M arc Mathieu, SVP of Marketing at Unilever, is responsible for developing and implementing Unilever’s “Crafting Brands for Life” strategy focused on sustainability and business growth. At the centre of his strategy is a brand proposition that’s focused on connecting with people using new technologies. Marc believes that while marketing used to be about creating a myth and selling, it’s now about finding a truth and sharing it. During a recent visit to India, he shared his thoughts on the changing roles of marketers, the power of big data and engaging consumers. Edited excerpts:

In your assessment, what are the things that are transforming the way that the marketing is done?

In the last four to five years, we have tried to transform the sustainability living plan ambition which goes back to the roots of Unilever. We created a new marketing strategy called crafting brands for life, which is all about the basics of marketing — putting people first, which means putting people first not just as consumers but as human beings. So, if you want people to love your brands, you must have a good purpose and a good reason to exist and embed sustainability inside the brand positioning. We are pushing people-centricity agenda, the agenda of purposeful brands. What we are doing more and more is digital. We now need to rethink ourselves as a technology company. We need to stop thinking of it as digital marketing but marketing in a digital world.

So, it’s about engaging consumers rather than having a unidirectional campaign?

Marketing used to be about creating a myth and telling it, but it’s now about finding a truth and sharing it. The sole idea is about having relationships with people through technology and personalisation of messages, the ability to use technology and data to personalise. More and more, it is about curating a conversation that people want to be part of.

Is the rise of digital economy a challenge to you because it allows even a start-up to use it and reach consumers?

It does democratise it and as a result it puts the onus on us to be actually even more strong and more demanding on ideas. It’s all about the idea and the experience for people.

In this context how has the Unilever Foundry worked for you?

There used to be a time when, if there was a problem to solve, you had to go to the office and try to crack it. Today, if you have a problem then you look for people who are already trying to crack it. It’s about tapping into an ecosystem instead of trying to reinvent the wheel all the time. Young entrepreneurs, who have nothing to lose, are finding new ways to deal with a problem. We have the money to spend and if they have a proposition that is interesting, then the brands can support the venture.

So the Foundry was all about identifying and creating a bridge between our brands and the start-up ecosystem. For example, we were sounding out women in the developed markets for their answer to this question, what’s for dinner tonight? A Russian and a Ukrainian came back with this solution: If they text the ingredients available in the fridge, they will promptly send them recipes using those ingredients to rustle up dinner — by using data analytics!

You have also set up media centres and command centres. What has been your experience with these?

When we earlier ran campaigns we used to have two or three agencies and they didn’t even need to work together. The media agency did the media buying, the research agency did the research and the insights agency, again, did the research to track the results. Now in a campaign you have 12-15 different agencies on an average. All of these need to collaborate so we put them in the command centres.

What’s great is that you’re able to, in real time, learn about the impact of the campaign and adjust the course, whether it’s media buying or pushing content that is different, market by market, consumer group by consumer group.

What we have created within the Unilever brand is what we call the sunlight studio, which means you really start to think like a studio. If we have to create better experiences for people with ideas and stories, we need to think like an entertainment studio than a Powerpoint manufacturer. It enables us to actually have real-time marketing solutions that are more directly plugged in with the consumers.

How is your partnership with Facebook dovetailing with your overall plan?

We have an amazing partnership with people like Facebook, YouTube, and so on. There are commonalities in terms of mission. They care a lot about making sure that the internet is acccessible not just to a few but to everyone. We want to make hygiene accessible and I want to make use of internet access for that. That’s where the partnerships make a lot of sense.

What kind of disruptions keep you awake?

I think data has the power to radically change the way we do marketing. It’s the last piece of the equation. Now that we have the digital, mobile and social media, with data, one can actually leverage the power of the internet at the scale of the individual. What is fantastic is that you’re able to contextualise and personalise the way everything is delivered to people.

I really believe that power is in the hands of the people because they drive what they want and we need to respect that. We are able to offer personalised solutions. The worst thing that could happen is that the big data becomes Big Brother.

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