Adidas, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s have all cited the vital importance of marketing in helping them drive forward their sales and growth strategies across 2024.
In various results call, the CEOs of the respective US giants have variously praised the power of brand, personalisation and product innovation in helping them find continued success.
Across 2024, German sportswear brand Adidas has said it plans to ‘over-invest’ in marketing as it looks to turn its fortunes around following its first annua loss in more than three decades.
Despite admitting that “We know we are not as good as we should be,” CEO Bjorn Gulden has vowed to put marketing front and centre as the brand looks to build upon the 8% revenue growth it experienced last quarter.
In a much healthier position financially, fast food giant McDonald’s is planning on leveraging the extensive digital and personalisation capabilities available to it via its popular loyalty programmes.
This data will be key as the chain looks encourage greater numbers of frequent customers, with CEO Chris Kempczinski explaining: “With the insights powered by our loyalty members, we will work to deliver the right message at the right time to the right consumer, encouraging those who already love McDonald’s to visit even more.”
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When looking at the figures, it’s easy to see why loyalty is set to play a pivotal role – with sales to loyalty members accounting for £20 billion in revenue over the last 12 months and close to £5 billion last quarter alone.
Soft drink market leader Coca-Cola is also set to target its pre-built customer base by developing new products and innovations instead of pursuing new consumers.
Already secure in the knowledge that it has a built-in global fanbase across most international markets, Coke CEO James Quincey has said that “driving innovation around taste” of existing products can be as impactful as developing new ones.
“We know that sometimes the most successful, lasting innovations are simply improving the taste of existing drinks,” he told investors this week, citing the brand recent ‘orangier’ Fanta launched last year after customer-driven taste-tests.
With all three juggernauts set to enter 2024 with a varying degree of fortunes, what’s clear is that marketing will remain absolutely key to their successes over the coming year – with different tailored approaches favoured by each business according to its needs.
Whether or not these new strategies will prove successful will be another matter entirely, but large companies such as these often act as an international bellwether – setting standards for the rest of the industry.
