Question

Topic: Strategy

Global Marketing Organization Structure Ideas

Posted by Steve on 1/22/2013 at 4:23 PM ET 125 Points
I have just been hired as a brand manager of one brand for a company that markets 3 brands of consumer products globally. The company is divided into 3 Regions (AMER,EMEA,APAC). There is a Global Marketing Officer and then each Region has a Marketing Director that is responsible for all marketing activities in the region. The Director in each region is also a Brand Champion that is responsible for one brand globally. A major problem is that the Brand where the director/champion lives gets the lion's share of efforts and resources. I should mention that each region has built up teams of marketing resource folks for Ads, Tradeshows, graphics, etc. It is difficult for a Director from another region to task another region's resource pool. I suppose this is just a matrix organization; but is there a better solution? Equal representation, globally, for three brands...Where does P&L Responsibility Lie? Can the resource pool be managed remotely, successfully?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 1/22/2013 at 8:58 PM Moderator
    This kind of matrix situation sounds like it's guaranteed to sub-optimize everything.

    In my view, each region should be able to do what's best for its market, and global branding should be secondary, not primary. Global branding is a great idea when you start with that as an objective, but when you try to move to a global branding approach with an existing regional business, it can't work in the short term, because the brands may have different images/positions in different markets ... and cultural/regional differences, languages, competition, etc. all need to be considered.

    In fact, even within a region there will be market-to-market differences.

    This kind of organization problem needs to be considered in specific terms, not as a general case. There are too many sub-issues that need to be addressed to try to solve it in a general forum.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 1/25/2013 at 1:14 PM Accepted
    if I understand what you're saying correctly... I would begin by focusing on the brand which is my responsibility. I would do the job that I was hired to do. After 1 to 2 years of exceptional performance, I would be in a better position to influence other areas of the organization.
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