Julie Bowerman de Kellogg’s North America
In the third session of the Annual Hispanic Marketing Council (HMC) Summit, Julie Bowerman, chief marketing & e-commerce officer of Kellogg’s North America, and Chelsea Jenkins, director of Cultural & Inclusive Marketing at Kellogg’s, discussed the brand’s record on the multicultural market after the company was honored as 2022 Marketer of the Year. The prize is awarded to firms that show a high level of commitment to the multicultural market with an investment proportional to the high level of sales Hispanic consumers represent. Julie said that some of the success of campaigns targeting Hispanic audiences comes from cultural contact. “We provide our teams with previous briefings packed with ideas about the Hispanic consumer and is all about cultural relevance. Much of this information is basic and enriches the information process right from the start.” She added that working with agencies that have experience in this industry segment is key. “They hold us responsible during the entire briefing, creativity and execution process to make sure of an attractive, relevant approach to the Hispanic consumer every step of the way, from strategy to execution.” Kellogg’s is in a unique position, since it has a long background of Hispanic consumers. “We’ve been on their tables for generations, especially with our cereals and more. But there are other brands that represent barriers for us in some cases, in terms of understanding the attraction of their use or formats or simply in knowing why to some tastes they represent a greater degree of affinity.” It all comes down to what we know, Chelsea said, and it’s important to realize how far that extends. “You can have the best creativity in the world, you can even win a creativity award, but you won’t necessarily win the consumers’ commitment or have them actually buy the product or understand how it suits their way of living. These are barriers we have to understand.” About how to balance efficacy and efficiency since both are practically essential in today’s marketing world, Julie said there’s a bias toward efficacy. “I believe there are times when we spin too much toward efficiency, so a definite balance does exist. And the team has developed great depth in how we think about this. For example, we have many campaigns throughout the year in our extensive portfolio, and it’s almost impossible to adapt many of those campaigns to all the different groups of diverse consumers. So we’ve got to think about that a little more.” Chelsea noted that this is a balance between expansiveness and depth. “It’s what we’re really sure of – it allows our budgets to go further and have more impact, but the fact that it also allows us to take advantage of different opportunities that arise with key consumers in key markets is really important. Why not talk about the Super Bowl? No doubt that’s a great idea.”
Cumbre anual HMC: CEOs ven progresos en el marketing hispano