João Pintado

I began my academic studies at the Faculty of Economics of Coimbra, studying Business Management, and the truth is that after two years, I realized I wasn't on the right path. So, at that time, I looked for another option that better suited my profile, where I would be more qualified, and that's when the Marketing program came along, which at the time wasn't as widespread as it is today. I ended up enrolling at the IPAM in Porto, and that's where my connection with the field began, where I developed a taste for the fantastic and exciting world of Marketing.

In my final year of college, I interned at a consulting firm, where I immediately had a new business focus. In other words, in addition to finding new clients, I also had project management and strategy skills, so this connection with business began right away. However, I would say that the big click was in 2013 when I created my own marketing agency in Aveiro, focused on Digital, an area that at the time was in a very embryonic state, that is, it was necessary to "break a lot of stones", change the mindset of companies, especially in Portuguese industry, which is very attached to the traditional part, and together with other partners we took a risk on the project.

Then I was completely immersed in this world, from agency management, operational aspects, strategy development, and client consultancy, which ended up giving me a lot of experience and versatility, but this whole challenge made me enjoy what I was doing and this area even more.

I had the opportunity to work in an agency and then join different companies. Being in an agency allows us to develop our Swiss Army knife skills and touch various areas of marketing, especially since most agencies in Portugal are micro-agencies, where people and professionals have to stretch themselves to accomplish various tasks. I would say that, currently, it's perhaps even more challenging because everything is so fast-paced, so volatile, with new technologies, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. So, there's a lot happening all the time, and you need to have some capacity to keep up with it all. So, if you have to have an operational role in each of these areas, it becomes even more difficult. The truth is that this ability to stretch within an agency and work on various businesses, from food, services, transportation, and healthcare, allows, at a certain stage of your career, to face various challenges that prepare you for the future. In 2016, I joined a Portuguese company (GRUPEL) in the Aveiro area as a marketing manager, and that was truly like stepping into a new level, focused on achieving results.

With a strong international component, this allowed me to implement an international expansion strategy. At that time, we were one of the most successful Portuguese companies in implementing LinkedIn Sales Navigator in Portugal. It yielded significant results because it allowed the marketing team to work closely with the sales team, enabling them to train and empower the company with lead acquisition and nurturing capabilities through Sales Navigator.

VITO is Central Lobão's most well-known brand, a 100% Brazilian brand operating in the machinery and tools sector, including DIY, construction, agriculture, gardening, automotive, and personal protective equipment.

It has experienced very sustainable growth, as we have always carefully considered the domestic and international markets. While we hold a leading position in Portugal, also supported by consumer recognition, having been awarded the Five Star Award and Consumer Choice for the last five consecutive years, we have presented ourselves differently in foreign markets, seeking opportunities and market share.

In any market, it is essential to ensure that what we offer will meet any need, and to achieve this, we understand the importance of having cutting-edge, truly capable products.

Because VITO is a multi-product brand, our competition is multiplied by several brands, which forces us to undertake more demanding work to compete in the market and win new customers, who then connect us with end consumers.

As a B2B company, it's important to demonstrate and present our value proposition so that diverse customers and potential customers see us as a brand that will complement and enrich their portfolio. This becomes even more demanding when it comes to having the capacity to do so in markets and cultures as diverse as Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, for example.

Consumption trends have also changed significantly over the past few years. In fact, with the pandemic, the consumption of this type of item has been absorbed by other targets who are now frequent consumers and require a different approach to the market. DIY, for example, is no longer just for those who want to do "small things" at home and has become an important part of the market for brands like ours, which now have more informed and specialized consumers in this niche who have realized their ability to do more work from home, whether as a hobby or out of necessity, given the lack of skilled labor and the capacity to meet the demand for specialized services. All of this forces us to be vigilant and adjust how we position ourselves and present new products to the market.

This marketing consistency means it's not about creating a campaign and seeing results the next day. Long-lasting and sustainable businesses don't work that way. They need strategy, not fads. They need consistency, not isolated actions. They need time, not immediate action. All of this applies to any industry.

In our industry, we need to understand the entire consumer journey, know how to be present at each touchpoint, what to do to make an impact, and work on industry innovation, promoting actions and products that elevate the traditional stage to something more contemporary, whether in the way we communicate or make the product available.

When we operate in a B2B segment, it's important to understand how closely we must align ourselves with our customers, because it's through them that we reach the end consumer. If we do this with an honest sense of partnership, we all win. This is our way of being and relating. We must assume an important role in this area, building credibility and trust so that everything is easier to internalize in the market.

In addition to the brand image we build for hundreds of customers every day through our products, we have an increasing focus on content development, providing what someone needs, when and how they want, and providing information about the brand or a specific product. We are a marketing team with a strong capacity for content development, and we are also increasingly requested by other departments and clients for more specific content. We aim to be a business facilitator for the company, always aware of our strategy and objectives, never neglecting brand positioning. We never compromise on being faithful to our brand positioning; we have the responsibility to consolidate this same positioning, both internally and externally. This consistency demonstrates professionalism, which is then reflected in the market and in the trust of customers and consumers.

I'm not a professional who reads a lot. Unfortunately, I don't have a reading habit, whether on marketing or other topics. I prefer to listen to podcasts or watch videos to find information on something I need to explore or that piques my curiosity. I'm also taking training courses, like this latest one on "AI Applied to Marketing and Communications," as it's important to cover some topics in more depth.

Those in leadership positions must have this ability to stay current—not to know how to operationalize everything, but to know what exists and how it can be useful. I don't intend to teach a designer how to draw, because I'm not a designer. But I do intend to learn about new trends that can improve and make the team's work more efficient, and then to arrange training with the company to ensure these team members are up to date on these developments.

In Spain, in our sector, these solutions have been used for a long time. For example, there's a market heavily linked to cooperatives, where many drugstores are linked to cooperatives as if they were purchasing centers. And there are some digital media mechanisms in these drugstore stores where consumers arrive and have access to a digital platform to place orders, which then connects with the cooperative.

These solutions streamline the process and allow for a more practical, faster, and autonomous connection between the end consumer, the retailer, and the supplier. Furthermore, before ordering a product, it's possible to see more product features, see similar products, watch explanatory videos or tutorials, and see how to use and even maintenance instructions.

Obviously, none of this works without subsequent content insertion and development to be incorporated into these more technologically advanced solutions. Furthermore, this applies not only to the purchasing process but also to the communication process. Therefore, these digital supports allow us to interact more interactively at certain points of contact with the consumer.

Although we are a company that does not sell directly to the end consumer, we have a significant communication component with the end consumer with a view to influencing their purchase. If these digital supports are present at some of our clients' points of sale, they allow us to place custom-developed information there and gain greater brand awareness and trust with consumers.

I would say that the greatest added value lies in the proximity it allows us to have with the end consumer. In other words, just like social media, these are platforms and channels that should be explored by B2B retail companies like ours, and which also need to reach the B2C segment in one way or another. The truth is that we utilize and maintain a very strong component of communication and marketing investment, with certain sponsorships and campaign initiatives also to reach the end consumer. Because without this notoriety among those who purchase our items, whether DIY or professional consumers, it's important that our brand always appears at a certain stage of the purchasing journey when they reach the point of deciding on a product and are undecided between several options.

And often, if there's interaction with the end consumer through these technology platforms, there's also the understanding of consumer behavior and the collection of specific data and actions that allow us to better understand the consumer and then direct more specific and tailored strategies to that type of segment or to that type of consumer's characteristics. All the support that allows us to get closer to our target audience is always solutions that are relevant and that add value to the business, and hence this possibility of greater proximity is a great added value.

Well, there's no doubt that Artificial Intelligence is bringing new challenges to companies. Not so much in replacing some human tasks, but in optimizing and improving these same tasks. But Artificial Intelligence isn't what defines our strategy.

In other words, I think that defining a strategy will always have a strong human component, not just market knowledge and experience. It can also be grounded in, fed by, or based on certain data that is increasingly easy to access these days. However, this ease also makes it more complex because there's more and more information available. Cross-referencing all this data also makes everything more complex, especially because there are more and more customer touchpoints in the customer journey.

There are many sources of information to look for, and internally, we need to be able to cross-reference all this information. But the truth is that Artificial Intelligence allows us to develop new ways of rethinking what we want to do and making certain steps increasingly efficient. I think this is the biggest challenge: having the ability to keep up with all this evolution.The volatility of what's happening is so great and so fast lately that I feel like the biggest difficulty we marketing professionals have today is keeping up with all this, especially those who manage teams. It's making this information and this ability to learn and monitor everything that's happening so quickly available to the teams. It's not easy to stay absorbed in a given task, in a given project, and at the same time be able to keep up with everything that's happening. So, our responsibility as leaders of certain sectors of the company is to make this happen more or less regularly to keep ourselves up to date.

I really enjoy marketing and leading teams; that's what I've been doing for the past few years, and it's been quite satisfying. However, like any professional, we always have personal preferences and areas of interest that we identify with, and I'm very connected to sports, to the sporting phenomenon.

Fortunately, at my current company, I have the opportunity to explore this area a bit, with sponsorships we've done or have done, such as with Atlético de Madrid and Liga Portugal.

I have a Diploma in Sports Marketing and Sponsorships from the Barça Innovation Hub, where I wanted to delve deeper into this area of ​​interest.

Therefore, I would say that Sports Marketing is something that fascinates me and is a segment I'd like to explore further.