In the latest change, Mark Barnard has been named SVP of customer development, Asia, alongside existing Asia SVPs of hair and skin, respectively, Michel Dallemagne and Vivek Rampal. The latter two, who currently report to Asia/AMET president Harish Manwani, will instead report to HPC group VP personal care, Simon Clift, from January 1, 2006. The change is being seen as an attempt to consolidate marketing decision-making at a regional, cate- gory-specific level, and follows the earlier decision to realign Unilever into three regions, under two category presidents for foods and HPC, and one group CEO, Patrick Cescau.
Agency sources have confirmed that the changes would have implications for them, with their teams required to 'follow' the new structure.
"If regional agency Unilever teams become deeper and more powerful, what happens to the local country agency Unilever teams -- do they report to their country head or follow Unilever's example and report to the agency regional category head?" asked a source. "If so, what happens to the country revenue -- should some of it be re-channeled to these heavier regional agency teams?"
Unilever media relations spokesman Trevor Gorin confirmed that foods and HPC marketers will now report in, ultimately, to respective category presidents Vindi Banga and Ralph Kugler.
The changes, said Gorin, would ensure that Unilever "will have a structure that strengthens the focus on brand development. At the same time, it strengthens the focus on customer and execution".
He added: "Despite much that was achieved through Path to Growth, it became clear that some aspects of our organisation were hindering our ability to execute."