Mondelēz, vision setting & the return of live sport: Your Marketing Week
At the end of every week, I look at the key stories, offering my view on what they mean for you and the industry. From Mondelēz’s re-commitment to brand building to the challenge for sponsors of sporting events, it’s been a busy week. Here is my take.
Back to basics
Mark Ritson wrote in April that the fallout of the pandemic presents an opportunity for some marketers to “spring clean” and re-assess business priorities. For others, making difficult choices is a necessity. Fewer staff and less money means many of you will spend more of your time on fewer things. As one marketer recently told me, it’s also the time to focus on what matters and what will make a difference to customers.
Mondelēz appears to have come around to both schools of thought. During a virtual conference, the company’s president of North America, Glen Walter, admitted the company had been too focused on internal transformation and not enough on the health of its brands.
He said it was now fixed on “fundamental core processes” such as “how we build our brands, how we connect with customers and consumers, how we execute in the marketplace, and how we bring our supply chain back to stability and predictability”.
Cost cutting was pervasive at Mondelēz and its previous owner Kraft for years. Despite the positive sentiment, the shock of coronavirus could send it back to the sole pursuit of efficiency. For now, it’s allusion to the importance of the fundamentals during the crisis is to be noted.
Understanding customers, maintaining brand equity and tackling supply are priorities. Lay off the tinkering and the indulgent innovation; look away from the shiny new things and focus on what matters.