Marco Gavazzi Head of Marketing

Today we meet Marco Gavazzi, Head of Marketing at the A+B Industrial Tools Company.

Hi Marco, would you like to tell us about your experience? How did you get here?

This is a good question! After graduating from scientific school, as is often the case, I did not have a clear idea of what I was going to do with my life. I then decided to pursue a course of study that could open more doors for me, enrolling in economics. I immediately started working to support my studies, working as a Microsoft Office trainer for a consulting company. After a year divided between study and work comes the first marketing exam, and immediately something clicks. Ever since I was a child, I was attracted to advertisements, I watched them with curiosity and interest, although I had never stopped to think about all that might be behind them. From that moment on, I quit my job and decided to concentrate on studying. I took my first electronic commerce exams, thanks to which I began to interface with the topic of digital, at that time an absolute novelty in the academic world.
In the early 2000s, few companies were doing SEO and PPC marketing strategies. It was not yet a popular subject and the three-year degree in business administration only gave a taste of it.
I realised, however, that to pursue marketing I would need two things: IT and English.
Given my previous work experience, I knew that IT would not be a problem. What I needed to improve on was English.

By now you have done a course I guess, right?

Although, in my opinion, study is fundamental and is always the starting point, what really makes the difference is experience. I strongly wanted to go abroad and learn the language ‘on the ground’.
Here I am getting in touch with an Anglo-Saxon company and, after the first few months spent in the Italian office, I finally get my ticket to England!
The initial impact was abrupt and difficult, but the months flew by and I learned so much.
At the end of my internship I returned to Italy and the company offered me my first job in the marketing world. From there, my contacts with the parent company intensified so much that I was offered a position within the Global Digital Marketing Team and decided to leave. It was an incredible boost to my career because I was following not only the UK, but also the US, Australia, New Zealand, China and Mexico.
A radical change of life, but one that gradually made me homesick.

Is this when you return to Italy and start working for A+B Industrial Tools Company?

Not yet! I return to Italy for good and start working for a German company with a branch in Italy.
Here I got my first great satisfaction, making an important contribution with tangible and measurable results. Within six months, online sales conversions had increased by 26%, an unprecedented progress.
The difference was so obvious that a countertrend process was triggered: it was not us who adapted and followed the parent company’s initiatives, but Germany that adapted and followed our suggestions.
My contribution had been crucial and I felt I had given all I could give. I was no longer stimulated and needed to follow my ambitions.
It is now that my meeting with Riccardo Bailo takes place and I start working with A+B.

What were the differences you found in this new reality?

In 2015, I found myself in an Italian company for the first time, with a culture even more different from the ones I knew. This gave me a bigger and bigger picture and added something to my professionalism. Initially, we did not have a well-defined plan… Everything was built on the run, step by step, in line with the evolution of the market and the Group. From there we launched our first E-Commerce. A long, arduous, but extremely stimulating process. This project evolved the company on several fronts and across the board, laying the foundation for what we see today. In a short time we found ourselves generating so much marketing activity that we needed new people. SEO activities, SEM, DEM, CRM strategies… Taking care of all these tasks, also managing a team, allowed me to make the leap I wanted for my career.

In a scenario where the rank you hold is already the highest in your department, what are your ambitions to date?

I am a very ambitious person and this aspect of my character means there are no end points, you can always improve and continue to grow.
I have always had the goal of building something that would stand the test of time and today managing a team of 9 people is not only satisfying, but a source of great pride for me.
Apart from my attitude, which leads me to take and determine certain spaces, I have certainly been put in a position to express myself at my best and this is something not common to many companies and for which I am grateful.
What is certain is that I will continue to put passion into it, as I have always done, deepening and integrating an ever-evolving discipline and setting myself new goals.
I think A+B is the ideal place to build it.