Mondelez CMO: ‘Welcome To The New Fluidity’

The world is changing, which is causing marketers to adapt to a “new fluidity,” said Mondelez CMO Dana Anderson, who spoke Monday morning at VentureBeat’s Marketing.FWD conference, in New York City.

Mondelez CMO: 'Welcome To The New Fluidity'

The world is changing, which is causing marketers to adapt to a “new fluidity,” said Mondelez CMO Dana Anderson, who spoke Monday morning at VentureBeat’s Marketing.FWD conference, in New York City.

Years ago, she told attendees, “Life was marriage, kids, and a mortgage.” Today the way we make decisions, and our outlook about what is and isn’t acceptable, has changed. “We have an abundance of choices,” Anderson said. “And we have the freedom to move through the choices. The boundaries have disappeared. There are now more acceptable solutions to a broader spectrum of problems.”

The greatest disruptor, according to Anderson, is the miniaturization of technology: “We now have stores in people’s pockets,” she said. For Mondelez, this realization has led to a focus on e-commerce and the first time the company has cut out retail middlemen.

Mondelez is also very focused on getting to know Generation Z, Anderson added. This group will redefine what it means to shop and buy products and services, she said. According to Anderson, Generation Z has an eight-second attention span, is highly visual and hates text, and is reliant on their phones and Google. In other words, they are highly connected, as well as collaborative, resourceful, and representative of a DIY culture.

“Gen Z is our foundation for understanding what e-commerce [stands] for and why it is so popular,” Anderson said.

The fact that consumers can and increasingly do buy online has minimized the importance of demography, geography, physical barriers, and trade spending, Anderson said. The role of brand, new partners and alliances, consumer engagement and evaluation, speed of decision making, iteration, and innovation is now maximized in importance.

Much of this is tricky for CPG brands, which have traditionally been slow to make decisions, Anderson said. “You’ve got to learn while you go,” she added. “That’s hard for packaged goods.”

Mondelez is walking the walk. Content, commerce, and changes within the marketing organization are a huge priority, Anderson explained. Mondelez is still figuring out a content strategy that embodies the brand’s overall strategy. That might mean new partnerships or a new, special creative brief for content.

Anderson also talked about the resulting changes from Mondelez’s new focus on commerce.

“This new fluidity is changing how we hire and even how we talk to the supply chain,” Anderson said. “Our capabilities and technology is changing. We have forced ourselves to have shorter decision cycles. It has meant a change of culture. The media world gave us the head start. It started the conversation for the need for an iteration strategy. We’ve realized that you miss the boat if you take too long.”