Trendsetters: CMO Mirella Vitale Tells How Aligning around Purpose Changed Everything

"Everything changed when we aligned around purpose," says Mirella Amalia Vitale, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communication and Public Affairs for the ROCKWOOL Group.  

 Although Ms. Vitale is working with one of the world's most sustainable brands, she clearly demonstrates how a focused, well-structured and purposeful marketing initiative can make a difference to a brand and to the world.  Her charge is to re-positioning ROCKWOOL globally with a strong sustainability agenda and an increased customer-focused business approach.  In doing so, she has managed to balance critical sustainability issues with true marketing understanding.

 The shift to centralizing the company's marketing around a purpose for greater good has created exceptional results in less than a year in ROCKWOOL's native Denmark, a country that leads in overall sustainability initiatives.  ROCKWOOL has risen in the Danish Sustainability Ranking with the highest percentage increase (30%) in one year, and now—for the first time—ROCKWOOL ranks among the Top 20 Brands in Denmark.

The ROCKWOOL Group, without question, is one of the world's most extraordinary and truly sustainable companies. As a global leader in the manufacture of stone wool building materials, it is of critical interest to architects, builders and homeowners.  As the world witnesses a higher number of tragic building fires, ROCKWOOL's non-combustible products are of great interest to all high-rise dwellers and office tower workers.  The company's diverse brands insure state-of-the art insulation, protect against fire and water damage, reduce noise pollution, and provide human comfort and wellbeing.

 Mirella Vitale has focused on the company's efforts purposeful marketing through a global effort called "Modern Living."  She says, "We are committed to enriching the lives of everyone who comes into contact with our products. Our portfolio is perfectly suited to tackle many of today's biggest sustainability and development challenges. From energy consumption to noise pollution, water scarcity to flooding, our solutions help our customers address many of the big issues of modern living. Our products address the diversity of the world's needs, supporting our stakeholders in reducing their own carbon footprint along the way."

 She also raises a number of key points:  

• It is critical to align around a purpose that is authentic to all of an organization's stakeholders—be they professionals, tradespeople, retailers, consumers, company management, employees or investors. 
• Company leadership need not merely support marketing initiatives, but must believe in them.  
• Today, there is no difference between internal and external marketing; they must be the same if an organization is to move forward with actionable resolve.  

Mirella Vitale is a true internationalist. Italian by birth, she studied foreign languages and literature in Bari University, Italy with continuing professional education in a High-Performance Leadership Program at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland. She joined ROCKWOOL in a new Group Management position in February 2016 just after the company announced their ambitious business transformation program.  She was uniquely suited for this position after spending 15 years in the alternative energy field working for market-leader Vestas Wind Systems in various leadership roles in Italy, Spain and Denmark.

 The ROCKWOOL Group, with a head office location near Copenhagen, Denmark, was founded in 1909, and its insulation production started in 1937. ROCKWOOL Group operations have a large presence in Europe and Russia, and a rapidly-growing position in North America; they now have over ten-thousand employees in 37 countries in their effort to support customers worldwide.

 Stone wool, the source of ROCKWOOL products, is a versatile material made from a natural and abundant resource – volcanic rock, which is comprised largely of basalt and chalk and in abundant supply throughout the world.  It is created by melting the rock at high heat, and then blowing it into a spinning chamber to create cotton-candy-like fibers. Applications for stone wool include ROCKWOOL's thermal insulation, filtration, soundproofing, and even a hydroponic growth medium.  And it is entirely recyclable and reusable upon disposal.