 Daniel Guzman
Marketing Manager — Latin America, Dell Panama City, Panama
Dell’s Daniel Guzman recognizes the marketing challenges for a region as diverse as Latin America. Even a word as basic as “computer” varies throughout Central and South America. Depending on country of origin, it can be a feminine or a masculine noun, which creates havoc in pan-regional messages for Inspiron notebooks or Vostro business systems.
Guzman is responsible for the strategic planning for the region, as well as for all product advertising. Dell in Latin American is standardizing its offerings so that all brands will have the same look and feel in Mexico or Colombia as they do in the U.S. or the rest of the world. Yet, given the differences among national markets in key factors like computer ownership and allowable legal variations for product promotions, there is no single, foolproof way to communicate to the entire region.
Even’s Dell’s regional Panama headquarters seems to strive for neutrality. Strategically chosen five years ago, it has proven to be an economically stable and geographically well-connected hub. It now houses regional HR and financial operations, marketing, procurement and tech support—including helpline call centers that serve Canada to Chile in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Although now a resident of Panama, Daniel Guzman’s background reflects the cross-border nature of the region. His parents are from Seville, Spain; he grew up principally in Venezuela, but received his MBA degree from the Univerisity of Texas at Austin. (His undergraduate degree is in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela.) Despite the complexity of Central and South America, Guzman sees his primary role as that of brand champion and talks about it as “complicated, but not impossible.” This means consolidating activities so he can provide customers with a clearer idea of what Dell offers through a simple, but well-focused, message. He is looking forward to seeing how the newly announed WPP “DaVinci” integrated partnership with Dell (valued at $4.5 billion in agency billings over the first three years) will benefit the customers in his region. “Certainly Latin America requires both the ‘art and science’ of Da Vinci to make things happen,” say Guzman.
He uses pan-regional television networks with local feeds like Sony, Warner, Universal, and MTV to reach young consumers for Inspiron with messages that drive them online. For other targets groups and products lines like Vostro, he opts for newspapers and magazines that are more national in nature.
“I love computers and all new things electronic. Perhaps I am a geek, but my love for Latin America is just as great. The region is so interesting now. It is growing dramatically, because of first-time access to technologies that can touch so many people’s lives by improving the education of their children and providing more access to information than ever before.” Daniel Guzman continues, “Dell has a bright future. And the company will only become more international.” Contact: daniel_guzman@dell.com
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