Francesco Funari

My name is Francesco Funari, I’m the Head of Product Marketing at Flos.

My role is to support the brand with the definition of the product strategy and the management of all product launches through our product collections and channels. Together with my Spanish and Italian team I follow the product lifecycle from the very beginning of each concept, through benchmarking and market analysis until the market activation, ensuring each aspect is correctly fulfilled to reach an efficient launch.

My background

I studied product design during my Bachelor and I developed a deep passion for lamps and lighting design. After the University I started working as a lighting designer and I never left the lighting industry since then. Marketing wasn’t a choice in my career, it actually came unexpected through my path! Product marketing turned out to be a perfect synthesis between my love for design and the possibility of joining the whole process behind it, with the added value of travelling around the world.. 

What I love most about my job

Working for a brand that is a milestone in the history of Italian and international design makes me proud.

What I love the most about my job is that you never get to repeat yourself. Even though a process has been set up and the steps to follow are all well defined you always try to push the boundaries and strive for the best. Marketing lets you work in synergy with all the company’s departments, and I like working with colleagues from all around the world, listening to them and sometimes challenging each other.

How do you think your job will evolve in the coming years?           

I think technology will have a strong impact on product marketing, it will make the process management easier and quicker as well as enhancing market data and competition insights at a glance. Hopefully then my job will be less depending on data searching, gaining more quality time for focused strategy thinking.

My advice for someone starting out in this profession

Quoting the master Achille Castiglioni: “If you’re not curios, forget it”. 

Curiosity is a fundamental element in this profession, you always need to look around you, try to push the boundaries and think out of the box. It is essential to bring added value to what you do.

Three words to describe your experience with the brand:                             

Being a part of the Flos family I learned that light can be so much more than a fundamental need, it is a living substance to express ideas and explore emotions, it makes sense of human history and creates empathy with the people. If had to choose three words to describe this experience they would be:

Disruptive, Engaging and Emotional.