Thanks to the support of Teresa Serra, Director of marketing area and Professor of Marketing at IE business school, Prof. José Ignacio Gafo and the entire GMBA team on friday 20th september, Nazareno Mario Ciccarello, IMBA 2008 and vice president of the IE Italy alumni club, presented its recently founded company in front of 11 GMBA students attending Prof. José Ignacio Gafo marketing class.
Nazareno Mario Ciccarello’s desire for setting up its own venture started when he made finals at IE venture Lab in 2008. The venture group succeeded at academic level but the venture never came to reality.
“IE venture lab experience was amazing and I believe I learned quite a lot from my mistakes” stated Nazareno Mario Ciccarello, “After a fews years and a fine tuned approach, things seem to have gone in a different way now, even if, there is still a lot to do and many challenges to face”
Functional gums s.r.l. ( www.drivegum.com ) is an Italian company specialized in development and marketing of functional chewing gums which has recently launched Drivegum; the first chewing gum with mint taste, containing caffeine, which combines the scientifically proven effects of chewing, which help to stay awake, with the energizing power of caffeine which improve concentration and increase alertness.
The company has just launched Drivegum in Italy and is looking to expand the business internationally especially in Spain, Austria and Germany.
Now, a group of 11 IE GMBA students, who already have a wide experience in marketing or are willing to specialize in it, will use Functional gums and Drivegum as a final exam case study for their marketing class.
“I really have to thank Teresa Serra and José Ignacio Gafo for allowing me to be back at IE learning from marketing experts and sharing a life time experience with them” said Nazareno Mario Ciccarello.
The GMBA students have been presented some possible scenarios that could be combined, innovated or simply used as a hint for a completely different marketing strategy.
Their results will be presented during their final marketing class exam on March 7th, 2014.
About the author
With an Engineering background and experience in consulting, Sergio Negri completed his MBA in 2004, after which he joined Metro News as a Business Development Manager. Since 2008 he has been the Manager for IE in Italy, finding new job opportunities for IE alumni and advising potential candidates. He’s also Adjunct professor at IE, in the field of IT management.