Coca-Cola appoints Marcos De Quinto as CMO after Tripodi announces retirement
Coca-Cola has appointed Marcos De Quinto as chief marketing officer after it was announced Joe Tripodi is to retire after seven years in the job.
De Quinto will take on oversight of the company’s portfolio of brands from February 2015. He moves from his current dual role as vice president of the company’s Iberian business and vice president of its pan-European steering group, a job he has been in since 2000.
Prior to this, he held various senior marketing jobs across Europe as well as general management roles in Singapore and Malaysia.
It is this marketing and business strategy experience Coke is looking to help kick-start sales after a period of stuttering growth – the company announced earlier this week sales fell to $11.98bn in the three months to September 30 from $12bn a year earlier.
To free up additional cash to invest in brand building, the company has embarked on an efficiency drive that will see its marketers adopt a “zero-based budgeting” meaning they will have will to justify spending on all new brand activity rather than budgets being based on the previous year’s spend.
Kent has also been critical of the company’s media and marketing strategy of late. He said only this week during an earnings call that some of its marketing had “underperformed compared to the [available] opportunities” such as the World Cup.
In a statement about his appointment Kent says De Quinto’s “passion” for brands including Coca-Cola, Innocent and Fanta coupled with his “strategic capabilities” is the ideal balance to meet its business challenges.
“Although Marcos’ DNA is that of a marketer, he has held a number of leadership roles throughout his career and he will bring a global view with strong operational experience to this key role,” Kent says.
Tripodi was handed the CMO job in 2007. He is credited for developing and launching the global “Open Happiness” platform in 2009 and the now global “Share a Coke” personalisation campaign first launched in 2012.
Kent says of Tripodi: “During his tenure, Joe has successfully led our company’s worldwide marketing and commercial organisation, and played a vital role in building and leveraging our marketing capabilities and talent around the globe.
“I want to thank Joe for his leadership, dedication and many contributions to our business, and wish him and his family much happiness in his retirement.”
Tripodi joined from Allstate Insurance Company, where he was CMO, a job he also held at The Bank of New York, Seagram Spirits and Wine, and MasterCard International.
