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Tag: Keith Weed

  • Unilever CMO Keith Weed tries to predict the future of brands at Cannes Lions 2016

    Brands and their Future

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    The question about future of brands has been doing the rounds for quite some time. Keith Weed, CMO of Unilever, tried to explore the future of brands in a world where information and experience eclipse ownership as the key to growth at Cannes Lion 2016.

     

    “Brands! Love them or hate them, they are an integral part of our lives,” was Weed’s opening statement for the session ‘The Future of Brands’ hosted by Unilever. But what exactly is the future of brands in this dynamic, complex and ever changing world? Weed tried to answer this question in his a little over 30 minutes session.

     

    “I believe the future of brands is best represented by i to the power n,” continued Weed but was quick to add that it is not going to be a math lesson. This equation, in the context of brands, signifies what is going on in this technology driven world. So, i equals individuals, influencers and impacts. He explained each of them one by one.

     

    Said Weed, “With technological advancement, now, we can market to individuals. We have gone from mass marketing to massive customisation.” So, marketing is about engaging individuals. “From Unilever’s perspective, we want to build a relationship with a billion brands- a billion people around the world,” he continued.

     

    Weed emphasised that as much as we have to do work globally, we must engage people locally as well. The combination of the two, according to Weed, is ‘magic’ done by technology. He gave an example of the Axe ad which showed the changing modern man. It was a good example of connecting with individuals. Weed urged brands to use data about individuals to connect with them.

     

    Influencers do play an important role in building a brand. In this part, Weed explained the changing face of influencers. The re-launch of the ice cream Magnum double was used as an example to explore the role of influencers. Kendell Jenner was used as an influencer to promote and magnify the brand. Twitter as a tool for influence was also lauded by Weed. “We need to think about influencers more as we build a brand,” he said

     

    While explaining impact he looked at it from three different points- campaigning brands, challenging stereotypes and what consumers want. “In some ways they say campaigning brands is the right thing to do but I think we should campaign brands which make good economic sense,” said Weed. Unilever’s climate change video was showed as an example to prove this.  Addressing the audience about challenging stereotypes, Weed focused on how women are portrayed. According to a research done by his organisation, 80% women do not identify with most of the ads. “We can create better advertising, if we create progressive advertising,” he said. Weed said, “We found 54% of people would buy a product if they find it socially and environmentally sustainable,” while speaking about consumer needs. Focusing on consumers wants is extremely important for brands.

     

    The fact that brands can take their products to endless number of people with the help of technology is quite commendable. “With all that is going on in technology, consumers have been ahead of marketers,” said Weed. So, using these ‘i’s multiple ways and times, brands can be successful and that is the future of brands, Weed concluded.

     

    Meanwhile, on the awards circuit, there were no golds added to the kitty.  In Media Lions, Rediffusion Y&R bagged a silver for Dipper Condoms and a bronze went to PHD for Hindustan Unilever’s Wheel detergent. BBDO India picked another metal – albeit a bronzed one – in Cyber Lions for its Ariel “ShareTheLoad campaign.

     

  • The Insights2020 initiative examines the drivers of customer-centricity and how being a customer-focused company impacts business performance

    Insights2020 study highlights role of Insights and Analytics in driving customer-centric business growth

    By A Correspondent

     

    Seventy-four percent of companies that over-perform on revenue growth create customer experiences based on data driven insights, with only 30 percent of under-performing companies reporting the same, according to initial findings from Insights2020 – Driving Customer-Centric Growth, a global marketing leadership initiative. The study, led by Millward Brown Vermeer in partnership with The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), ESOMAR, LinkedIn, Kantar and Korn Ferry, builds on the findings of Marketing2020 and is focused on aligning insights and analytics strategy, structure and capability to drive business growth.

     

    Based on more than 325 in-depth interviews with senior marketing and insights leaders and 10,000+ interviews with practitioners across 60 markets, the Insights2020 initiative examines the drivers of customer-centricity and how being a customer-focused company impacts business performance. The research team analyzed over-performing and under-performing companies in terms of revenue growth to understand what over-performing organizations are doing differently to drive success.

     

    “More than a set of activities, customer-centricity is a strategy to deliver business value against customer needs, guided by brand purpose,” said Frank van den Driest, Chief Commercial Officer, Millward Brown Vermeer and Insights2020 global program leader. “Building on the findings from Marketing2020, Insights2020 found that companies that out-perform their peers on revenue growth do so by over-performing on key drivers of customer-centricity. With a robust and global sample, we are able to quantify the financial opportunity for any business and guide organizations on their journeys to customer-centricity. The connection is clear and it is time to elevate insights and analytics to the boardroom.”

     

    The research revealed a number of striking differences between over- and under-performing organizations, and all tie back to three key dimensions of customer-centric growth: Total Experience, Customer Obsession and Insights Engine:

    :: 83 percent of revenue growth over-performers link everything the company does to its brand purpose, as opposed to only 31 percent among revenue growth under-performers.

    :: 62 percent of over-performers leverage insights and analytics to drive consistency across all customer touch-points, only 26 percent of under-performers do.

    :: In 78 percent of over-performing companies, customer-centricity is fully embraced by all functions whereas this is only true in 12 percent of the under-performing companies.

    :: 66 percent of all over-performers are working to link their disparate data sources, compared with only 33 percent of under-performing companies doing so.

    :: The Insights and Analytics function reports straight into the CEO in 33 percent of over-performer companies; this is true for only 13 percent of the under-performers.

     

    Phase two of Insights2020, available in early 2016, will build on the key drivers of customer-centric growth and will explore the roadmap for helping brands reach customer-centricity.

     

    Laurent Flores, President of ESOMAR added, “Our industry and clients’ businesses are in a period of significant transformation. These findings present an opportunity for the research industry to increase our impact and play a pivotal role in driving customer-centricity and business growth.”

     

    Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Unilever, and chair of the Insights2020 advisory board said, “I am particularly excited about practical application opportunities highlighted by the initial findings. These findings offer every CMO and Insights and Analytics leader a clear list of focus areas and I look forward to building on our initial learning as we share and explore the findings with the industry.”

     

    Harish Bhat, Member, Group Executive Council, Tata Sons says, “Our market is changing very rapidly, the role of marketing too has changed beyond all recognition. Most marketers are probably asking themselves, how ready are each of our organizations to drive growth in this new age of the connected consumer.  This is indeed the dawn of a new age of marketing, with limitless possibilities and equally daunting challenges. Insights 2020 has looked to understand the role of insights and analytics profession in this context, and you will agree with me that the insights and analytics profession is critical to each of our organizations, our CEO’s and CMO’s, as we take our business forward into the future. This is a study of how companies in India and other parts of the world can make best use of insights and analytics to drive customer centric growth.  Its findings are an important foundation on which marketers can build.”

     

    Dinesh Kapoor, Chief Solutions Officer – South Asia, Millward Brown, said “Insights2020 underscores the point that in today’s fast-changing environment, being in constant touch with the customer is fundamental to continued business success. The only way to achieve that is to create a culture where customer-centricity is fully embraced by all functions, and all data sources are linked to get the sharpest insights that deliver the best customer experience across all touch points.”

     

  • Sustainability and environment are high on the priority list for Unilever CEO Keith Weed

    Business with a mission for Unilever’s Keith Weed

    By Ravi Balakrishnan

     

    Keith Weed

    Chances are that even the better travelled among us haven’t put in a stop at Gunga, a village in the Berasia taluka, near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. It however figured in the itinerary of Keith Weed, chief marketing officer at Unilever on a recent trip to India. It’s a visit that has left Weed with a new appreciation for the resilience of the Indian consumers and the primacy of mobile phones in their lives.

     

    He says, “In the village I visited, there were incredibly low income consumers – eight people living on less than a dollar a day. But they had a mobile. As we went to the backroom to look at the stove, they used the mobile as a torch to show me the way. We have always been talking about how TV is mass coverage. But as you know, in rural India there are media dark areas that are not mobile dark.”

     

    Unilever’s new marketing strategy
     

    Brands For Life is being rolled out across the world. The pilot happened in India before Christmas last year and its subsequently travelled to Brazil and South Africa.

     

    The strategy stands on three pillars:

    1. Put People First: Looking at people through the lens of their lives, needs and challenges and not just as Weed puts it “a sort of head for a bottle of shampoo.”

     

    2. Building Brand Love: Making sure Unilever brands are not just about a product but an idea that people can buy into.

     

    3. Unlock The Magic: Getting the balance right between magic and logic, the art and science of marketing.

     

    However, a mobile phone doubling up as a torch is more footnote than main event in Weed’s visit. Among the principal reasons is a status check on one of his pet projects, launched with considerable fanfare at the Cannes Lions Festival in 2012. In a meeting a few hours before the launch at Cannes, Weed spoke excitedly of his intention to toss back a glass of water from Mumbai’s Powai lake on stage. The water would of course have been treated by one of Unilever’s Pureit purifiers. While those plans got scuppered, Waterworks, a collaboration between Unilever, non profit organisation PSI and Facebook, generated a fair amount of excitement on launch. It was seen as one of the first attempts by a large multinational to harness the power of social networking for societal good.

     

    Waterworks is a Facebook timeline application that allows users to make a daily contribution towards communities in dire need of potable water. Their donations will enable PSI’s onground staff, the Waterworkers to educate the most deprived people in rural India about the importance of clean water and distribute Unilever’s Pureit units. The payoff for the people who choose to help? The satisfaction of doing good. And perhaps an equally important motivation in an increasingly narcissistic and self obsessed age – photos of the families they helped will be posted to their Facebook profiles.

     

    Eight months down the line, Waterworks does not boast the impressive million plus numbers of other ‘brand’ pages on Facebook, with a modest 9,285 likes so far. Asked if this is as per his expectation, Mr Weed explains, “It’s still in beta testing. There are two ends we are working on. The Facebook engagement and making sure we deliver water into the hands of people who need it the most, in a cost effective way.”

     

    He admits there are lessons to be learned before the project scales up and that even its promotion on Facebook has been kept deliberately low key. With the initial target of 15,000 met, the tweaks are specifically in the area of getting the units to the most needy. A contemplative Mr Weed says, “It was incredibly moving. You see people in rural India, struggling with some of the basic things. It makes me more determined to sort out a scalable model.” However, his visit also fills him with confidence. Of the 600 houses, 220 have Pureit units.

     

    Mr Weed says, “Watching the Waterworker take a photo of the person who received the unit and uploading it on Facebook and to have that appear on the page of someone in Europe or the US: this is the future of the world. The use of mobile is going to transform our lives and marketing.” The Waterworks project ties in with one of Weed’s obsessions. Unilever has been working to a stated objective of doubling its business while halving its environmental footprint and increasing its social impact. The first of these Weed admits is a fairly basic ambition, one that’s probably shared by any good company. The second has a profound impact on marketing. Mr Weed says, “We could have put together a plan with targets we knew how to achieve. But I don’t think that would transform the business to the degree we are aspiring to.”

     

    An early success has been sourcing 100% of palm oil sustainably. Significant considering Unilever purchases 3% of the world’s total palm oil. It was a target that the company arrived at eight years ahead of schedule; now the goal has shifted to 100% traceable sustainable palm oil by 2020. Similarly 60% of the tomatoes used by Kissan in India and all the tea bags in Europe are now sourced sustainably. Unilever hopes this will be the case with all tea bags by 2015 and loose tea by 2020. Weed considers these the low hanging fruit and acknowledges there’s lot more to do.

     

    Given that these goals are likely to outlast the current management team, he is making sure it’s not tied down to “one manager in a seat at one time.” He says, “We have engaged across the breadth of our employee base. It’s virtually unstoppable and has ignited the imagination of our people.” In the first year, the plan was unveiled to 97,000 employees globally. And it’s part of the reason why Unilever is a draw for future recruits. Weed says enthusiastically, “For the generation that’s coming through, our declaration resonates in a different way than it does to anyone in this room. Let’s face it: my generation have stolen from the future of our children financially and environmentally. We now want to build a model where sustainability is not something that happens by chance but is built into the design.”

     

    Of course a couple of things help Weed meet his objectives. The first being the massive scale of Unilever’s operations and the budgets that power the machine. Even in these recessionary times, its advertising and promotions budget have seen an upswing. Last year it spent 6.5 billion up from 6.1 billion for 2011. The other is that the number of Unilever’s consumers who care about the environment – the company claims to serve 2 billion people a day – is on the rise.

     

    Individuals often feel overwhelmed and insignificant, considering the sheer scale of problems facing the world. But small actions from many people can make a change. Weed says, “One person drinking sustainably sourced tea makes no difference. But if you talk about a marketer who buys 15% of the world’s tea, we can have a profound impact on the planet. It certainly gets me out of bed in the morning.”

     

    A less exalted but no less important part of Mr Weed’s job is to ensure the sales and marketing machinery at Unilever hums along smoothly. A commercial for Axe created last year ran unchanged in 100 different markets, the sort of phenomenon that global marketing heads dream of, saving the costs of originating fresh ad content. However, according to Mr Weed, deliberately engineering commercials like that is not a priority: “When it happens, it is fantastic and a very efficient benefit. But a bigger priority is large global brands. 14 of our global brands are already over a billion euros. I will be even happier when we have more!”

     

    Interestingly enough, one of the pieces of communication he is happiest about is a new campaign for Axe that’s rolling out across the globe – India soon to be included. Built around Axe’s Apollo variant, is a TV commercial and more interesting a contest to put 22 people from across different countries in space. They will be chosen by a reality TV-esque competition that will play out online. “Leave a man, come back a hero,” Mr Weed says, “It’s got tremendous buzz around the world. We actually used Buzz himself to engage people,” referring to Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the second man on the moon. The big question is will they take the Geo-Cruiser? You know, the solar-powered flying machine used by the Captain’s Planeteers.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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