The Brands Lectures
The 22nd Brands Lecture
Building Blockbusters: From M&M’s to Pedigree, and Beyond Products to Services
Grant F Reid
What really makes a brand unforgettable? Is it a flash of cultural magic, a campaign that shifts generations, or something deeper, woven into the way businesses are built? In a world of fleeting platforms and shifting consumer habits, the answer matters more than ever.
Few leaders know this better than Grant F. Reid. Over a 34-year career at Mars, he helped steer household names including M&Ms, Snickers, Galaxy, Dolmio, Pedigree, Royal Canin and Whiskas to new heights.
As CEO, he grew sales by more than 50% to over $45 billion, expanded the workforce to...
Past Lectures
Since the year 2000, the annual Brands Lecture, delivered by leading figures in their field, has been a popular event in our members’ year. Each lecturer has focused on a different aspect of branding or its effects. The following gives a taste of each lecture but you can read the full version by clicking on the links to download transcripts of the event.
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The 12th Brands Lecture
Sports marketing: unleashing the passion
Austin Lally, President, Braun and former Global Vice President, Gillette
Sports marketing is all about meeting the consumer where there is a “passion point”. It is here that you will find the consumer leaning forward to listen, your marketing has a tail wind not a headwind and your campaigns have the potential to be social and engaging rather than static and one way.
Austin goes on to describe how sports marketing has evolved from generating awareness through reinforcing performance into the creation of movements within which individuals engage and contribute. Gillette has been an innovator all through this evolution and Austin uses P&G’s...
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The 11th Brands Lecture
Accountability is not enough
Rory Sutherland, Immediate Past President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group UK
Rory’s central premise is that marketing needs a new vocabulary if it is to be taken seriously within companies, likening its current vocabulary to that of flower arranging or astrology to outsiders.
The vocabulary he proposes covers such concepts as signalling, loss aversion, information asymmetry, maximising and satisficing, heuristics, relativity, path dependency, complementarity and framing. In making the case for this new language, Rory gives us intriguing insights into human behaviour, how we understand value and why we make the choices we do. In the process, he takes...
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The 10th Brands Lecture
Brand New: Innovation in a challenging world
Fiona Dawson, Mars Chocolate
Fiona talked about the emotional connectivity that brand companies strive to create with consumers and how important it is to remain relevant. When it comes to growing the brand and being competitive, innovation is crucial but it is also incredibly risky. Fiona outlined areas where there may be scope for innovation and how the prospects for success may be enhance