Executive VP and Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Mondelez International
Insights from Brand Builders – Martin Renaud, Exec VP, Global CMO and Sales Officer, Mondelēz
As part of the 2023 launch of the world's most valuable brands, watch this interview with Martin Guerrieria, Head of BrandZ with ...
About Martin Renaud
Martin Renaud, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing & Sales Officer at Mondelez International, has discussed the company's approach to brand management, digital transformation, and sustainability. He stated that Mondelez balances global brands, which account for 50-55% of its business, with local brands. Renaud noted that the company has been navigating inflation by adjusting pricing while continuing to invest in its brands. He described the company's sustainability efforts, including programs focused on cocoa and wheat sourcing and a goal of being CO2 neutral by 2030, and said that sustainability was added as a fourth pillar of the company's strategy. Renaud has emphasized the importance of digital transformation in marketing, stating that the majority of the company's media investments are in digital channels and that it is working on personalization and first-party data. He highlighted creative campaigns for brands such as Cadbury, Milka, and Oreo, and said the company measures creative effectiveness through pre- and post-testing. Renaud also discussed the company's purpose of "snacking made right" and said that Mondelez increased its marketing investment in 2020, which he credited with helping the company gain market share.
Transcript (28 segments)
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Interviewer0:15
I'm delighted to be joined by Martin Renault, EVP and chief marketing and sales officer at Mondelez International. Cadbury is a new entry into this year's Brand Finance top 20 most valuable global food and beverage brands, with a brand value of 5.4 billion dollars. Cadbury has very strong brand equity, particularly in the UK. A huge congratulations to you, Martin, and everyone at Mondelez for this achievement.
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Martin Renaud0:39
Thank you, thanks for having me. I'm very proud of the achievements. Cadbury is a very important brand for Mondelez International, so very, very happy with these achievements.
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Interviewer0:49
So I thought we'd start with a very broad question today. Can you talk to us about how you believe that brands add value to businesses overall?
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Martin Renaud0:58
For us, being an FMCG company, brands are really all. They are a way for us to connect with our consumers, telling them what our products are, building an emotional connection, and ultimately enabling us sometimes to command a premium price to valorize what we do a bit more. It's absolutely critical. One thing you will hear a lot at Mondelez is that we need to be absolutely brand-centric.
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Interviewer1:37
What do you think are some of the key things to consider when businesses are actually trying to build strong brands?
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Martin Renaud1:43
It starts with the most important: the product. We need to make sure we have the best possible product, a superior product. I am very proud to say that 80% of our products at Mondelez International are superior to their main competitor, which is a very good achievement. The second thing is to make sure you build a brand which is distinctive, to really build something memorable in the consumer's mind—through the logo, the product shape, building consistent assets in advertising. The last one, but not least, is making sure we have the right brand positioning, which is relevant for consumers, building not only very clear functional benefits but also an emotional connection. In snacks, we are in the world of pleasure, being part of the lives of our consumers. It's a great playground to build very strong brands, listening and capturing unique human connections every day.
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Interviewer3:01
Clearly we're living in a particularly volatile time at the moment. What do you see as the main headwinds for the business in the next year and how are you at Mondelez planning to overcome them?
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Martin Renaud3:14
Not surprisingly, the main headwind recently has been inflation. The cost of goods has been increasing, so we had to take action in terms of pricing. This puts more pressure on our demand, but we are working hard to help continue to grow the company. It is working; our growth in volume has been quite solid in the last years and also in the short term in 2023. This has been possible through working a lot on what we call revenue growth management—making sure we maintain the right price point, the right format depending on the channel, offering more options to our consumers—and obviously continuing to invest behind our brands to make sure they are still top of mind and loved by our consumers.
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Interviewer4:17
You mentioned consumers a number of times there. How do you approach keeping a strong consumer connection for your brands at Mondelez? How do you go about that from a consumer-centric perspective?
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Martin Renaud4:33
First, making sure we have superior products—that the taste and packaging are there. The other element is to connect with them through our advertising, digital activations, and trade activations in a way that is relevant and engages them, continuing to build the relationship. On brands like Oreo, Cadbury, Milka, we have a lot of great work to make sure our brands are in the consumers' minds and hearts.
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Interviewer5:11
We talked about the fact that the world around us has changed quite dramatically. How would you say your consumers have changed over the last five years?
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Martin Renaud5:27
Snacking is very solid in consumer habits, and we see more consumers willing to snack. But within these habits, we see evolutions. Indulgence is evolving from a functional aspect to a more emotional or mental one—consumers acknowledging they want indulgence for their day and to keep their mood. Well-being and mindful snacking are more important. We are working on new needs like gluten-free, vegan, and the right portions for calorie control. Finally, sustainability is absolutely critical for our consumers—understanding where ingredients come from and the right use of packaging.
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Interviewer7:04
You mentioned sustainability, so I'll come back to that later. Clearly at Mondelez you have a range of very successful global brands. How do you strike that balance between delivering consistent global messaging but also localizing your messaging with consumers in specific markets?
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Martin Renaud7:33
First, we have a portfolio of global brands (around 50-55% of our business) and local jewels—around 60 brands that are more local. We historically invested mostly on global brands but have been rebalancing to invest more on local brands. For global brands, it's important to have a very clear global brand positioning foundation. Brands like Cadbury or Oreo use the same foundations everywhere, but we change how we activate them by understanding local consumers and insights. For Oreo, you'll see similar things in China, the US, and Europe, but they are different—different flavors sometimes. For Cadbury, our big idea is generosity, but generosity in the UK is very different from generosity in Australia or India. When you can crack that, you're really successful.
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Interviewer10:02,
How do you go about implementing a specific insight within the business? It sounds easy to say but I'm sure it's difficult.
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Martin Renaud10:25
We have plenty of insights, more and more through digital. We measure and listen a lot, but the point is how to transform it into real actions. Having clear diagnostic to take business decisions on investment or shopper pricing and format by channel involves hard data. For emotional aspects like generosity, we need to understand what it means for different consumers. In India, generosity plays best when bringing different social classes together; in South Africa, the family is more central. Insights can be hard and drive big decisions, but also very soft. It's about having the right teams to leverage those insights the right way.
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Interviewer12:05
Do you have a specific example of where a consumer insight has directly and tangibly influenced a decision for the better?
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Martin Renaud12:18
For Oreo, which is about playful moments, the way we play that in Argentina, Brazil, the US, or the UK is very different. It's about understanding consumers' lives and where those playful moments make more sense.
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Interviewer13:01
Thinking about the future, how do you think the world of marketing and brand building is likely to change in the next few years, and where do you see opportunities for Mondelez?
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Martin Renaud13:18,
Brand building will change, but many fundamentals will remain—having the best product, building distinctive assets, consistency over time. What will change dramatically are the tools and channels. Insights and analytics are in a big revolution with AI. On advertising, we now invest more than 60% in digital media. We need to be more personalized, part of the culture and conversation. It's exciting and fun, enabling a lot of possibilities.
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Interviewer14:48
We talked about sustainability earlier. Can you tell us about your sustainability agenda?
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Martin Renaud14:57
Sustainability has been at the heart of the company since its foundation over 10 years ago. Last year, as we moved to a new step in our strategy, we added sustainability as the fourth pillar. We have two big strategies: leading in areas that matter most, especially on our key ingredients cocoa and wheat, through programs like Cocoa Life and Harmony; and contributing to global issues like climate change. We are on a journey to be CO2 neutral by 2025, with progress in reducing CO2. On packaging, our program 'Light and Right' pushes for totally recyclable packaging; we are at 95% and aiming for 100% soon, also reducing packaging and switching to paper or recycled plastic.
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Interviewer17:08
One challenge clients talk about is how to make their sustainability agenda relevant and meaningful to consumers. What are your plans, and why should consumers care?
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Martin Renaud17:33
It's not easy. We have strong brands with clear purposes; we are not changing those purposes to embrace sustainability. We try to do what's right first and then speak about it in a way that's relevant for that brand and strengthens its core purpose. For example, speaking about Cocoa Life from a Cadbury perspective will be very different than from Côte d'Or. We connect our programs to brand positioning and activate them to drive growth. For instance, we now have a Cocoa Life logo on all our chocolate brands, which is well-received as a proof of quality. We also have trade activations, like in Canada with a customer, to showcase what we do with Cocoa Life and Cadbury, driving sales.
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Interviewer19:46
We're seeing in our data that consumer perceptions around sustainability and brand behavior are critical to growth and driving value for the future.
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Martin Renaud19:59
I think there are many different consumers; some are more interested in sustainability than others. It's important to make information available for those who care and make it a critical decision criterion. We communicate through digital and packaging in more targeted ways. I distinguish big communication for everyone and more targeted community communications for people who really care.
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Interviewer20:43
Thanks very much again for joining us today.
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Martin Renaud20:48
Thank you.