I am a Brand Strategist with 20 years in the trenches of building and growing brands and proud to have created Fast Forward a brand strategy boutique that has added value to so many brands.
Before funding Fast Forward, my love for marketing took me into working with some amazing brands. I moved from local to global marketing positions in companies such as LG Electronics, Orkla Foods and Nestlé.
It was a fantastic journey –
“Working round the clock to hit each month’s sales target while stretching marketing budgets, led cross-countries product launches, built two food categories from scratch and gathered some marketing prizes on the way. Things were going great for me.”
But since very early on in my career I had this little bug who wouldn’t go away – to build a successful business of my own. And so, in 2008 I decided to take the plunge and make my dream come true. Fast Forward was born…
As my business grew and met amazing clients, one particular client left a mark! It was a huge ‘AHA’ moment for me.
A medium size bio-tech company that focused on developing life-changing cancer drugs. Their work was meaningful and had the potential to change lives. As a family owned business, they could afford to invest in new drug ideas even if these were not showing immediate profitability – something big companies cannot afford.
However, one of their biggest problems was the intense competition in their industry. They struggled to differentiate themselves from the industry giants that had bigger budgets, more resources and sales force to attract the best drug ideas on the market.
“As I worked with this particular client I couldn’t stop thinking about the situation they were and the fact that not knowing how to stand out and differentiate from the big players, prevented them to bring their value to so many people.”
“I wondered how many other businesses where in their situation. I knew there and then that this is something that can change.”
I took a conscious decision to bring forth the change and help businesses like my bio-tech client. That was my turning point.
From then on I focused my efforts towards medium-size companies that have valuable products and services to offer but are not sure how they can confidently differentiate themselves from their competitors.
There are amazing businesses out there with amazing products and services – some I have had the pleasure to work with already.
“However many struggle to articulate their value, they say and do the same things as everybody else and get lost in a cluttered marketplace. They choose to compete on price, often at the mercy of big players.”
“I want these businesses to have access to the strategic thinking that the big corporations have. I want to see executives thinking strategically about their marketing efforts.”
So if you own, run or are part of a medium size business that is feeling the burn of intense competition, don’t wait until things start turning into ashes.
