Clávio Cristo

My education began in Brazil, in Product Design, at Tuiuti University of Paraná. This was the foundation of my academic and professional career. It was there that I had my first contact with design thinking, with the relationship between form, function, need and user, but also with the discipline of marketing and with the job market itself.

Later, in Portugal, and in particular in Guimarães, this vision became much clearer. The Master's degree in Design and Marketing at the University of Minho helped me connect the creative dimension to the strategic dimension. Guimarães, with its cultural, industrial and entrepreneurial identity, also played a decisive role. It is a city where you can feel the strength of the territory, the tradition, the work and the capacity for transformation.

It was at the intersection of my background in Product Design, professional experience, and training in Marketing that I solidified my vision: marketing is not just communication or promotion. It's a way of understanding people, creating value, building relationships, and helping brands evolve without losing their authenticity.

More than a single moment, I would say it was a natural process. I started out very focused on design, communication, and creation, but I realized that what motivated me most wasn't just creating pieces, products, or campaigns. It was understanding how an idea could generate behavior, how a message could bring a brand closer to people, and how communication could have a real impact on business.

The most decisive moment happened when I realized that marketing was the space where all these dimensions intersected: creativity, strategy, business, technology, culture, and emotion. That's when I understood that this was my path.

Marketing requires us to be constantly attentive to the consumer, the data, the competition, the sales teams, the in-store experience, the digital world, and the brand. It's a demanding area, but deeply stimulating because it's always being updated.

I identify strongly with this dynamic, adaptation, and continuous evolution. Perhaps that's why marketing has ceased to be just a career choice and has become a way of looking at businesses, brands, and people.

From each phase I bring very different lessons, but all were important for how I see marketing, management and customer relations today.

From communications, I bring the importance of clarity. In a sector where the message needs to be simple, quick and effective, communicating well means saying the essentials in the right way, at the right time.

From the restaurant business, which was also part of my journey, I bring a very deep lesson about billing, pace and resilience. It is an area where, in addition to understanding the business, you need to know how to manage time, pressure, physical effort and mental effort very well.

From retail, I bring the importance of proximity, but not only in a geographical or commercial sense. I mainly bring the importance of proximity in service, responsiveness, follow-up, after-sales service, and ongoing customer care. Retail puts us face to face with people who are increasingly informed, more demanding, and more aware of the attention they expect from the brand. The customer enters, asks questions, compares, decides, complains, recommends, and evaluates the brand at every point of contact. This requires us to listen better, respond more quickly, be more consistent, and understand that the relationship does not end at the time of sale and that it is a constant cycle.

From e-commerce, I bring the importance of relevance, consistency, and measurement. In the digital world, everything is faster, more measurable, and more competitive. The experience must be simple, clear, and useful, but also integrated with all other moments of the customer journey.

Communicating a brand like JOM is, first and foremost, a balancing act. On the one hand, we have a very strong history, built on close relationships, hard work, and trust. On the other hand, we have an increasingly competitive market, more informed consumers, and a much faster pace of change than a few years ago.

JOM has its origins linked to the concept of "everything for your home," which began with the first store in 1996, bringing together different solutions for the home in a single space. Today, the brand has 28 stores distributed from North to South of the country, around 500 employees, and an operation that combines physical stores and digital channels.

It is not enough to say that we are 30 years old; It is necessary to demonstrate every day that this experience translates into trust, responsiveness, knowledge of the Portuguese consumer, good quality/price ratio and a relevant offer.

In the case of JOM, there is also an important factor: we are a Portuguese brand, with a strong connection with the territory, the national product and the home of the Portuguese. Our communication must value this authenticity, but without being stuck in the past.

We have to respect what brought us here, but also prepare the brand for the coming years: more digital, more efficient, closer and more relevant to new generations of consumers.

I don't see this relationship as a tension, but as a complementarity. Digital is becoming increasingly important, naturally. Today, many decision-making processes begin online. Consumers research, compare, seek inspiration, check prices, read technical specifications, and evaluate alternatives before visiting a store or making a purchase.

But I still believe that the point of sale is the most important component of the retail experience, especially in a sector like JOM's. The store is the meeting point. It's where the customer sees, touches, tries on, asks questions, feels the materials, assesses proportions, perceives comfort, and gains confidence to decide.

In retail, home, and decoration, there is a physical, sensory, and emotional dimension that digital has not yet replaced. Digital can inspire, inform, and accelerate the journey. But the store remains the space where the brand promise is fulfilled.

Therefore, our strategy must start from a simple idea: there is no such thing as a store customer and a digital customer. There is one customer, with different moments of contact with the brand. E-commerce should facilitate research, inspiration, and purchase. The store should reinforce trust, advice, and experience.

The goal is to build a coherent experience, where each channel fulfills its role, but all work towards the same promise.

JOM has historically had a stronger presence in the North, due to its origins and trajectory, but today it is consolidated from north to south and from east to west of the country. This evolution brings added responsibility. A retail brand with a national presence is not just a chain of stores; it is also a network of relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and territories.

Retail plays a very important role in community building because it is present in people's daily lives. It creates jobs, boosts local economies, generates commercial traffic, develops skills, works with partners, and contributes to the vitality of the territories where it is present.

In the case of the JOM Group, there is also a very important focus on national production. This commitment is made through the selection of Portuguese suppliers, but above all through the in-house production of furniture in the two JOM Indústria units.

This connection with national production allows us to value Portuguese know-how, strengthen our proximity to the value chain, gain responsiveness, and contribute to the country's productive economy.

For me, a retail company should be more than just a point of sale. It should be an agent of proximity, trust, and development. When a brand grows without losing its connection to its roots, its partners, and the communities where it is present, it can transform scale into real value.

I believe it is more challenged than threatened. Technology, algorithms, automation, and artificial intelligence are profoundly transforming marketing. They allow us to work with more data, more speed, more personalization, and more efficiency. And that's very positive.

But I also believe that, as technology allows more companies to work at very high levels of performance, the emotional, human, and authentic dimension of brands will become increasingly decisive. When everyone has access to powerful tools, the big difference is no longer just in technical ability. It becomes about how the brand expresses itself, the trust it builds, the consistency it demonstrates, and the emotional connection it manages to create.

Technology can help us communicate better, get to know the consumer better, and automate tasks that previously consumed a lot of time. But it doesn't replace meaning, empathy, creativity, and authenticity.

Using artificial intelligence and automation to gain efficiency, but preserving what makes a brand truly relevant: its identity, its truth, and its ability to create genuine relationships with people.

Attention is earned through relevance. Loyalty is earned through consistency. In a market with so many options, consumers don't have time to decode complex messages. The brand has to be clear, useful, and present at the right moment.

No caso da JOM, trabalhamos numa categoria muito próxima da vida das pessoas: a casa. E a casa é muito mais do que um espaço físico. É conforto, família, identidade, descanso, funcionalidade e projeto de vida. Isso dá-nos uma oportunidade muito especial de comunicar com emoção, mas também com sentido prático.

In the case of JOM, we work in a category very close to people's lives: the home. And the home is much more than a physical space. It's comfort, family, identity, rest, functionality, and life project. This gives us a very special opportunity to communicate with emotion, but also with practicality.

JOM's own offering is centered on categories related to the home, such as furniture, sofas, mattresses, appliances, decoration, lighting, household goods, and textiles. This breadth is a strength, but it also demands a lot of clarity in communication. We have to help the customer find solutions, inspiration, and confidence.

The customer returns when they feel that the brand helped them make better decisions, respected their budget, delivered value, and was there when needed. Loyalty is born from the repetition of good experiences. Ultimately, a brand gains attention through what it communicates, but it gains trust through what it delivers to the customer.

I would say to cultivate curiosity. Marketing changes very quickly, and anyone entering this field must be willing to always learn. Tools, channels, and platforms will constantly change, but the ability to understand people, brands, and businesses will remain essential.

I would also say not to be dazzled by the visible side of marketing. Campaigns, content, and creativity are important, but there is a lot of work behind it: strategy, analysis, planning, operation, teams, budget, data, sales, customer service, and after-sales. A good marketing professional needs to understand the business as a whole.

I would also say to learn technology, data, and artificial intelligence, but without losing human sensitivity. The future of marketing will require professionals capable of combining analytical and creative thinking. It will require people capable of interpreting data, but also of understanding emotions, culture, context, and behavior.

Be consistent, ethical, curious, collaborative, and demanding of yourself. A career in marketing is about results, but also about trust. And trust is built every day, through decisions, relationships, and how we contribute to the growth of brands and the people around us.

This type of solution can add a lot of value to retail, as long as it is thought of as part of the customer experience and not just as technology placed at the point of sale. Technology should solve concrete problems: facilitate decisions, reduce friction, increase customer autonomy, improve available information, and bring the physical store closer to the digital world.

In a context like JOM's, these solutions could allow customers to consult the extended catalog, explore technical features, learn about options that are not physically displayed in the store, or support ordering processes. Digital mupis and digital signage can also reinforce campaigns, present complete environments, highlight products, and communicate promotions.

There is also a very relevant dimension linked to Retail Media. The point of sale is a space with enormous attention and influence value, because the customer is often close to the moment of decision. When well structured, these solutions can create communication spaces for brands, suppliers, and partners, adding profitability to the operation and, at the same time, convenience for the customer.

But it is important that Retail Media is worked on with balance. You shouldn't turn the store into a space saturated with messages. You should add useful information, inspiration, and relevance at the right time. When well integrated, it can improve the shopping experience, support business teams, generate new revenue streams, and make the journey more fluid.

For me, the greatest value of these solutions lies in the ability to connect physical stores, e-commerce, data, communication, and customer service. The modern store should not only be a display space; it should also be a point of information, interaction, inspiration, and convenience.