According to Emelie Gessner Gozzi, a brand is a way to differentiate your product in a world where the number of products and offerings is ever-increasing, and the competition for attention is growing fiercer.
– In most industries, there are already numerous producers, and if there aren’t today, there soon will be. People choose products and services based on emotions that create a connection between themselves and the brand. That’s where marketing comes into play.
Emelie Gessner Gozzi’s career began with marketing studies in London, followed by work in the media industry and a role as a marketing coordinator at Mekonomen.
– From there, I moved on to Clas Ohlson’s marketing team. At Clas Ohlson, I helped launch the loyalty program Club Clas, which quickly became Sweden’s fastest-growing loyalty program ever, and the only one to reach over a million members in its first year.
What were the key factors behind Club Clas’s success?
– When I joined the project, the team had already been working for years to create a loyalty program without finding the right approach. My task was to shape the brand and the communication around the program, and I did that in close collaboration with customers and store employees. I’ve always placed great importance on maintaining a strong connection with customers, and in Clas Ohlson’s case, that connection already existed through the store staff, who became a tremendous asset to the project.
When it came time to launch Club Clas, very little was left to chance.
– We developed a detailed launch strategy that involved getting input from all target groups. Since the store employees knew best what the customers liked, there was no point in me guessing.
After Clas Ohlson, I spent several years as Head of Marketing at Byggmax, followed by a position at the air purification company Camfil. Since early 2023, I’ve worked as CMO at the audio technology company Dirac.
– Dirac offers software that optimizes sound based on the acoustics of a room. We have a global audience ranging from highly sound-enthusiastic individuals to B2B clients in several sectors. Among other things, we work with car manufacturers who aim to create the best possible sound experience while driving, despite the inherent limitations and disturbances inside a car.
Dirac is a growing company in a very niche market, which means we have customers in many different countries. Our proprietary software platform has become one of our biggest unique selling points, driving continuous growth, mainly because Dirac is rapidly gaining market share.
– This also reassures me that our brand strategy is working. We operate in a highly specialized, yet exciting industry where people are genuinely passionate about achieving perfect sound.
You often talk about working with customer insights—why is that so important?
– It’s crucial to understand that you don’t build brands for yourself but for your customers. To grasp their views on a broader scale, you need to test, evaluate, and then test again based on the results. Working data-driven with a brand is a never-ending process.
What advice would you give a new CMO in their early days on the job?
– Take a close look at the company as it is, and ask yourself if there’s a genuine interest in the customers. Do they care about what their customers think and feel, and does this come through in the company’s values? There needs to be alignment between what the customers and the brand stand for in order for it to work.
A classic example Emelie Gessner Gozzi points to is Patagonia, which at its core is an outdoor clothing manufacturer, but through effective brand work has carved out a unique position among environmentally conscious consumers.
– Initially, the entire clothing industry ridiculed them for starting a secondhand market for their clothes, which obviously isn’t the most profitable move in the short term. Today, it’s clear how that and other similar initiatives have strengthened the target group’s loyalty to the brand over time. It makes them a fantastic example of a company that dared to listen to its customers and go against the grain of the industry.
What has been the most rewarding part of your career so far?
– The overall experience has been the most rewarding – the opportunity to work in so many different industries and sectors. I’ve worked in retail, B2B, and B2B2C. It’s taught me that brand building is a skill that can be applied in various fields, as long as you establish an effective, data-driven approach.
