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One of the world’s biggest alcoholic drinks companies has urged other
businesses to copy its idea of creating a marketing review board that
advises on responsible product marketing.
Allied Domecq formed the board two years ago to enable external stakeholders to help to decide how it should sell alcohol-based products. Now the first annual review of the board’s activities has concluded that its advice has been invaluable and that, ‘given our experience, we would encourage other companies to engage in similar dialogues with external stakeholders’.
In the review Allied Domecq reveals that advice from the marketing board’s members has led the company to abandon or modify a number of proposed marketing campaigns that could have been deemed irresponsible. These included decisions to restrict a marketing campaign that used Catwoman to promote its Kahlua drink because this might appeal to under-age drinkers, and to refrain from sponsoring motor sports events on the grounds that alcohol and driving do not mix. However, the board has also upheld marketing strategies about which the company had doubts.
The board has six external members – among them Hugh Burkitt, director of the Marketing Society, and José Massaguer, a law professor in Spain – plus five from Allied Domecq, including Simon Stewart, senior vice-president of marketing.
Its decisions are not binding, but external member Lisa Keegan, who is head of the US-based Keegan company consultancy and a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, said its advice has been taken seriously. ‘It is absolutely clear to me that there is no element of window-dressing here,’ she said.
‘This is a cultural shift in the organization and our role as a largely external group is taken extremely seriously.’ Keegan said the decision to refrain from motor sports sponsorship had convinced her of the board’s clout: ‘It was a potentially huge advertising opportunity, and other companies had already decided they would take advantage of it, but we said no ... and the chief executive was right behind us on it.’
Allied Domecq, which had turnover of £3.3billion ($5.7bn) last year and also owns food brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts, has been keen to establish itself as a drinks sector leader on responsible marketing. It has seen the board as central to its attempts to answer growing public and governmental concerns about binge drinking, especially in the UK.
Philip Bowman, Allied Domecq’s chief executive, said there had been doubts about the board from several quarters, but they had proved to be unfounded. ‘People queued up giving me reasons why it wouldn’t work – that creativity would be stifled, that we’d not be able to do what our competitors do, and that actions and campaigns would be delayed,’ he said. ‘But none of those dire warnings have actually been borne out in practice.’
Ben Eavis, group social policy manager, added that, far from restricting marketing ideas, the board had ‘made us think more deeply and creatively about the essence of our brands’.
Allied Domecq formed the board two years ago to enable external stakeholders to help to decide how it should sell alcohol-based products. Now the first annual review of the board’s activities has concluded that its advice has been invaluable and that, ‘given our experience, we would encourage other companies to engage in similar dialogues with external stakeholders’.
In the review Allied Domecq reveals that advice from the marketing board’s members has led the company to abandon or modify a number of proposed marketing campaigns that could have been deemed irresponsible. These included decisions to restrict a marketing campaign that used Catwoman to promote its Kahlua drink because this might appeal to under-age drinkers, and to refrain from sponsoring motor sports events on the grounds that alcohol and driving do not mix. However, the board has also upheld marketing strategies about which the company had doubts.
The board has six external members – among them Hugh Burkitt, director of the Marketing Society, and José Massaguer, a law professor in Spain – plus five from Allied Domecq, including Simon Stewart, senior vice-president of marketing.
Its decisions are not binding, but external member Lisa Keegan, who is head of the US-based Keegan company consultancy and a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, said its advice has been taken seriously. ‘It is absolutely clear to me that there is no element of window-dressing here,’ she said.
‘This is a cultural shift in the organization and our role as a largely external group is taken extremely seriously.’ Keegan said the decision to refrain from motor sports sponsorship had convinced her of the board’s clout: ‘It was a potentially huge advertising opportunity, and other companies had already decided they would take advantage of it, but we said no ... and the chief executive was right behind us on it.’
Allied Domecq, which had turnover of £3.3billion ($5.7bn) last year and also owns food brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts, has been keen to establish itself as a drinks sector leader on responsible marketing. It has seen the board as central to its attempts to answer growing public and governmental concerns about binge drinking, especially in the UK.
Philip Bowman, Allied Domecq’s chief executive, said there had been doubts about the board from several quarters, but they had proved to be unfounded. ‘People queued up giving me reasons why it wouldn’t work – that creativity would be stifled, that we’d not be able to do what our competitors do, and that actions and campaigns would be delayed,’ he said. ‘But none of those dire warnings have actually been borne out in practice.’
Ben Eavis, group social policy manager, added that, far from restricting marketing ideas, the board had ‘made us think more deeply and creatively about the essence of our brands’.
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