Powering Up with a Smile: Insights on Performance-Driven Brand Building from Duracell's CMO

In the world of FMCG marketing, where every decision is charged with potential, Ramón Velutini, the dynamic Global Chief Marketing Officer at Duracell Inc., brings a spark of humor and honesty to the table. From revitalizing legacy brands to navigating complex partnerships, Ramón's mantra remains simple and direct: "At the end of the day, it's all about selling batteries!”

Tone from the Top

Ramón learned his craft at the temple of brand building that is Procter & Gamble. Like most CMOs, he relies on his leadership to support his team’s brand building efforts. He cites two components needed for a culture that promotes performance-driven brand building.

The first component. He vulnerably shares his mindset when leaving P&G as being worried about whether that support would still be there under new ownership. Thankfully Berkshire Hathaway’s philosophy is all about the long-term value of the brand as a key component of what Warren Buffett refers to as the “economic moat.”

The second component. Profit first. “We are here to make money,” Ramón says. Some people feel that is too direct for them. Not for Ramón. He clearly outlines his guiding principle is: “profit first.” And to do that he and his team set out to revitalize the brand and develop tactics to bring it to life by taking a few big swings. ???

Revitalizing the Legacy Brand

Ramón’s approach to brand strategy is as revitalising as a fresh set of batteries. With a keen eye for cultural relevance and fluency in evidence-based laws of brand growth, Ramón and his team at Duracell have injected the iconic brand with a jolt of new life. As he puts it, "Our job as brand builders is to leave the brand better than we found it. To make the future brighter than the past."

Global research conducted by Hotspex helped Duracell lean into its category-defining distinctive brand cues and execute consistently across touchpoints and over time. Beyond the obvious assets like the logo, Duracell had an opportunity to return to the roots of brand's iconic copper-and-black. Ramón shares: “When you ask consumers to draw a battery, two thirds of them draw copper-and-black.”

From services categories like banks and online travel brands to consumer goods like jeans, cookies, and batteries, at Hotspex, we have found that revitalizing legacy brands often involves looking back before moving forward. As P&G’s Global Design Officer, Phil Duncan says: “The fruits are in the roots.”

But its not just about consistency to the point of stagnation. Ramón references Mark Ritson’s idea of “disruptive consistency” as the ruthless execution of your brand position across advertising tactics. Ramón says that if you go to a store, “Today Duracell looks more like what it was 40 years ago than what it looked like 10 years ago.”

Consistency has never been more electrifying!

Unlocking Success

When it comes to long-term brand building, Duracell doesn't just talk the talk; they power through with strategic partnerships and innovative thinking. From Formula One racing to Inter Miami, Duracell's sponsorships are more than just “logo slaps” — they're a testament to the brand's enduring relevance. And with Berkshire Hathaway's long-term thinking providing a tailwind, Duracell is being set up for continued success.

?Navigating the balance between short-term gains and long-term value creation can be a hair-raising experience. To a CMO of a multinational CPG brand, there is no shortage of options for sponsorships with promising benefits. Generally, a lot of the justifications for the sponsorships are theoretical. But to Ramón, there has to be a direct hypothesis or path for value creation.

By focusing on partnerships that can translate or support winning in-store and digital activations, Duracell ensures that the big bets pay off for the business in driving mental availability (making the brand easier to think of in a buying situation) and physical availability (making the brand easier to buy). As Ramón puts it, "Profit first doesn't mean profit in the next two months – it means having a clear hypothesis on how this is going to pay off in the long run."?

Ramón highlights product integration as a critical aspect of the partnership between Duracell and Williams Racing in F1 and between Duracell and Inter Miami in Major League Soccer. There are hundreds of batteries powering Williams equipment on race day and the soccer players' heart rate monitor vests in matches and in training. As Ramón says, "Authenticity is key and It's not just about sponsoring a race car; it’s about selling batteries at 200 miles per hour!"

Navigating and Thriving in New Realities

There is more complexity for today’s brand builders. Ramón quips about how with traditional media, its about the “Bazooka approach. You make one big campaign asset. Blast it. America saw it. Fantastic.” But things are changing and it requires brands to rethink what needs to be true to maintain or grow their competitive advantage.

From a physical availability standpoint, one in five batteries are bought online where dilution of share is almost guaranteed for big brands due to competition based on price. Leadership brands like Duracell need to work harder to justify why they are worth paying more for or even maintain their brand visibility and recognition.

From a mental availability standpoint, as media channels proliferate, so does the competition for consumer attention. Duracell must compete not only with other battery brands but also with a plethora of content, advertisements, and distractions vying for consumers' time and focus.

Yet, brands like Duracell are beacons of innovation and resilience. What is behind that resilience?

Before answering the question, Ramón humbly says: “We haven’t done something that is so profound that it has changed the world for ever. We are doing some things well, some things not so well.” He goes on to clarify that marketers often skip the strategy and go straight to tactics because they get hooked on what’s trendy: NFTs, Metaverse, AI. Ramón explains how these are tactics and tools. Not strategy.

It all comes down to great brand building. There are many definitions of brand building. If we reverse engineer Ramón’s playbook, there are three steps:

1.??????? Define with your target consumer

2.??????? Have a clearly defined brand promise and distinctive brand codes

3.??????? Execute with disruptive consistency

After all, as Ramón reminds us, "At the end of the day, it's all about selling batteries.”

It is as simple and as difficult as that.