The need to focus on brand, the dominance of big tech in online marketplaces and consumers demanding more in an AI-driven era are just a few challenges facing One Retail Group.
Giulio Beltramo, the company’s head of marketing, is acutely aware of how the industry has changed.
Adaptability, he says, is essential.
We caught up with him to discuss how One Retail Group balances performance marketing and brand storytelling, manages marketplaces and owned channels, and navigates growth and retention in a rapidly evolving market.
With a portfolio spanning home appliances, personal care and lifestyle consumer goods brands, One Retail Group must navigate ultra-competitive markets and cut through the noise.
Marketing, as Beltramo explains, touches almost every part of the business and has evolved significantly since he first joined.
“Fundamentally, I’m responsible for all performance-based marketing,” he says.
“That includes everything driving traffic to our websites, activity across marketplaces, collaborating closely on our Amazon strategy, and managing DSP and Prime Video activity. From a channel perspective, that covers paid social, PPC, CRM, affiliates, influencers and organic social – the full digital marketing mix.”
But Beltramo’s role goes beyond performance.
He is heavily involved in product development – deciding what to bring to market, why, and the commercial rationale behind each decision – as well as shaping the creative and visual identity of the brands.
“We have dedicated product and creative teams, but I approach it from a commercial and customer perspective: how does this fit our customer, how do we take it to market, and how do we scale it?”
Creative direction follows the same principle: assessing whether initiatives align with the brand identity and can move it forward.
Beltramo also oversees larger strategic projects. With around ten brands under the One Retail Group umbrella, Pro Breeze is the largest, and this year a key focus is cementing it as a household name. That means more brand marketing – video, content, blogs, and careful app management across the customer journey.
“And then, of course, there’s reporting, budgeting and all of that jazz,” he adds.
Performance vs brand. And the impact of AI on this battle
Post-Covid, performance marketing has been the bread and butter of e-commerce, Beltramo says. “It has all been about your PPC setup, paid social funnel, and how that integrates across channels. Two or three years ago, you could still get real incremental value from those channels – put in one pound and get a lot more back. The likes of Google and other major platforms, despite their mysteries, have all become very “plug-in-and-play” for Beltramo.
Yet while performance remains vital, the market is shifting towards brand, and AI is changing everything.
“Search behaviour is evolving; core category terms that drove huge traffic are no longer performing, even when rankings haven’t changed,” he says.
Consumers now search in richer, more nuanced ways. “With ChatGPT or Gemini, people aren’t typing one keyword; they’re asking full, detailed questions with guardrails. The one-word search prompt has become a couple of sentences.”
Advertising exposure points are shrinking because generative AI chatbots do not carry ads and platforms like Meta are oversaturated. Cutting through the noise is harder, and that is where brand wins, Beltramo says.
“Brand creates moments that build mental availability and leave a lasting impression, prompting people to actively seek you on Amazon, an app, or via a search.”
He adds: “We’re entering a more post-performance-led world, where brand is becoming important again. Even the biggest players recognise this. Amazon has invested heavily in Prime Video and now controls premium media inventory across streaming platforms.
“There’s a shift towards longer-form, traditional brand advertising, done in a digitally optimised way with behavioural targeting.”
Of course, the brand vs performance clash will always be nuanced, but for Beltramo, balance is key.
“Performance marketing captures demand wherever a consumer enters your ecosystem. Brand reaches people beyond finite impressions and grows demand rather than just harvesting it,” he explains.
The challenges of marketplaces
One Retail Group sells in over 40 marketplaces globally, from Amazon to regional players like Bol in the Netherlands and Worten in Portugal. Ensuring consistent sales and customer journeys across all platforms is a huge challenge.
When the company formed in 2013, growth and acquisition were the focus.
“In that phase, brand and creative direction mattered less and decisions were more impulse-driven and based on product benefits,” Beltramo says.
Now, however, consistency across markets is vital.
While One Retail Group’s owned channels allow richer product pages and branding, Beltramo warns of a “confusing, mismatched experience” if the brand isn’t consistent.
“Consumers shop around. They’ll compare options and often buy wherever it’s cheapest. We can’t ignore that shoppers add products across multiple channels before choosing one.”
He says, marketplaces are catching up, but still lag in brand-building.
“Amazon, Walmart, Debenhams and B&Q are investing heavily in advertising and in improving what they can offer brands and consumers, because they understand the long-term potential of the marketplace model.
“There’s a lot of competition between platforms to provide better tools and experiences.”
He says it’s worth remembering that each platform has its own variables.
“The task is to make each customer journey feel similar despite those differences. That’s especially difficult when building a consolidated brand.”
“If the goal is purely sales, competitive products, delivery, reviews, and prices suffice. But to upsell, build equity, or play premium, consistency and vigilance are critical.”
Customer retention
Up until recently, Beltramo admits, there has been no cross-sell between One Retail Group’s brands so retention and ensuring long-term customer value has become a relatively new focus.
“It’s a shame because there’s so much audience overlap,” he says.
Marketplaces control customer data, making it challenging to centralise information. “For example, Amazon is quite protective of its customer data and owns all of it – so we don’t get access. That makes things difficult, because you don’t necessarily know who those customers are. We have to be tactical.”
One way the company deals with this is through warranties, where consumers register their product.
“That creates a lead-generation moment and allows us to identify where the customer came from and start building a clearer picture,” Beltramo says.
And he is also focused on sophisticated product suggestions.
“If someone buys a dehumidifier, we also have portable moisture absorbers. Correlated products can be tied together via on-site optimisation or post-purchase emails,” he notes.
Through more advanced product retargeting the company can begin to start making informed assumptions about customer profiles and suggest other relevant products. “Ultimately, this is a huge opportunity for us, and one we’re actively working to build out in a much more structured way.”
Making the case for marketing when results are under scrutiny
Proving marketing’s value when budgets tighten is a career-long challenge for Beltramo.
For him, successfully making a case for the discipline is dependent on who you are trying to inform, because everyone has their own perception of marketing’s value. Part of his role is to lobby the right people in his team to truly understand what it is they are trying to achieve.
Beltramo believes that most people in the industry only focus on ‘promotion’ in the ‘4Ps’.
“Product, price, and placement are just as important. Placement is often owned by a sales or e-commerce team because they manage the storefronts, but where a product sits and how it’s positioned directly affects sales.”
The marketing lead feels the discipline’s wider, holistic impact must be shown. “People often ask, “What’s the point of brand marketing?” You might need it to get into John Lewis for long-term growth. That decision can’t easily be quantified as ROI – it may come down to relationships or perception. You need to demonstrate impact on overall revenue – spend versus returns and whether proportions are rising or falling.”
Share of voice is also “huge” for One Retail Group. “What are we doing beyond immediate sales? How often is our brand mentioned or ranking highly on Google? These are leading indicators of organic growth. Anyone can generate revenue with performance marketing, but that requires constant investment. The goal is to build organic growth alongside paid efforts.”
Beltramo admits that even with all the data and insights at their disposal, the value of marketing is not always immediately visible. “It’s important to understand the wider context, economic, social, and digital.
“Sometimes a random product gets picked up on Amazon, becomes a bestseller, while another loses share. Things change fast. You need to ride the highs, take the lows, and pivot,” he advises.
At One Retail Group, adaptability has become second nature. “When demand is too expensive, we switch off ads, reallocate spend, or focus on better-performing channels,” Beltramo explains.
In pressure moments, marketing extends beyond paid media. “You have to find the right influencer, secure a media endorsement or leverage micro-moments that drive real impact. These opportunities are often the saving grace.”
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