Pragmatic in outlook and a champion of human values, we got to know the reflections, challenges and technological vision of Ricardo, Head of Strategy at Comuniza. While his perspective is optimistic and practical, he also questions and highlights the pending challenges we face in the business world and especially in the digital one.
I am Ricardo Domingo, and I work as Head of Strategy at Comuniza, a consultancy specialised in branding and innovation. We operate in Spain and Latin America, helping clients of all sizes, from large Ibex companies to startups and smaller businesses with very diverse challenges.
All companies, regardless of their size or sector, need to stand out and have their own identity. And in our case, we find those needs also in highly regulated sectors such as financial services, insurance companies and more digitally native businesses.
Yes, of course. In fact, we have noticed that the boundaries between branding and the digital world are gradually blurring. Previously, branding focused on the essence of the brand and its connection with its internal identity, but now it is more closely linked to the business, metrics and commercial performance.
This evolution is partly due to the growing importance of customer experience: the customer journey, UX/UI... These topics have recently emerged at the periphery of branding and brands have a lot to say in this context. If we do not give meaning to the brand's actions in the customer experience, they become empty.
Our approach focuses on connecting traditional brand building — which involves meanings, truths and differentiation — with the experience, the business and the company's operations.
The boundaries between branding and the digital world are blurring and branding is increasingly being linked to business, metrics and commercial performance.
In my opinion, if a client still does not understand what branding or user experience is, it may not make sense to give them a masterclass on the spot. There is always a pedagogical element, of course, but in that sense I have a somewhat more pragmatic perspective from the client's point of view.
Usually the client knows they have "pain points" and knows those pain points stem from having sold less, because their product is selling poorly, because they lack reputation or because they know things are going wrong. And we, on the consultancy side, need to be the ones who put labels on all of that and provide solutions, regardless of whether the problem is digital, brand-related, operational or commercial. I like to explain it this way: we always add salt and pepper to every recipe — that is the branding — but the recipes themselves change. There always needs to be that guiding thread, which is the brand.
When you work with rigid barriers or very closed products, the solution also ends up being very constrained. So if the challenges clients face are becoming increasingly fluid, the products and services we offer must also be capable of adapting to that complexity.
Our role as consultants is to label and solve those problems, regardless of whether they are digital, brand-related, operational or commercial issues.
Yes, sometimes a client wants content focused more on branded storytelling, other times they want web copy with an SEO approach… all those boxes we can divide the sub-disciplines into are really a fiction that we, on the consultancy and agency side, have created.
We need to look beyond that. What we have in front of us is a challenge that the client needs to solve — whether that is positioning themselves or making their copy stand out from the competition. The solution you provide can sometimes be a single, complete solution that perfectly matches one of your products. However, it can also be a more transversal solution that involves several disciplines.
I think some clients need projects and some clients need assignments. It almost sounds like a linguistic nuance, but when a client needs an assignment they have a very clear brief. They know exactly what they need and tell you, for example, "I need a copy with these keywords for the homepage because I need it to rank first in search". That is an assignment. And from there, the value added by the agency is primarily very tactical, very focused on delivering the best possible product.
The type of client who usually comes to us does not know what they need. That is when the client needs that analytical and consultancy component — we have to take a step back. We always think in terms of scenarios and possible solutions, since we cannot provide closed solutions to a problem that may later pivot in another direction.
Given that client challenges are increasingly fluid, the products and services we offer must also adapt to that complexity.
In our process, data and analysis play a crucial role. We need to back everything we say with concrete, objective data. Moreover, we must be able to quantify even abstract concepts. We often encounter clients who have an excess of data, which tends to lead to confusion and paralysis.
Firstly, we try to work on projects with the minimum necessary data to back up tangible facts. This allows us to maintain a clear focus and avoid information overload.
Secondly, we evaluate the success of a project, especially regarding brand measurement. Brand measurement is an area where there is still some lack of information or documentation. Some consultancies evaluate brand success based on financial metrics, while others rely on parameters related to brand meaning. Each consultancy has its own approach, and you cannot say which is better or worse.
In our case, we always try to evaluate success from the perspective of the meanings associated with the brand. We analyse brand authority and the meanings that surround it. An illustrative example would be the case of El Corte Inglés, which faces a challenge in terms of meaning. Despite being widely known, people often only turn to it when there are no other options available. The same happens with brands like BMW: you may like them, but not everyone is willing to take out a loan to buy one.
Without a doubt, it is important to bear in mind that in marketing, some elements — such as clicks (CTR), impressions and likes in digital campaigns — are easy to measure and track. However, semiotics, meaning meanings and the narrative dimension, are harder to quantify. The empirical approach of the current era often relegates these aspects to a secondary position.
This narrative and semiotic dimension is complicated to control and measure, but it is essential. Data can be measured, but is often just a small part of what really affects our strategy. You can measure the number of clicks, but if you lack a holistic vision, you may not know how the client has reacted.
We can often objectify these questions through specific indicators, such as the number of commercial meetings and the profile of clients we are attracting compared to the past. This gives us a more complete picture of how our clients are evolving and whether we are making the most of our brand's potential. Although it may seem complex, this approach is crucial. In short, it is about quantifying the impact of our brand strategies.
Some people take a pragmatic approach to change and see technology as a tool that should improve our work.
Technology is not necessarily good or bad, and it has undergone significant changes over time. Not everyone who is concerned about these changes is apocalyptic or sceptical. Some take a pragmatic approach and see technology as a tool that should improve our work.
In the workplace, some fear that technology may replace jobs, especially in consultancies and agencies. While it is true that technology can automate tasks, we use it as part of our creative process. For example, we use artificial intelligence (AI) and other tools to help us raise questions, but never as the definitive answer.
In the case of technology, the human role in the future is also being emphasised. For example, the New York Times has begun highlighting the importance of the people involved in creating an article. Despite automation, it remains relevant who the editor is and who was responsible for the photography. I believe the human factor will continue to be fundamental.
The value chain behind a product or service is becoming increasingly important. We can take speciality coffee as an example. Despite the product itself being similar to other coffees, everything behind it is valued: who grows it, how the beans are harvested, its origin and more. I believe this valorisation of the human will also be relevant in technology and communication.
The idea of pressing a button to do everything automatically may be tempting, but trial and error, practice and the development of human judgement are essential.
That is an interesting question. Although I have been in the sector for about 7 or 8 years, which is not a long time, I have seen certain patterns. In the past, there was a lot of excitement around Big Data and people thought it would change everything. However, we soon realised that simply accumulating data without knowing how to interpret it made no sense. Installing IoT technology throughout a city, for example, also made no sense if you did not know how to use it properly. The same happened with trends like the metaverse, which rose and fell in popularity quickly. I learned that technological tools change constantly and that we must adapt.
As for everyday tools, like the integrations in Google's productivity applications, I think they are here to stay, but not necessarily to replace other ways of working. Rather, they are a complement. I remember how the Internet changed the way we search for information on Google Images, something we take for granted today but which was a revolution at the time.
The idea of pressing a button to do everything may be tempting, but learning through trial and error, practice and the development of judgement are fundamental. We cannot develop sound judgement without practical experience. If a tool does everything for you, it suppresses that learning process and, ultimately, your capacity to make important decisions. In short, although technology is advancing rapidly, the importance of practical learning and the development of human judgement remain essential.
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