THE GENTLE GIANTS: An interview with Federico Rebaudo, Head of Homa Appliances European Office
冰冷行业隐形冠军: 奥马冰箱欧洲办公室总监Federico Rebaudo访谈

Homa’s global marketing approach and proposition to client brands seems to revolve around the concept of Food Preservation. Can you tell us what this means to you?

奥马的全球营销策略和客户价值主张似乎都围绕着“保鲜体验”的概念。您能跟我们具体说说其中的含义吗？

Food Preservation is one of the three concepts behind our marketing strategy, the other two being Care and Design. Food preservation as opposed to food storage, carries a sense of focus and attention to detail that resonates with consumers worldwide. Preserving also means protecting: our loved ones, our precious nourishment, our planet. It also brings technology into the picture. In our vision, the purpose of technology is to serve the ideal of caring from a concrete, technical point of view. In today’s world, a refrigerator is no longer a simple cold box to store food supplies, it has become an important part of our newly-found interest in caring for our families, our health and the environment. The concept of care also refers to Homa’s culture of building and maintaining relationships over the years, with partners, clients, and suppliers. It’s in our soul. Finally, Design, in its augmented connotation of both aesthetics and engineering, has a fundamental part to play in this as it is the driving force enabling both form and function.
“保鲜体验”是奥马营销策略背后的三大理念之一，另外两个分别是关怀和设计。与单纯的食物储存不同，“保鲜”通过对食物储存细节的重视，让全球消费者产生体验上的共鸣（其他意译：解决广大消费者的共同需求）。保鲜也意味着保护：为我们所爱的人，我们珍贵的食物，我们的地球提供保护。保鲜离不开技术支持。在我们看来，技术是实现这个理念最实质性的手段。随着人们对家人、健康和环境越发重视，冰箱已不再是存放食物的容器那么简单了，而是成为了传递关怀和体验的纽带。奥马的企业文化同样也重视关怀。多年来，奥马与全球合作伙伴、客户以及供应商建立及保持长期合作关系。关怀已扎根于奥马的灵魂。最后，设计也至关重要。-美观性与实用性内外兼备，是设计的内涵与价值。



How important is form, i.e. the aesthetic part of design, in Homa’s proposition?

在奥马看来，设计的美观性，有多重要？

If we consider the current lifestyle trends in most societies around the world, form is becoming increasingly important. Food, and its representation, is possibly the strongest way to express our cultural identity, our education, our social status, and the refrigerator is instrumental in this collective dedication to the staging of our lifestyles. Hence the importance of its appearance, I’d say appeal. In the kitchen we talk, we exchange ideas, we love, argue, cry, we get proposed, we entertain, we mourn. In fact the most important moments in our life are likely to occur in the kitchen, and the refrigerator is the largest and most visible appliance in it. When you come to think of it, it’s the first thing we open in the morning as we prepare breakfast, and also the last one, at night, when we drink that glass of milk before going to bed. We interact with it multiple times during the day. As a cooling appliances manufacturer exporting worldwide, we simply couldn’t avoid taking all this into consideration.

考虑到目前全球大部分地区的生活方式的变化趋势，美观性已经越来越重要了。以食物及饮食习惯为表现的生活方式，可以很大程度上反映出人们的文化身份、教育水平和社会地位，而冰箱则是这种生活方式的集中体现。所以在我看来，外观，或者我们常说的“颜值”，是很重要的。人们在厨房里聊天、交流，在厨房里表达爱意、争吵、哭泣，也可能在厨房里求婚、欢笑、悲伤。其实，厨房可能承载了我们生活中的许多重要时刻，而冰箱是这处空间里最大、最显眼的存在。仔细想想，早上我们打开冰箱，准备早餐，是冰箱为我们开启新的一天；晚上我们打开冰箱，喝杯牛奶，又是冰箱为我们这一天画上句号。每天我们都多次地和冰箱互动。作为冰箱制造商，奥马的产品远销世界各地，因此我们必须想用户所想。

How did that impact the technology and the design of your refrigerators?
这些考虑对于奥马冰箱的技术和设计会有哪些影响？
The need for a more natural, wholesome diet with plenty of fresh produce was at the basis of the introduction of No-Frost technology across our entire 2022 range. Fresher foods that last longer at every latitude, with all their vitamins and nutrients is ultimately what we want to offer, and we’re using the most appropriate technology to serve that purpose, even if it’s considered high-end. Can we afford it and still be competitive? Yes, because of our size and of the economies of scale we can achieve. Another example of lifestyle-driven technology in our products is the AI inverter. Sustainability and energy-savings are subjects consumers around the world are increasingly sensitive to, and about which they are less and less prepared to compromise. AI inverter technology, applied to the compressor system of our refrigerators, not only more than offsets any potential consumption increase due to No-Frost, it also helps avoid temperature fluctuations, maintaining a precise temperature inside the cavity, with the result of further energy savings and better preservation of food. In fact, you can say all the technology in our products is conceived and validated under that perspective. As far as design is concerned, this meant, for instance, more metallic parts and less plastic ones, for higher recyclability and lower impact on the environment. Also, the general glamourisation of food and personal life-styles vindicates our efforts to produce appealing, stylish appliances that seamlessly fit into any kitchen layout, and steal the show! We are partnering with leading European design firms that help us infuse that special glitch of international, cool sophistication into our refrigerators, and our 2022 collection is a beautiful example of this. Also, perhaps due to the recent restrictions, we tend to stay-in more, and entertain at home, hence the need for larger appliances. The reduction of the frequency of shopping trips, with larger supplies to stock every time, also goes in that direction. Entertaining at home also triggered the appearance of our first ice-maker and dispenser in some of our side-by-side models. To help our clients best convey the relevance of these innovations to their customers, we went beyond our traditional role of OEM producers and started creating the elements for a memorable and shareable storytelling around our products for the global market.

基于人们对更天然、更健康、更新鲜的食物的诉求，我们将风冷无霜技术贯彻于整个2022系列。奥马专注于为全球用户提供长效保鲜的食物，最大程度地保护食物中的营养成分。为了实现这一目标，我们力求为产品匹配最合适的技术应用，甚至是最高端制冷技术。有人可能会问，我们是否有衡量性价比？产品是否能保持竞争力？得益于我们的制造规模优势，答案是乐观的。说到以生活方式驱动技术研发，就不得不提一下奥马冰箱的智能双变频。全球消费者对于可持续和节能的理念越来越重视，甚至成为消费决策的重要因素。我们将独创的专利技术智能双变频技术应用于奥马冰箱，不仅可以抵消风冷无霜带来的额外能耗，而且还能精准控温、减少冰箱内温度波动，以实现更好的节能保鲜效果。可以说，可持续的思考是奥马所有产品技术的出发点和落脚点。此外，从设计方面来看，我们尽量用金属材料来代替塑料，以实现产品材料的可循环利用，降低对环境的影响。目前，越来越多人对食物和生活方式有了更高的追求，这也更印证了我们的理念。我们将持续打造美观时尚、能够轻松融入每一个厨房的冰箱，为用户点亮生活之美！我们在2022年打造的高端冰箱，由欧洲顶尖设计公司与奥马联手打造，着眼全球，内外兼备。近来，受新冠疫情的限制，人们更多地待在家中或在家招待客人，因此就需要冰箱有更大的容量。随着出门购物的频率降低，每次都要储备大量食物，人们对大容量冰箱的需求就更迫切了。为了满足用户在家待客的需求，奥马推出了首款全自动制冰机对开门冰箱。可以看到，奥马已经不只是一家传统的制造企业，除了卖产品，我们还会为我们的客户提供市场营销的创意服务，帮助客户更好地向消费者传达每一项产品的技术和设计创新背后的故事。

（未完待续）