The need to innovate and the central role of marketing: Your Marketing Week
With Russell busy hosting sessions at the Festival of Marketing, it is my turn to offer a view on our key stories and what they mean for you and the industry. From the need for UK brands to innovate to the role of marketing under a new Tesco CEO, it’s been a busy week on marketingweek.com. Here is my take.
By Sarah Vizard
A heart of marketing
Tesco’s new boss Ken Murphy is not a marketer by profession. He trained as an accountant and has spent most of his career at US pharmacy and beauty chain Walgreens (which owns Boots in the UK).
That could have been a concern as he took over from Dave Lewis, a marketer by profession who used his brand expertise to transform the grocer. Under his watch, financials improved but so too did customer experience and perceptions of the Tesco brand. The two have gone hand in hand, resulting in the company winning the Brand of the Year award at this year’s Marketing Week Masters.
It was reassuring, therefore, to hear Murphy in his first public outing in his new role speak to the importance of marketing and the central role of brand.
