L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS MANUELA CARACCIOLO " There are new strategies, today, that touch upon feel- ings and emotions. They must speak to people's dreams and desires, they must recognize them and read them, interpret them." On this concept Mauro Porcini, Italian and head of design at Pepsi Co., based his own "design thinking" idea. Born in 1975 in Gallarate, near Varese, Porcini graduated at the prestigious Politecnico di Milano. In 2012, he was hired by Pepsi Co. as its Chief Design Officer, an entirely new position then, created ad hoc to rejuve- nate the image of company and prepare it to face the many chal- lenges brought by technological innovations. After his first professional experiences with Philips, 3M and De Vittori, Porcini today leads the creative section of a company active in almost 200 countries around the world and with 285.000 employees. Pepsi Co.'s fields of action are many: prod- uct packaging, advertisement, branding, web marketing, events organization. What are the brand changes you have personally imple- mented since your arrival at Pepsi Co.? First of all, I tried to familiar- ize myself with the products and with the bi-dimensional nature of food. It was a brand-new world I decided to explore using both my own personal experiences, as well as that love and knowledge of food we Italians have. Then, I tried to apply it to sports, music and design. I believe we must start from an idea of society based on consumers, people whose daily actions like eating and drinking lead to and inform the very nature of lifestyle macro-trends. In this context, developing a deeper relationship with customers is paramount and it's at this stage that business comes into play and is adapted to new technologies, creating inno- vation. All starts from that, from ideas: my duty is connecting ideas to everything else. What's the role of social media? Even a company with a histo- ry as long and established as Pepsi has to keep an eye on how innovation can change the mar- ket. Social media have a heavy impact on how products, compa- nies and consumers' experiences are told. Companies are no longer the actors of communica- tion, but its object. It used to be a top to bottom process. Today, companies must find the right way to get people to talk about them. They're object of discus- sion and a brand's duty is no longer that of convincing people to choose it. It's more important to be talked about. To do it, we have to identify the right lan- guage and format to use online by working on the offline image of the brand, so design becomes essential. Design in an all-encompass- ing sense that involves creating occasions to talk about the brand, as well as, of course, photograph- ing, commenting, sharing: in other words, creating a communi- cation network about the brand. For example, last summer, in New York's Soho, we opened a pop up store for our Pure Leaf brand. A tea house, basically. People noticed it, visited it and mentioned it to others... a social media trend, created by a "real life" event. We managed to cre- ate a connection between the product and the individual in the concrete world, using a funda- mental element of distinction: authenticity. Which type of image Pepsi needs to keep on being success- ful today? Competition, today, is no longer only among companies operating in the same sector. We have to compete also with Beyoncé's last song or with Samsung's latest smartphone, so our products need to remain rele- vant in the daily life of people independently from what they are. Design should manage to sup- port this effort, but without creat- ing false expectations in con- sumers, media or influencers: it should be a stage big enough to experiment and project ideas and products into the future, but always keeping it honest. This is were the vital link between art and brand is made: for instance, Pepsi , has been protagonist of the Super Bowl's half-time com- mercial for the fifth year in a row in 2017 and it has dedicated it to the arts, promoting a new water bottle. The company has decided to promote emerging artists on these bottles, giving space to a new one every three months. In this specific case, innovation lies in the meaning of the brand and of its product, which is "if you drink this water, you'll help new artists to make a name for them- selves." Life Water is another exam- ple. Each bottle is the result of the company's collaboration with an artist. Every few months, new designs are introduced. The first set of designer bottles fea- tured the work of daring, versa- tile artists such as MOMO, Craig&Karl and Jason Woodside. So, in your opinion, how's the world of communication been changing? We all communicate, in many different ways: our choices, the way we dress, our desires are all details of a tale. This tale is the beginning of it all: communica- tion has to turn a personal tale into a full narration that incorpo- rates the brand, charging it with emotional values. Content needs to be created quickly and regu- larly, because information is no longer "segmented" but "lay- ered." For this reason, content needs to be transversal and inter- cultural, applicable to all areas of the world, from the USA to Europe. But the message has to be clear and unique, a bit like in the case of Life Water. We have to bring together design, well being and positivity not only to create beauty, but also trends. To do so, it's often useful to have a cause. For instance, in recent months we've focused on the work of female artists, whose talent is not always fully recognized in the world of design. This is actually one of my dreams: creating a network of artists able to communicate style to people, bringing it into their lives with a smile. How do you use your "Italian approach" at work? Certainly in placing an accent on empathy and emotions. It greatly helps understand peo- ple's desires. And of course, there's all my cultural baggage, that related to my Italian roots, which makes me particularly open to recognize and give value to beauty, to the culture of taste. I also use a lot our "arte d'arran- giarsi," the ability to make do, and apply problem solving tech- niques even in the most confus- ing work situations. I tend to use my "Italian approach" with a good pinch of that strategic spirit that distinguishes the American mentality. The aim is to trans- form the company's spirit in something higher and able to create a connective line among different situations. My duty is to use innovation to build up the brand and adapt to the ever changing necessities of consumers and of a world that runs fast, led by the trends set by social networks, today's univer- sal means of communication. Mauro Porcini brought Italian creativity and design sense to Pepsi Italian Designer Mauro Porcini: Reinventing "Pepsi's Bubbles"

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