Javier-Diez Aguirre, director of corporate communications at Ricoh Europe, is the ultimate international marketer. Born in Pamplona, Spain, and having studied in America, London, Sweden and Germany, he says he believes his knowledge of other cultures and ways of life was a large part of the reason why he got his current job.
“There are big marketing differences between countries,” he says. “We thrive on this mélange, these differences. Within our target of Fortune 500 companies, we can help reconcile some of these issues.”
As well as his language skills and international background, he believes his experience with research, having a PhD in molecular biology under his belt, also stood in his favour. “I got into marketing through market research, which is about intuition. I think it should be a core capability for any marketer,” he says. “The study of molecular biology also got me thinking about the impact of environments.”
His corporate communications department has been tasked with ‘unveiling’ the Ricoh brand. He says it’s looking to convey the message that ‘Ricoh has changed.’
Diez-Aguirre clearly relishes this challenge. “I had an interesting brief,” he says. “The company has a strong growth history and a good product portfolio, but it was felt that the brand could be communicated better.” He describes the brand as having been in the past ‘somewhat humble’. “We’ve not really taken the opportunity to talk about what we’re good at,” he admits.
Organic growth
The office and production printing specialist’s sponsorship of the Ricoh Women’s British Open, with top female golfer Paula Creamer as brand ambassador is part of a wider attempt to promote the brand values of innovation, sustainability and expertise. “Paula is number four. She’s young, bright and expert,” explains Diez-Aguirre. Ricoh, too, wants to be seen as pioneering: “We began selling to SMEs and we’ve grown with them. They’re now big companies,” he says.
But for Diez-Aguirre, it’s not just about how Ricoh is perceived, but it’s also about how the company works from the inside, out. He tries to take a ‘holistic’ approach, he says, adding that employee engagement was a key focus of the sponsorship. “Lots of marketers don’t take this seriously, especially in B2B. But it shouldn’t be seen as an HR issue,” he says. “It’s important to invest in your corporate brand.” He says the greatest challenge in his role is to successfully create a ‘one Ricoh’ culture internally.
At the same time, he is of course tasked with growing the brand on- and offline. Here too, Diez-Aguirre says it’s important to take a gradual approach rather than merely fostering a veneer of branding. He describes traditional advertising as ‘disruptive’ and says his corporate communications team has instead opted to enhance its PR and online marketing, which he believes are effective in conveying messages in a more sustainable way.
The PR is at a very early stage and the online elements are currently in a phase of ‘testing, refining and implementing’. Such elements take up a significantly lesser portion of the budget than corporate sponsorship, which involves multi-million pound deals, he tells us.
Developing an online presence
“Growing a brand online is a challenge for all marketers,” he says. “We find it more efficient to use online and PR elements than placing ads. This can generate sustainable, two-way communications. In my opinion, advertising comes and goes – there are so many different outlets now that you need to be very clear how you are going to use advertising.”
Since Diez-Aguirre joined the company he has also overseen a series of website usability studies across Europe, looking at the client lifecycle. “This is a big project,” he says. “We’re looking to create a different look and feel with more content and more calls to action. And as well as enhancing usability we are looking to implement SEO enhancement.”
As for Ricoh’s competitive set, he believes that the biggest competitor is ‘people’s mindset.’ There is no doubt the brand is competing against recognised household names – Lexmark, Brother, Canon and HP. Diez-Aguirre’s response is simple: “We need to make sure people know what we offer,” he says. Ricoh is currently communicating the company’s three main capabilities – office solutions, production printing and managed print services, or outsourcing, whilst it also moves aggressively into IT solutions and servicing.
Defending decisions
Diez-Aguirre’s enthusiasm is clearly instrumental to his success. “I love being able to get close to the business strategy,” he says. “This is unique to B2B and I think it’s the most exciting part of marketing. The opportunities in B2B for personal growth are tremendous.”
For him, good B2B marketing is evident when a marketer forms a part of the board of directors, defending decisions and driving the agenda along with the CEO. “I love to see my guys defending what we do with hard data,” he says. “It’s not just about ROI. It’s also about attitude. You have to be able to defend yourself in front of the board. You should never feel second class as a marketer.”
