Everything I needed to know about marketing, I learned from Mark Addicks, who retired as CMO of General Mills in January. Mark is one of the main reasons I went into marketing as a career, so I want to share a few of my memories as a tribute to one of marketing’s great thinkers and inspiring mentors.
When I was an HBS student in 2001, I heard Mark give a guest lecture on the power of brand purpose in Cheerios, and it inspired me to think about marketing in a whole new way. Cheerios had been stagnant, and its marketing was stuck in communicating functional benefits around heart health. It was only when they probed into the deeper emotional insight around “nurturing” and tapped the powerful moment where toddlers learn to feed themselves with Cheerios as a first finger food that they unlocked growth.
“Nurturing” started to drive everything in the Cheerios brand and inspired promotion ideas like including a children’s book in every box to promote childhood literacy. And, more recently, not to back down when there was a backlash against a multicultural family in a Cheerios ad.
In a similar way, he recently shared a case study about Fiber One and how it used to be marketed as “cereal with twigs”. But then they found a popular Weight Watchers Fiber One Brownie recipe, and realized that brand champions were making the product their own:
“It changed the purpose of Fiber One, making it a way to make dieting suck less and find a convenient way to manage your weight. Purpose can change the way you do everything in your marketing mix.”
Mark interviewed me soon after that guest lecture and I spent nearly three years at General Mills, working on Cheerios, Yoplait, and Green Giant. The Brand Champions program he created was like getting a PhD in marketing.
On a personal level, Mark helped me find my own purpose in relation to my cartoons. I first started posting my weekly marketing cartoons at General Mills as an Associate Marketing Manager working on Yoplait (with the Trix Rabbit).
Occasionally my cartoons would poke fun at big company hierarchies (my boss character was originally a caricature of Steve Demeritt, General Mill’s Vice Chairman at the time). My colleagues wondered if I would get disciplined (or even fired) for sticking my neck out. I started to wonder if I was pushing it too far.
Then I got a call from Mark Addick’s assistant saying that he wanted to set up time with me. I assumed that he was going to tell me to tone it down. But instead, when I got to his office, he told me he loved the cartoons and wanted to take me to lunch to learn more about me. He taught me not to be afraid to stick my neck out. He even went on to introduce me to a friend of his who was a professional cartoonist.
In Mark’s good-bye message to General Mills (posted on Adweek), he wrote a few words about the power of people and the power of brands that are emblematic of the inspiration he brought to General Mills and the marketing community at large:
Today is my last day at General Mills. Whew! 26 years went pretty fast…
Thank you.
Before I go, I want to make sure to send a note of thanks for all that you and this community of unique, talented and fun individuals, have given me. I am walking out of these hallowed halls very humble and awe-struck by the opportunities that I have had, the people I have had the fortune to work with and the brands that I have been able to touch. Oh, if these halls could speak….
Thank you for all that you have taught me, all you have given me, and all the ways you have indelibly touched and inspired me. I am forever and deeply grateful.
Take a look around you: there are wonderful people here to support you, partner with you, challenge you, and make you better at what you do. And they just might be your friends for life.
People matter. A lot. A community of great people create and achieve incredible things. Great people make all the difference in strategies, ideas, executions. And great people need your encouragement, commitment and support. Our community—and the culture that defines this community–needs to be differentially great so that we can make a difference out there where it counts. So, please never stop believing and investing in each other. Please don’t leave culture for someone else to define. Jump in with both feet. Take the opportunity in front of you to define the community and culture you want to be a part of.
After people (and of course I have to say this): Our brands matter. That is why people vote with their wallets everyday. Why investors place their funds in our stock. Why we have amazing art on our lawns. Why we have day care for the next generation…And why it is fun being here. There is NO single place in the world with so many legacy brands under one roof. Without our people and our brands, we would have nothing different to offer.
Products come and go. Brands endure.
They are a challenge to build, a challenge to steward as consumers and markets change, a challenge to evolve strategically.
Brands force us to make choices, such as who to be for, where to play, when to urgently accelerate–and when to stop and have the courage to say ‘no’.
And it is far easier to destroy a brand than to build one. Actually, frighteningly easy.
Building and growing a brand requires that we, too, continue to grow and evolve at the pace of the consumer and marketplace. And that we are accountable for stewarding each brand to a better place.
I wish you, and our brands, the very best. They are in your very talented and capable hands.
I can’t wait to see the next chapter.
I am now, simply, one of your brand champions.
Mark Addicks
Mark, congratulations on your 26 years at General Mills and thank you for impacting me and so many others!
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed cartoon print. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)
Ben says
Hi Tom,
Great post today. Like you, I’ve been lucky enough to be inspired by Mark over the past 15 years at General Mills. Mark has an incredible ability to connect with people at all levels, and truly takes the time to understand what makes each individual “tick”. I think this is why he was such a brilliant marketer, he was always working to understand people and their motivations.
He will be greatly missed at General Mills!
Ben
Mark Geeves says
Enjoyed this article. Brand does Drive Demand but you need to know your target audience. Love the part about sticking your neck out. Today so many people rule by committee and do not anything that could cause change.
Cheryl Casselman says
Thanks for this article, Tom. I’m a marketer of a congregation of Roman Catholic nuns in Indiana — the Sisters of Providence. I appreciate the inspiration.
Woody Savage says
Our society and companies often “under-estimate” the power of mentoring in business. It is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to inspire and train a workforce in the marketplace and create loyalty within a company.
Branding and making your product distinctive in the marketplace is not fully appreciated either. Probably one of the best examples of the power of BRANDING is presented in my free online book … Streetcar Advertising in America which can be viewed/read at http://www.streetcaradvertisinghistory.com. This is NOT an advertisement but the story of a hundred year-old industry that helped establish many of the consumer brands that we enjoy today.
Annie Zipfel says
Well done as usual. I’m guessing this page will fill up with all of Mark’s marketing disciples! We all were impacted and influenced by Mark Addicks. He is brilliant and impactful and taught all of us to stick our necks out. Thank goodness! Well done.
John Miglautsch (@JRMigs) says
I can’t say that I really understand “Brand”. In the catalog world… brand usually means decades of treating people fairly. Thanks for the insights you shared. Today’s post was especially thought provoking.
Alejandro Antonucci says
Hi Tom,
Great article, I truly agree that sometimes sticking your neck up is necessary in Organizations.
I´m a big fan from Argentina.
Best
Jo-Ann says
Hi Tom, I’ve been a loyal follower for years but this is my first post.
I love that Mark led with “People Matter”. It has to start with people. If people don’t matter, it’s hard to build a brand that does!
Heather says
Tom, this is a great post. I love that Mark taught you not to be afraid to stick your neck out when it comes to expressing yourself through cartoons. Do you know how rare it is to find someone in a leadership position who celebrates the quirks that make us shine as people? Especially at a corporation as big as General Mills? From personal experience of working in environments where your eccentricities are used against you negatively and where it is not considered a good thing to be yourself, I applaud him for walking the walk and talking the talk. Conan O’Brien once said that is you work hard and are kind, amazing things happen and I believe Mark did all of that and influenced that kind of behavior in everyone who was lucky enough to surround him.
PS – I love that the Doughboy is the one providing advice to the rest of the brand mascots. He’s never been “flaky” when it comes to helping out!
Melike says
Hi Tom, I ve been following you for a while and had no idea this is how you ve started! Amazing story.
Brands driven by purpose have the power to make the world a better place. They give us (consumers & marketers) the most sought after thing: Meaning. They help us to contribute positive change.
True Brand Champions are partners of that brand to collectively make a meaningful positive change.
Not something you can really measure with a short term ROI but there are loads of studies for skeptics.
Please keep on inspiring us!
Neil says
Tom, thanks for posting, I enjoyed hearing more about your early days of cartooning at General Mills. Quality leaders like Mark are becoming increasingly rare in today’s world. Service-oriented leadership, taking the time to foster talent and build into others. Encouraging others to take a stand, even if it means the path is less popular and more challenging. I learned a lot from Mark in my days at General Mills. Inspires me to pay it forward to the next generation of leaders!
Steve Schildwachter says
Tom, as usual, your cartoon made me laugh — I’ve stewarded so many animated ad characters over the years and loved them all — and as usual, your post made me think.
Regardless of whether it’s a lighthearted character or the overbearing seriousness of psoriasis, ad campaigns fall flat if they’re not driven by purpose. Yes, for sure.
Often, however, “purpose” is just highfalutin talk. If we’re honest, most brand purpose or brand positioning statements are just words on a page.
That’s because we often stay low on the ladder of What It Is –> What It Does –> What It Means. We stop at the first two because it’s what most people (and Legal) can agree upon.
Getting to What It Means is messy. We all have the imagination to do it, but there’s a lot of debate and conflict and we too often give up too early.
Mark’s examples sound simple because a team of talented people did the messy work of thinking it — and arguing it — through. It’s complicated — but rewarding.
Helen Kurtz says
Hear, hear, Tom! And cheers to Mark – so many of us have been inspired, shaped and impacted by the amazing presence that is Mark Addicks. Like you, I was told by Mark to step into being ‘more myself’ and it was the most generous and effective advice anyone can give, in many ways. Mark not only has shaped marketing at Mills but also led from a place of deep care for the culture and for each & every individual here. We’ve all seen the quotation that “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” and Mark lived and breathed this everyday – he is highly strategic AND knows the value of creating a rich culture of curiousity, externality, and urgency. We miss him already!