true to their brand.
Engaging the Consumer is Paramount
Brands must engage consumers effectively to stand out in today’s competitive market, creating experiences that capture attention and align with consumer needs.
“If you don’t consider the user… they won’t engage. You have your phone, you have the TV, you have outdoor [ads] – everything is trying to catch your attention. If you don’t think “what is the real need for the user?”, we won’t have the attention and retention and engagement that we want. It’s about enjoyment and entertainment. You need to entertain!”
User-Centricity Drives Effective Brand Experiences
Marketers must understand consumer needs and trends to create experiences that foster deeper connections.
“We need to be aware. We need to be considering what’s going on and to track all these trends… have this kind of radar to help us consider what consumers need, what they want, what’s the real insight, and what answer we’re going to deliver for them that connects.”
Finding the Right Balance
Focusing on the user is essential, but it’s also important to maintain the brand’s message and identity. Successful campaigns balance consumer needs with the brand’s objectives and values.
“It’s really difficult sometimes to find the right balance because sometimes it’s too brand centric. Sometimes it’s too user centric and the brand is not even there. We must find this balance between brand and user… What is the main objective? It [is] to enhance sales or to connect with more people.”
Striking a balance between consumer engagement and brand identity is no easy task, but understanding the consumer’s needs while keeping the brand’s objectives in mind is the key to creating meaningful and successful campaigns.
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Transcript
Cannes Interview Series
[This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.]
Terry Taouss (Acceptable Ads Committee): Hello. I am here with Cecilia Alexandre. Cecilia has over 20 years of marketing experience at leading companies, including Mondelez, BRF, and Kraft Heinz. And she is currently the Senior Marketing Director for Mainstream and Economy Brands at Heineken Group. Welcome, Cecilia.
Cecilia Alexandre (Heineken Group): Welcome. So it’s a pleasure and an honor to be here and chat a little bit with you. Thanks for inviting me.
Terry: Your career has led you to some of the world’s leading brands. If you could take a step back to the beginning of your career, what led you to get into marketing?
Cecilia: Terry, to be honest with you, I really knew since the beginning that I would like to work on marketing for several reasons. First – this is a kind of cliche answer – we are closer to consumers and we are consumers at the end of the day. Second, since the beginning I learned that working in marketing is working with strategy. Everybody has in mind this glamour, fancy… people think that this is our life, this is not our life at all. It’s about how we grow a business, how we enhance the brands on a level that it becomes even more desired, and to sell in a more profitable and sustainable way.
Terry: You are a juror at the Cannes Lions award in the category of brand experience and activation. In your opinion, what makes a memorable brand experience?
Cecilia: Everything can be a brand experience nowadays – but when we see real brand experience, we need to guarantee a fresh aspect that nobody has done before or do it in a very unique and different way. And we need to engage consumers. Even if it’s a very good brand-centric idea, if you don’t engage, there’s no reason. Creativity must deliver business results – we cannot do it for the sake of doing it. We need to keep track of what we want.
What is the main objective? It was to enhance sales or to connect with more people, but we need to track it. So an experience should considere, first of all, what the brand needs to deliver, but in a way that engages and even more in a way that’s natural, almost organic, different. The magic comes when you think that you don’t need a lot of money to do that. Because sometimes I think that only huge brands can do that, but we saw a lot of cases that the engagement, the impact, and the results – you can do it without having a huge budget.
Terry: The Acceptable Ads Committee is a nonprofit group and our mission is to protect the user experience. In your line of work, how important is it to start from the user when you’re building a brand campaign or even just developing a brand generally?
Cecilia: If you don’t consider the user, you’re going to lose attention, retention, and they won’t engage. You have your phone, you have the TV, you have an outdoor, everything’s trying to catch your attention. If you don’t think “what is the real need for the user?”, we won’t have the attention and retention and engagement that we want.
It’s really difficult sometimes to find the right balance because sometimes it’s too brand centric. Sometimes it’s too user centric and the brand is not even there. So we’re not building “what do you want?” We need to be aware. We need to be considering what’s going on and to track all these trends, have this kind of radar to help us to consider what consumer needs, what they want, what’s the real insight and what answer we’re going to deliver for them that connects. Then we find this right balance between brand and user.
Terry: There is a quote that’s attributed to Orson Welles and it says “the enemy of art is the absence of limitations”. Heineken famously had a very big limitation in that beer was banned at the last World Cup, yet they managed to turn that into a huge global marketing campaign. How can constraints be used as a way to ramp up and deliver creativity?
Cecilia: I think that this is the magic. This is important because when you don’t have all the resources, you need to be creative. Creativity becomes a ‘must have’ and becomes a lever to achieve the results. Creativity must deliver.
And creativity is a strategic decision. It’s not only mine, it’s for the company. I need to address the same message to an amount of consumers, but if I don’t have the resources, I need to find a way to do it. A unique point of view, it’s important. The way you do it, it’s important. So everything leads us to a different way to do it.
The lack of resources, sometimes it’s a blessing. Because we tend, when we have a lot of money, to sit down and say, I’m going to invest here, here, here. And it would be fine because I know that we’re going to cover the message because I’m going to invest a lot. Then I’m going to guarantee that I’m going to have all the coverage and frequency that I need.
Keep in mind that the lack of resources is a beauty. Forget that you have a lot of money. Sometimes, the smartest things come in an idea where you don’t need to invest.
Terry: This week you’ve got exposure to a ton of different campaigns and really creative ideas. What brand experiences are you most excited about going forward?
Cecilia: It’s simple, but it’s a hard question. To be honest, it is when you put the consumer in the center and you find what they need. No matter if it’s an AR (augmented reality), no matter if it’s a physical experience. It’s about enjoyment and entertainment. You need to entertain.
And how can you bring a new experience? That’s so hard. So hard to find that sometimes I go back to the basics because when you have all the tools, you think that you need to use it to make magic, but sometimes it’s so simple – but you need to consider what the consumer wants and needs.
Terry: Cecilia, thank you so much. This was a great conversation.
Cecilia: Thanks a lot for inviting me.