CWC jettisons decision to hire marketing chief

Cable & Wireless Communications has decided not to appoint a marketing director after months of speculation about the direction of the company’s marketing strategy.

Instead, brand development manager John Aarons will co-ordinate a marketing decision-making group consisting of the managing directors of the four business units – consumer, business, corporate and international – and head of corporate communications Roy Payne.

Aarons will report to CWC consumer markets managing director Adrian Chamberlain and chief executive Graham Wallace.

CWC has been without a marketing director since Helen Burt walked out in March just before the central marketing and consumer business divisions merged. Forty-five jobs were axed, mostly from central marketing, which was responsible for the brand’s 50m launch.

Payne says the company, which is the UK’s second largest telecoms company after BT, has decided it does not need a marketing director, despite carrying out an external executive search and interviewing people for the job after Burt’s exit.

Payne says: “This works well for how our company is structured. It is best for us. We’ll do it our way and don’t care what other people think we should do. In the end we want to drive sales and revenue.”

CWC now has 50 marketers and will continue with its product-led marketing programme. It is unclear whether brand advertising will be reinstated.

When BBJ Media won CWC’s media planning and buying account in May, it was believed corporate branding was dropped in favour of a brief covering the four business units.