Curriculum Vitae Petra Driessen MA
Brand and Business Consultant
Personal Details
Petra Driessen MA
6136 EE Sittard, Netherlands
Mobile: +31-627 834 315
Email:
WWW: www.peppercommunications.nl
Dutch citizen
Professional Education
1983 - 1988 MA Social Psychology (Radboud University of Nijmegen NL)
1991 – 1992 Business Management (New Élan Management Training NL)
1998 - 1999 Adult Learning and Teaching (UNITEC NZ)
2007 - 2008 Human Performance Improvement Technology (Blue Note Consultants NZ)
Courses I’ve found to be quite useful as a Consultant
1995 Recreational Sports Instructor
1998 Small Business Administration
2002 Film Making and Directing
2003 Creative Writing NZQA
2004 Organizational Values Coach
2005 Advanced Presentation Skills and
Negotiation Skills
Computer skills
I use all common MS Office tools, whether on PC or Mac, such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Publisher and Movie Maker, etc.
Language competency
Fluent in English (11 years as an ex-pat in New Zealand and Australia), German, and Dutch.
I enjoy presenting and all sorts of group facilitation. I also write commercial copy and articles (e.g. Surf’s up - Mega trends in New Zealand: goto www.marketingmag.co.nz followed by http://www.archivesearch.co.nz/default.aspx?webid=MKT&articleid=24060).
Personal motivation
If it can be imagined, it can be created.
Work Experience
2007 - now Pepper Communications Sittard
After returning from New Zealand early 2007, returning to the South of the Netherlands, I started my strategic brand consultancy Pepper Communications (www.peppercommunications.nl)
Since then I have worked on strategic branding projects involving marketing research, strategic brand planning, communications planning, copy-writing and organisational change management.
Clients large and small are:
q Ewals Cargo Care Genk. B2B project reinventing and repositioning the industrial logistics services towards the medium-sized business market of Belgium.
q DHL European Financial Services Maastricht. Employer branding, communications strategy and -plan based on cultural values research and brand experience workshops I executed.
q O2 Germany Munchen. Strategic brand planning for subbrand Fonic SIM cards while subcontracting to Grey Worldwide Duesseldorf and Grey Wolf and partners Hamburg.
q Eurodoc International Luxemburg. B2B Brand architecture and positioning advice in cooperation with Design agency.
q De PCDokter Sittard. Brand planning, creative consulting and copywriting for website.
q Blue Note Consultants Maastricht. Corporate and company repositioning incl. marketing research, development of company vision, theme marketing strategy, communications plan for corporate trainers and coaches
q Zorggroep Midden-Limburg Roermond. Human Performance Improvement-based change consulting with middle management of 5 care facilities. (a BNote project)
q TV Limburg Sittard. Project management, change consulting and internal communications planning, as well as facilitating HPI-based training sessions with all 40 employees of regional station. (a BNote project)
2005-2007 Senior Brand Strategist at Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland.
I was invited to join Saatchi & Saatchi to complete a team of two senior and two junior brand planners. Under my guidance and through smart packaging the planners have generated significant additional income over and above any standard account planning fees due to new planning products that add ‘good thinking’ -value to accounts.
All strategies and creative briefs are now based on applied consumer psychology plus an in-depth understanding of the client business through collaborative brand development workshops. Further achievements at Saatchi’s are:
q KFC. Brand strategy development that injects the brand with the real reason to buy: irresistibility and keeps kiwis coming back to ‘Satisfy their Cravings’.
q Gen-i ICT. B2B Facilitation of collaborative client+agency marketing strategy workshops “delivered to great client satisfaction” (their words) awarded Saatchi all creative work on the GenI account also.
q Telecom NZ. B2B Telecom For Business BTL campaign illustrates that ex-‘egocentric’ Telecom now wants to facilitate small businesses of NZ with ‘whatever clever’ they may need. http://www.telecom.co.nz/business/home.html
q Fonterra NZ Ltd. Creating the new worldwide Fonterra corporate brand positioning ‘Dairy for Life’ www.Fonterra.com As well as the following work on Fonterra’s dairy brands:
q Anchor Milk. Repositioning Anchor in Oceania as the Family Supporter with ‘Just add Anchor’ http://www.anchor.co.nz/index.php/pi_pageid/2
q Fresh’nFruity yoghurt. New Product Development and launch of a kids’ yoghurt we called Splatz that ‘fuels kids’ imagination’, promoted with a successful 360 campaign. http://www.splatz.co.nz/main_site.html (TVC in 'Watch the Splatz film')
q Primo flavoured milk. Aimed at teenage boys needs came ‘Don’t lose the moment’ a cheeky integrated Primo choc milk campaign. http://www.primomoments.co.nz/
q General Mills’ Frescarini’s fresh Italian pasta. A campaign which puts modernity into previously commoditized fresh pasta.
q Sealord Seafood Auckland. Brand strategy to repositioning an overbearing market leader with a more nimble and likeable ‘can do’ personality.
(Reference available from CEO Andrew Stone, Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland)
2000 – 2005 Brand Strategy Director at LOWE Worldwide (brand agency) and Draft (direct agency) Worldwide Auckland.
LOWE wanted to become a strategic creative agency. I was asked to take the strategic brand planning role at LOWE when I was doing consumer research at Research Solutions. I successfully implemented a strong planning department at LOWE, set up as an external and internal consultancy providing: Insight Mining, Creative Consulting, Synectics sessions, New Product Development, Name Generation, Brand Ignition Sessions, Ideation School, Internal Marketing, etc.
However, the development of the Lowe Brand Development Method during year one established strategic brand planning well and truly within the agency, particularly as my approach to it really did win LOWE and its direct marketing arm DRAFT significant new business.
Clients won or re-focused strategically and creatively over those years are a spread of B2B, retail, FMCG and service markets in New Zealand as well as in Australia, including:
q Tower Insurance, James Hardie Cladding NZ (pitch) and AUS, SIS Insurance, Whoosh Wireless Internet, RD1 rural supplies (pitch), Burger King http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mkEE_02TMU, Honda, Coca Cola Oceania Ltd PowerAde and Diet Coke, Heinz-Watties’ Food In A Minute, Vodafone NZ Ltd (pitch) and Vodafone AUS, PlaceMakers Home Improvement NZ (pitch) and AUS, NZX stock exchange (pitch), Stella Artois BTL, several Nestle brands, Genesis Energy (pitch), Red Energy AUS (pitch) http://www.redenergy.com.au/about/advertising.htm, Lotto (pitch won against Saatchi & Saatchi who held the account for 19 years!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmxjcMVWq8k , Glaxo Smith Kline Avandia.
q My biggest influence and reputation establishing feat has been with Vodafone, which in New Zealand is still a well documented mobile phone success-story in both consumer and business markets strategically and creatively. http://www.caanz.co.nz/v2/awards.asp
(Reference available from Stephen Pearson, CEO Lowe and Draft Group).
Career as a researcher:
1998 – 2000 Consumer Psychologist at Research Solutions Auckland.
I was hired as a specialist in qualitative research and trained 5 other researchers introducing them to the Heylen Implicit aka NeedScope models as well as the techniques of one-to-one interviewing and group facilitation. I started ‘Early bird’ breakfast workshops with the marketers assigned to our existing and potentially new accounts, which were very successful. I also worked on quantitative research monitors using Conversion Model.
1997 – 1998 Independent Marketing Consultant.
I assisted several small clients, but for Smart Drinks Ltd, the first New Zealand made energy drink. I handled positioning research, packaging and marketing of the product.
1996 - 1997 Qualitative Marketing Researcher at Colmar Brunton Research Auckland.
I moderated hundreds of focus groups and in-depth interviews and analyzed the outcomes to create market models based on Heylen Implicit. I presented the branding recommendations to clients and their advertising agencies explaining with great clarity why, how and where brands could be powerfully positioned relative to their competition.
1988 – 1995 Independent Social Research Contractor
My pre-New Zealand career in the Netherlands consists of 7 years of mainly urban anthropology style research: participant observations, in-depth interviewing, desk-research. All projects funded by the Dutch departments of Health and Well-being, Social Affairs, and Work and Income.
And in 1995 I lectured at the dept. of Mass Communication University of Nijmegen NL, teaching ‘Media, Minorities and Prejudice’ .
Page 3