Unilever beefs up marketing teams with new recruits
Unilever, the owner of brands including Dove and Peperami, is to beef up its marketing capacity by recruiting 30 new marketers and a UK brand director.
The UK brand director will be recruited internally and be responsible for the Unilever corporate brand.
The new role follows the company’s decision last year to include the Unilever corporate logo on all its product advertisements in the hope of generating a halo effect from its brands.
The 30 new marketers will slot into the existing teams that operate across Unilever’s food and personal care businesses.
Both brand marketing and category management will benefit from the injection of staff, whose roles will range from junior brand marketers to senior level category management directors.
Around half the new recruits will join the food and ice cream business headed by marketing director Paul Nevett, while the other half will join the home and personal care business led by Matt Close.
Nevett says the recruitment programme is “growth driven” and the additions reflect the company’s strategy to invest in its marketing capacity across the categories to accelerate growth and deliver more to consumers.
“We attribute Unilever’s strong growth and success in 2009 to staying close to shoppers’ needs, and we remain committed to doing things the right way for consumers.”
The added investment is Unilever’s way of “driving its brands harder”, he adds.
Currently there are about 400 marketing roles across Unilever’s food and personal care businesses with an annual marketing spend of about £148m in 2008/09.
The recruitment drive will begin in February.
