Kenneth “Casey” Keller has left his job as CMO at telecom equipment and mobile phone maker Motorola, which does not plan to replace him.
Instead, the Schaumburg IL-based Motorola will divide marketing responsibilities among Keller’s former deputies Jeremy Dale and Eduardo Conrado. Dale will take charge of marketing for Motorola’s mobile devices division and will report directly to CEO Greg Brown. Conrado will head up marketing for Motorola’s other product lines, including television set-top boxes and wireless networking gear.
Keller left his former job on Friday Feb. 29. A week later, Motorola confirmed his departure to reporters.
“Marketing is vital to Motorola, and this restructuring will ensure that our marketing efforts are even more closely aligned with our businesses,” the company said in a statement released on Thursday March 6.
Keller came to Motorola in October 2006 following executive marketing positions at H.J. Heinz, Procter & Gamble Co.’s Pringles brand, and European telco Orange. He was hired after the death of the company’s former CMO Geoffrey Frost, who contributed to Motorola’s successful transformation from a slow-moving telecom supplier to a consumer-facing company with a popular handset, the Razr, and the notable “Hello, Moto” ad campaigns in broadcast and print.
But the Razr’s cool factor has dropped sharply as it has become commoditized. Several carriers offer the ultra-slim phones for less than $10 with a long-term service contract. And Motorola has struggled to come up with other models that can duplicate Razr’s early success. A current campaign promotes three Razr2 models as “Sharper than Ever.”
CEO Brown has been leading an overhaul of Motorola’s leadership since he took over the post from Ed Zander in January of this year. Motorola. Last month Brown took over the duties of former mobile division head Stu Reed while the company searches for a successor.
Motorola also suggested in January that it might consider spinning off its mobile handset business—the largest of its divisions– from the rest of the company. No strong prospective buyers have emerged in that time. But investor Carl Icahn has mounted his second proxy battle to compel the company to sell off its mobile phone manufacturing business.
Founded in 1928 as Galvin Manufacturing, Motorola started out manufacturing radio-related equipment but has expanded into defense electronics, computer circuits and cellular infrastructure, including the first working walkie-talkie. The company’s name comes from its most popular product innovation in the 1930s, a car radio.
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