From Defending Market Share To Driving Growth

At one point in my career, I went from working for P&G in the U.S. to Eastern Europe. The shift in mindset was significant. Because the U.S. business was so big, we had more risk aversion. We worried about share loss and were extremely careful and measured with moves. Mentally, this was a defensive posture. When I arrived in the Czech Republic after the fall of the wall, it was the complete opposite. It was a mad rush for distribution and share, with major global companies jockeying to win. A competitor would do something on Friday and we were working on the weekend to address it. The objective was growth and the risk in such a market was in not moving fast.

Many big companies have much to lose and so they slip into a defensive mode to minimize risk. Of course, this mindsight can stifle growth. That’s why I was fascinated to talk with Marcel Marcondes, CMO of Anheuser-Busch who has helped steer a tremendous growth spurt for the firm. It was announced this week that there is a transition as Benoit Garbe will become the new CMO. Below is Marcondes’ insight on how he, working with the Chief Sales Officer and the CEO, shifted the firm’s mindset from defense to growth over the past nearly five years.

Kimberly A. Whitler: Why did you decide to shift the company’s focus?

Marcel Marcondes: Over four years ago, when Michel Doukeris got here as North American CEO, he defined a clear North Star. Although we were the largest brewery in the world and the U.S. we needed to start leading growth creation again. His vision,which became all of ours, was to be both the largest and fastest growing brewery. For short, this vision was translated into LFG – lead future growth. The mission was to not play defensive to protect our size but to embrace significant growth. It is one thing is to defend your position – quite another to drive growth. We should be the fastest growing company. This became our North Star. This was a big change.

Whitler: How did you make the change?

Marcondes: At that point, the CEO, head of sales, and myself worked together to put together a new commercial strategy. We had been working to protect ourselves – and this made us more company centric instead of consumer centric, and we needed to change our approach

We needed to become a people-centric company for real. We did this by focusing on three pillars: 1) portfolio rebalance (we used to be the Bud and Bud Light company that is in a segment in decline – we needed to shift to the growing segments), 2) reinvent our innovation machine (the fuel for the portfolio rebalance had to be new innovation), and 3) how our brands connect with consumers (media, sponsorship, with digital capabilities).

Whitler: Can you elaborate on the mindset shift this required?

Marcondes: I believe that marketers often believe that their job is to change the minds of consumers….