Leaders & Achievers 2022
LORI GIUTTARI
Chief marketing officer, Visual Thrive LLC
AFTER 30-PLUS YEARS as a marketing professional, Lori Giuttari says running a successful business boils down to two simple rules. The first is to be flexible and start with your strengths. “Everything’s OK. You have good days and bad days. The kids are sick? We’re not going to run our business strictly 9 to 5,” she said.
And Giuttari’s other simple rule for running a successful business? “Once you’ve worked your rear end off, you’ve got to start having fun,” she said.
Giuttari recognized her strengths as a strategic planner right from the jump. She landed an R.I. Supreme Court internship while in her early 20s. From there, she managed the campaign headquarters for James O’Neil in his successful run for state attorney general when he was elected in 1986. She then created Rhode Island Legal Services’ first endowment with the Rhode Island Foundation, and later spent 10 years as global marketing director and then head of communications for North America at Schneider Electric.
Eventually, Giuttari got the itch to launch her own shop. In 2018, with co-owner Scott Indermaur, she debuted Visual Thrive LLC, a Cranston-based boutique agency that helps small and midsize businesses market their message using web design, professional photography and video, and social media. Clients include Adler’s Design and Hardware, MG Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. and Rustigian Rugs.
‘Once you’ve worked your rear end off, you’ve got to start having fun.’
Recently, Giuttari’s labor of love has been Shop Local Rhode Island, a side project Visual Thrive launched early in the COVID-19 pandemic that now numbers some 2,000 businesses in its online directory and roughly 50 marketplace vendors offering 400 products.
Thanks to a $107,000 R.I. Commerce Corp. Innovation Grant, Shop Local will unveil a fresh, new look in September. “We were one of the only for-profits that [R.I.] Commerce funded,” she said. “The new site is gorgeous.”
Shop Local also offers ongoing sessions for the site’s businesses, helping them to use marketing tactics and to consider e-commerce as a revenue stream. As a template, it has the potential to be replicated around the country, Giuttari said.
“If the state of Vermont says they want to do something similar, we can do that package for them,” she said.
