As a youngster, my most significant interest was football. I aspired to play professional football and dedicated myself to training and playing. Despite my best efforts, I had to come to terms with the fact that my abilities needed to meet professional standards.

As a teenager, I was determined to pursue my architectural dream. I put in a lot of hard work and dedication to achieve this goal, attending secondary vocational education and earning a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering in Utrecht. However, juggling the demands of studying, living independently, and working to finance everything proved challenging, and after a year, I decided to take a different path. Fortunately, I got a job at an architectural firm in The Hague, where I gained invaluable experience.

I decided to pursue other aspirations and enrolled in a Small Business and Retail Management Bachelor’s program. Throughout my academic journey, I offered my services as a volunteer in a start-up, interned at a creative studio, and held various positions such as bartender, manager, and store manager. Eventually, I established my mobile cocktail bar business, which turned out to be a triumph, but I realized that it was time to concentrate on a permanent professional career.

After finishing my Bachelor’s in Marketing management, I began my career as a designer and project manager for the Syngenta Flowers booth at the IPM. It opened the floricultural world to me, and I found a new passion; I landed a marketing position at Moerheim New Plant, where I welcomed the chance to make a positive impact.

Today, as the Head of Marketing, Communications, and Trade (EAME) at MNP / Suntory in Leimuiderbrug, Netherlands, I am an experienced marketing manager and branding strategist. I drive product introductions and implement growth strategies for our highly sought-after annual flowering and bedding plants. My proactive approach has led to the success of many marketing campaigns and significant growth for brands such as Sundaville, Surfinia, Senetti, Princettia, and many more.

As a marketing professional, I engage in the practice of growth hacking, a strategic process that is tailored to suit the specific needs of the industry, company, and product in question. The European floriculture supply chain, which comprises several stages, ranging from the breeder to the propagator, grower, wholesaler, retailer, and ultimately, the end consumer, is a complex ecosystem that demands meticulous attention and management. As growth hackers, our responsibility is to create a significant impact with limited resources. Our primary objective is to introduce unique and high-quality products that establish a new market. By utilizing the Blue Ocean Strategy, we aim to be the pioneer and industry leader in this market for the foreseeable future.

The challenge is to create new markets that can grow into successful businesses from scratch. The process of creating and expanding markets is essentially sales. The aim is to achieve large market shares without needing a large sales team. Having a significant market share can lead to lower costs and higher profits due to increased sales within a given period, compared to smaller competitors. Therefore, what I do can be categorized as sales. Our primary focus is on achieving high sales numbers.

A growth hacker plays a crucial role in the successful launch of a product. They possess the ability to strategically identify the most opportune time and location, monitor trends, and craft a compelling brand narrative. Their primary objective is to expedite product movement across the supply chain, from manufacturers to end consumers and achieve favourable traction within the market. This generates a broad sales network, boosting production and sales figures, and culminating in the establishment of a reputable B2B brand, which eventually evolves into a recognizable consumer brand. To attain this outcome, a growth hacker focuses on product development, anticipates market trends ten years in advance, and continuously refines their offerings. It is crucial to recognize that each product caters to distinct target groups and trends change over time.

My methodology focuses on creativity rather than merely sales, as I firmly believe that an effective narrative makes selling easier. While creating plans on paper is commendable, they will only succeed if there is a genuine understanding of the product and market, which is why I collaborate closely with product managers. By doing so, I am able to identify the product’s potential, comprehend the target audience, and recognize the stakeholders’ needs. With this knowledge in hand, I adopt a creative approach utilizing trend-watching and intuition to develop a comprehensive branding strategy.

The branding strategy takes on paramount importance as it defines the brand’s positioning, narrative, visual elements, and what customers can expect from the product. However, more crucially, it shapes how customers feel when they see or use the product. Once the branding strategy is in place, it is time to shift our focus to the commercial and marketing mix. I always employ a 360-degree marketing approach, which includes online appearances, social media, press releases, offline promotions, trade fairs, packaging, and point of sale.

I consistently aim to be cost-effective, utilizing in-house creativity for production, design, styling, photography, copywriting, web building, and other marketing-related aspects. Furthermore, this approach extends to corporate or employer branding projects.