Mauro Berzobini of Leonardo joined us on the floor at MODEX 2018 in Atlanta to discuss how Leonardo has a hand in multiple business sectors. They work with industries involved in anything from aerospace to defense to automated material handling. Baggage and parcel-handling applications form one of the largest percentages of their customers. Leonardo headquarters reside in Rome and their reach already extends across Europe and Asia. However, North America still represents a fresh frontier for them, which is part of what brought them to MODEX.
“We have different [marketing] strategies if you look at the parcel handling and the baggage handling. Parcel, I would say, it’s sort of easier, because we are well-known across the pond. And you know, the players are global players: so you’ll find there the UPS, the FedEx, the DHL you’ll find there, Amazon…so you do a good job there, they’re happy with your products, they’re happy with your installation, with the site work that you perform, and they’ll give you credit for that and they’ll let you enter the market in the US.
“Baggage is somehow different, because here in the US all airports are looking…domestically. There’s a few airport authorities that own airports across the globe, so you have to really go and hit each and every stakeholder: invite them over to Rome – which is not a bad thing – to see one of our largest installations.”
Leonardo’s particular focus at the Atlanta trade show was Crossbelt: a proprietary sorting technology that can handle everything from large packages to paper-thin envelopes.
“It’s very high-tech, it’s no wear-and-tear, it’s very low maintenance; so the customers start to appreciate not just the initial investment cost, but the whole life of the system – the total cost of ownership. If a system is available, affordable; but it also runs with a low cost for operations, that’s a real plus.”
And according to Mauro, having a great product is half the battle of successful industrial marketing. So what, for Leonardo, is the other half?
“Well, of course joining and participating in trade shows like [MODEX], and ProMat last year…participating with the associations – so with MHI – and of course having the right product, the right contacts. It’s sort of a niche market.”
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