Coca-Cola restructures marketing to ‘drive more growth’

The changes will see Coca-Cola create five global categories that it hopes will lead a prioritisation of strong brands and innovation, as well as shifting its marketing execution “closer to customers and consumers”.

Coca-Cola is restructuring its marketing operations into five global categories as it looks to drive growth and bring marketing execution closer to customers.

The change will see Coca-Cola reorganise around the categories with the strongest consumer opportunities. These are Coca-Cola; sparkling flavours; hydration, sports, coffee and tea; nutrition, juice, milk and plant; and emerging categories.

The leaders of all five categories will work across the company to build its brand portfolio. They will report into CMO Manolo Arroyo, who was appointed at the end of 2019 after Coca-Cola made the decision to bring back the role after two years without one.

Coca-Cola has not said who it will appoint to these new roles.

“We have been on a multi-year journey to transform our organisation,” says CEO James Quincey. “The changes in our operating model will shift our marketing to drive more growth and put execution closer to customers and consumers, while prioritising a portfolio of strong brands and a disciplined innovation framework.”

Coca-Cola is also streamlining its operations into nine units in a bid to improve consistency, eliminate duplication of resources and help it scale new products more quickly. Under its current model, it has 17 business units that sit under four geographical segments, as well as its global ventures and bottling investment.

The nine new operating leaders will report into COO Brian Smith. The changes are expected to lead to around 4,000 job losses, although the company hopes some of these will be voluntary.

Coca-Cola restructures marketing to ‘drive more growth’