Adrián Varela de ALPURA
Alpura, as a leading company in Mexico’s dairy products market, has been a great success thanks to its way of building its business by putting the consumer first. Disruption and transformation have been key elements in the group’s trajectory. PRODU discussed that success with Alpura Marketing R&D Director Adrian Varela, an executive with more than 20 years’ marketing and business development experience with a number of companies. Varela’s career began with P&G, went on to Sabritas and later to Mission Foods, where he headed projects in Europe and the United States, then launched the brand on the Chinese market and in southern Asia. However, it was not until he went on to Softys that the course of his career would change. It was there he met Francois Bouyra, who would later introduce him to Alpura “in order to evolve and transform Alpura so that it completes at least 150 more years on the market.” “What really grabs my attention is being able to set the strategic course for such an important brand on the Mexican market, plus the challenge of transforming its culture and the way it does business. So we dare to be disruptive and do all new things in order to transform the brand, the company, its people and more,” Varela said. As for the process of transforming the brand, Varela outlined three key elements in his marketing strategy. “The first challenge we must understand is that of the people. Second, marketing has evolved a great deal. For me, a brand manager is no longer a brand manager but rather a general director of the brand, and ought to be the master of its business. And to make that brand grow, different strategies must be formulated. Third, to have contrast sensitivity function, we must be consumer centric yet business oriented. That means balancing consumer needs with those of the business so that the strategies make sense.” See the complete interview here.
