Ahead of his appearance at The Annual Conference in November, Keith Weed talked to Marketing Society editor, Elen Lewis about cheese, instinct and sustainability.
What does a bold marketing leader look like?
They would have a love of brands and a passion for people. They would also have foresight and be courageous. Finally they would have both magic and logic!
Describe your job in 10 words or less.
Ensure our brands deliver consumer demand-led, sustainable growth
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Explore every opportunity and let your instinct be your guide.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made and what did you learn from it?
Underestimating the scale of the leading razor competitors’ response to the Lynx razor launch (we later withdrew the product). This hard lesson helped a few years later when I was defending our large and successful European deodorant business when a major global competitor launched a new deodorant brand across Europe (they later withdrew the product!).
What should all global leaders know about growth?
The short answer is that growth needs to be sustainable, not just economically, but also for the environment and society. Sustainability needs to be a central part of the business model and reflected in organisation design. For example, my key responsibilities cover Marketing, Communications and Sustainability. The need for more sustainable consumption requires more sustainable approaches to business and products. Marketing needs to engage with this agenda to innovate more sustainable solutions and to help change consumer behaviour. With a predicted 9 billion people on the planet by 2050, it’s easy to see why we have put Sustainable Living at the heart of everything we do. Our approach is captured in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (www.sustainable-living.unilever.com)
How do you balance resources between the growth economy of the BRICs and mature markets?
Unilever has a strong presence in the developing and emerging growth markets with 54% of our sales in these countries. We have been in many of these markets for 100 years, so we already have a big presence and do not need to radically rebalance resources in the way some other companies are doing.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Cheese
Tell us a secret.
I love to paint (pictures, not walls!)
