Scottish Courage expands its marketing operations

Scottish Courage is expanding the range of its marketing department to include commercial and customer marketing activities. This follows the arrival of Tim Seager from Procter & Gamble as marketing director in January this year (MW September 18, 2003).

As part of the restructure, the company is seeking a new commercial director to report to Seager. The move also coincides with increased below-the-line investment across the drinks company’s portfolio of brands, which include Beck’s, John Smith’s and Foster’s. The company already spends £14.1m above the line on its brands. It declined to give details about the increased spend on below-the-line activities.

The planned structure will include a new customer marketing division, which will be responsible for off-trade, and a trade marketing division, which will develop brand promotional activity.

The consumer marketing division will continue to be led by Andy Neal, who was previously a brand director. He was appointed to consumer marketing director last year (MW August 28, 2003).

The restructure follows last year’s acquisition of Bulmers and its flagship account Strongbow. Seager says: “The new structure has been designed to bring brands to life in the key battleground, which is point of sale, where many purchasing decisions are made.”