He’s the man in the hot seat, literally as well as figuratively. Literally, because the man injured his back the weekend before the Cannes Lions festival, restricting his movement. So the scheduled meeting with Keith Weed, the global chief marketing and communications officer, Unilever, almost fell through at the last minute until it was finally rescheduled with a slightly curtailed time slot allotted for the conversation. But once the talk began, the back pain was forgotten and it was the enormous responsibility that the man shoulders that became the focal point. Weed has recently taken on the all important marketing role at Unilever from Simon Clift. He comes in at a time when the marketplace is in a state of flux. Unilever may still be in the business of selling consumer goods, but the way to go about this has definitely changed.
A global ad spend of over $7 bn in 2009 makes Unilever the second largest advertiser in the world, after P&G. One of the immediate mandates for Weed is to bring a larger marketing focus at Unilever. And so far, Weed is pleased with the progress. “We have good momentum now. In the last quarter, we had 7 % volume growth. Compared to other consumer goods companies globally, that’s very competitive,” says Weed.
He adds that it’s not only the volume growth but also the volume share growth that the company keeps an eye on. “Volume growth means more people are buying our products and volume share means we are growing competitively with more consumers buying our products compared to competition.”
But while growth is relatively robust, an area that needs a much sharper focus at Unilever is digital. Weed says that he took a team of Unilever’s top managers: Category executive VPs from tea, laundry and haircare globally to Silicon Valley in May this year. “I went a day earlier and met venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital and Phoenix Ventures. Then the team came and we met players like Yahoo! and Google. These are players with whom we have a good working relationship,” he states. But what Unilever was looking at through such meetings is a step up, to acquire a true leading edge in the area of digital, says Weed. Engaging with companies at Silicon Valley, he says, “not only gave insights and the opportunities, but also a perspective on the massive shift that’s currently taking place.
And Weed is spending time with the agencies and partners whom he expects to also provide the digital edge in communications. Be it via ‘Share Happy’, a face recognition driven ice cream vending machine or the first ad on iPhone called iAd. Even as Unilever has a roster of agencies, including digital, the question is wouldn’t he want existing agencies to acquire the digital competence rather than have a separate outfit meeting the requirement? “Of course, at the end of the day, I would like our agencies to give us anything we need in the communication space,” he says. “And they will, because that’s their objective as well as ours.” He cites a recent example of one of Unilever’s core agency losing a pitch in the digital area for one of the brands. They were complaining about it, he says. “I told them, if you are mad, I am furious because you have made my life more difficult. Not only do I have to work with you, but now I have to handle the digital agency,” he says. “But we are clear that we want the best and we will work with the best as we have high standards,” he adds. Weed says that he’s driving the business to even higher levels of excellence and if it means working with different agencies, traditional or digital, so be it.
But the expectation from agencies comes as Unilever recently undertook a crowd sourcing experiment. So are agencies in the line of fire with such an initiative? No, says Weed. “We are in the midst of a digital revolution and I see it much bigger than what we perceive it to be,” he states. So when it comes to paid, earned and owned media, Weed says Unilever has a lot of experience. Even in owned media, with unilever.com and axe.com, he says the company has acquired a lot of content through years of research. In the earned media space, particularly in the social media space, consumers are interested in engaging and one way of engaging is getting them to contribute. “So crowd sourcing allows engagement and also gives us access to a whole lot of content,” he says. He adds that some tests have been done based on the content that has emerged on the Surf Excel brand in India and the quality and creativity of the films is impressive. “I don’t see it as a threat or an alternative to agencies. I see it as a source of enriching the agencies, a new way to engage with consumers and a new way to market.”
And innovation targeted at consumers is of critical importance for Weed and Unilever. He says Lord Leverhulme in 1800s may have used phrases like ‘making cleanliness common place’ or ‘to lessen the burden of women’ and they may sound old fashioned but have relevance even today. Weed talks about an innovation in India that Unilever is bringing in for Rin that highlights visible whiteness. “Of course, what’s behind it is great amount of science and patents that we have defended in courts against competition and pushed competitors away. These innovations give us the advantage over competition.”
Weed says markets like India and China are not developing markets but fast-growing dynamic markets. And one needs to segment markets like India and China to understand the opportunities. “India has 500 million mobile users. Right now, globally there 1.4 bn people using the net and 4 billion mobile phones globally, half a billion from India. So clearly, the next billon online users will come from the mobile markets.” So there are real opportunities of using digital in emerging markets, he says. “While we might not have high internet penetration in India compared to the US, where 25% of media time is spent online, mobile will unlock that. We will see India engaging through mobile more than the US,” he adds. Rest assured Weed will ensure Unilever is ready to ride the wave.
Written by Rajiv Banerjee, ET Bureau
About Me
- Keith Weed
- I am responsible for the marketing and communication functions at Unilever, a role that also includes leading Unilever's sustainability work, its drinking water business (Pureit) and the Unilever brand. Prior to this I was Executive Vice President for Global Home Care & Hygiene at Unilever, covering Fabric Cleaning, Fabric Conditioning, Household Cleaning Products, Oral Care and Potable Water. Previously I was Chairman of Lever Fabergé and Chairman of Unilever Export. I have worked for Unilever in the UK, France and the United States, as well as in a variety of global and regional management and marketing roles. Outside Unilever, I am a Fellow of The Marketing Society and, as an engineering graduate, a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. I am also a non-Executive Director of Sun Products Corporation.