In August the 28-year-old Spaniard Manuel Gomez was appointed European Marketing & Communications Manager of the Turkish denim label Mavi. So it was high time we asked him a few questions!
¡Hola Manuel! Firstly a few questions about your professional background. You studied fashion design in Barcelona and then went on to do a marketing degree.
Do you see yourself as more of a creative person or a numbers person?
I see myself exactly in the middle. After all, figures are involved in even the most creative of campaigns. And a good marketing plan also contains a lot of creativity. It’s all in the mix!
And that’s what makes you successful?
I’m still too young to really be able to speak of success. But I have gained a lot of experience during the last few years. I travelled a lot, got to know a lot of different countries and cultures and worked for different companies. I think that success comes when you’re willing to constantly learn new things and when you really enjoy your job.
You just said that you’re too young to already speak of success. While you were at Desigual the turnover increased from 40 million to 450 million within five years.
At Desigual I had a lot of opportunities to take risks. What really strengthened our position there was the fact that we did things differently to everyone else. Desigual wasn’t a brand with a simple product. But we believed in it.
Polyglot and international: you speak eight languages. Your career has taken you to Barcelona, New York and now Frankfurt am Main. What differences are there in the working methods?
Very few. In many aspects people have a lot of similarities, otherwise the brands wouldn’t be able to have such a global effect. Unfortunately the trends are also becoming increasingly global and there is a lot less individuality.
And now a few questions about Mavi: What does Mavi stand for and how would you position the brand?
Mavi stands for jeans, for the passion for the jeans, with a Mediterranean flair. Mavi is a global brand, which is sold in over 50 countries. We are informal, speak to our customers directly, have fun at work. Our goal is the perfect fit, that the tailoring fits different shaped bodies perfectly.
Can you sum up the entire philosophy of Mavi in one word?
Laughing.. That’s difficult.. but I can. Mavi is the Turkish word for blue. And the colour blue stands for a fresh, young feeling, for the Mediterranean culture and way of life.
Mavi has just opened its first shop, which was designed according to the new Denim Kitchen store concept. Is this Denim Kitchen concept only being conveyed visually through the interior design (jeans workshop flair with cooking ingredients and utensils)? Or will customers also have the opportunity to customise their jeans? Like at the last Bread & Butter?
Denim Kitchen is a part of our philosophy of how we process our jeans. With emotion and a lot of love. Like a chef we choose the ingredients, the washes or the jewels that we use in order to create the perfect dish, the perfect pair of jeans.
This is why we have set up the Denim Kitchen, with which we tell this story, in all of our stores. We are also planning events with artists and also with real chefs. We have a lot of ideas that we’ll be showing in our stores. For us it’s a very interactive thing. We want to make it an experience for our customers and we want them to join in. The concept has a lot of potential. But I can’t reveal where it is headed just yet, I’m afraid.
left: Artist Anton Unai @ Bread & Butter right: Mavi Denim Kitchen store concept
During your time at Desigual in New York you created a (media) sensation with your unusual campaign activities. Like ‘Undie Party’ where hundreds of people dressed only in their underwear flocked to the Desigual stores. Or when you had a grey building façade on Herald Square in New York painted in the bright Desigual colours. What are you going to surprise us with at Mavi?
Hopefully with a lot of fun campaigns. I think that Mavi has a lot to say. I think it’s good when you can keep on surprising people. And also when you try out a lot of new, fresh concept. After all, ideas come when you take a risk and learn from your mistakes. There’s no point in being ultra professional and planning everything, because that’s when you can be certain something will go wrong. That’s how you surprise people, and how they also get a feeling for the brand. If everything is too planned in detail then it’s not exciting anymore.
This year Mavi is celebrating its 20-year anniversary. You were only eight years old when the label was launched. Can you still remember your first ever pair of jeans?
I can’t remember which brand they were. But I can remember that I always used to individualise my jeans when I was little. I ripped them and even sanded them down with sandpaper. I have always seen jeans as something that you can always add your own touch to.
¡Muchas gracias Manuel!
