Q&A with Melanie Huet, President, Brand Management and Innovation, Newell Brands

John Paquin Let39s get right to it with Newell Brands the company has been around for well over a century now and with such a diverse portfolio of iconic brands I cannot believe how many are in my own home Calphalon CrockPot Rubbermaid Yankee Candle Coleman Elmers Sharpie XActo and more Can you tell us what39s behind Newell39s quotportfolio strategyquotMelanie Huet With new leadership in place we embarked on a new corporate strategy last year built on a series of Where to Play and How to Win choices that are dedicated to strengthening our frontend commercial capabilities and building a highperformance organization to drive growth and longterm valueAs a result Newell is focused on its top 25 brands in the most attractive markets This allows us to disproportionately invest resources to support each brand holistically grow market share and revenue and keep consumers at the heart of all we doPaquin As caretaker of such strong and established equities what39s your point of view on preserving protecting and leveraging those assets How do you decide how far you can quotstretchquot an equity and still respect itHuet I39m a brand purist and believe that discipline and consistency pay huge dividends for brands Last year we locked our core brand assets for the top 25 brands to ensure we show up consistently in all channels and markets There is still work to be done but it39s energizing to take a global view This year we rolled out a global brand management operating model designed to drive global brand market share We utilize a variety of insights techniques to determine if we can stretch our brand into new spaces I like bold moves and encourage the brands to take smart risks Our Sharpie brand is designed to deliver bold expressions This year Sharpie is launching Creative Markers a huge innovation driven by strong consumer insights that is expected to drive significant category and brand growthPaquin What about the quotNewellquot brand what role does that play in your marketing In the marketing industry we see a range of philosophies here from a SCJ who typically closes with quotan SC Johnson Brandquot all the way to a PampampG where the corporate identity is nearly invisibleHuet Consumers aren39t aware of the corporate Newell brand We do invest in promoting the Newell brand on LinkedIn to help with talent attraction and attention and the overall corporate reputation of the parent company but our primary focus is on building awareness of our consumerfacing brandsPaquin Looking toward the future now you39re speaking at the ANA Brand Masters Conference about how AI has become a gamechanger in deciphering consumer behavior and preferences Mining consumer insights has long been more art than science with subtlety and nuance often making all the difference Do you think AI is capable of those subtleties Is AI capable of teasing out motivations or just behaviors And is that enoughHuet AI is going to help us get to deeper insights more quickly In fact I expect AI will provide us with more subtleties and nuances because it has access to more data and can mine it faster than our current solutions Also AI doesn39t tire out like a consumer does We are limited right now with the amount of time a human will want to spend answering questions and engaging with us AI will remove some of these barriers allowing us to learn more in greater detail and at a rapid paceI doubt we will get to motivation or intentions but we don39t have to have that to be successful A good marketer knows the consumer behavior she is trying to change or drive If we can see and measure those behaviors we39ll already be ahead of where we are todayPaquin Beyond leveraging for consumer insights where do you think the greatest promise lies in AI for marketers Content creation is the most obvious place but what else are you thinking aboutHuet AI can be extremely helpful with process It can reduce timelines and increase speed to market We39ve also encouraged our marketers to think about how they can innovate their daily efforts to improve the quality of their output and overall productivity Additionally we are finding hundreds of ways to use AI in our manufacturing and operational processes to drive continuous improvementPaquin AI is either going to create a brave new world or end it depending on who you ask Given your bullishness what are your thoughts on this burning questionHuet AI is going to be disruptive amazing and highly positive We are about to see a quantum shift in how we live and work I don39t for a minute believe the machines will overtake humans and look forward to the advances we will make in all areas of life science and workClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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Q&A with Melanie Huet, President, Brand Management and Innovation, Newell Brands

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Q&A with Melanie Huet, President, Brand Management and Innovation, Newell Brands

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