Kimberly-Clark Corp. added three senior executive posts yesterday to bolster its global marketing staff with an eye toward growth outside the U.S. The push to leverage the company’s resources could lead to a shift in the way K-C works with its agencies.
The company also is forming a “global marketing leadership team” to set marketing priorities, policies and budgets to foster global growth. That team, with representatives from Kimberly-Clark businesses across the world, will be led by chief marketing officer Tony Palmer.
At the same time, new “global brand leadership” teams will set global brand strategy, including R&D and investments, for key brands. First up: the flagship Kimberly-Clark brand and Huggies.
Clive Sirkin takes the new post of vice president of global integrated marketing communications, with the mandate to integrate and manage marketing communications worldwide. He’ll oversee agency selection and manage K-C’s relationships with its shops, with an eye toward leveraging the company’s scale to get the best value from agencies, and from its ad and promotion budgets. Sirkin comes to firm K-C from Leo Burnett Worldwide, where he was group managing director overseeing the ad agency’s worldwide business strategy and its global creative agenda.
Sirkin is expected to take the lead on Palmer’s plan to better leverage talent inside Kimberly-Clark and at its agencies, matching expertise to brands’ needs. Palmer told investors last week that K-C wants to maximize its agencies’ work.
“That includes collaborating [with agencies of different disciplines] to find the best approaches, and teaming more closely with agencies than we have in the past,” said K-C spokesperson Joey Mooring.
Andrew Bienkowski becomes vice president of global brands, setting brand strategy for all the global consumer, health care and professional brands in K-C’s portfolio. He joins with a mandate to prioritize opportunities for brand innovation, and integrate them within business units and geographies. He will play a major role in establishing the global marketing leadership team, as well as several global brand leadership teams, the company said.
Bienkowski had been group marketing director at Coca-Cola Co., handling chief marketing duties for Coke, Sprite and Fanta in 56 markets overseas. Earlier, he spent 12 years at Procter & Gamble in marketing and brand-management posts.
Roger Chacko takes the new post of vice president of global marketing knowledge and intelligence, setting best practices and standardizing consumer and brand research across K-C’s business units. He will work closely with its R&D staff to mine consumer research for new-product ideas.
Chacko comes to K-C from Mars, Inc. where he was senior vice president strategy development for consumer, channel, competitive and category intelligence in North America. He has held marketing and market research posts at Kellogg Co., Danone Group and ConAgra Foods.
All three will work with K-C’s regional marketing teams and will report to Palmer, who joined Kimberly-Clark as chief marketing officer in October 2006.
“We are building a marketing organization that enables great marketers to develop and grow professionally as they drive exceptional business performance for K-C worldwide,” Palmer said in a statement.
No other marketing jobs were affected or eliminated, Mooring said. The new vice presidents may make changes as they evaluate staffing over the next few months.
The marketing and brand leadership teams are being formed now, and likely will begin meeting “fairly quickly,” Mooring said.
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