VP of marketing and communication at Nestl Brasil has been with the company for 27 years
In just over a year in charge of the marketing area at Nestl Brasil, Yonah Kochen has built a long career in the infant nutrition area, which remains under his umbrella.
Mother, the executive praises Nestl’s decision to grant maternity leave of six months, a pioneer in Brazil. She has been with the company for 27 years, but had a brief stint in the fast-food segment. She started out as a marketing trainee, a project that still exists today.
We no longer prioritize college and fluency in languages. The idea is to have more life stories and a diverse community talking about marketing, summarizes Yonah, who dedicates time to the creators professionalization program.
How was the transition process from the infant nutrition area to being Nestl’s CMO in the Brazilian market?
It was very important. We know that the growth window is part of a cycle that begins in the mother’s womb for this being to become a healthy adult. This business division is directly related to pediatrics, which supports us in providing nutritional education in this regard. Support for women includes encouraging breast milk to be the first food option, but if necessary, we have products to replace or complement. As CMO, I ended up covering all areas and having in-depth knowledge of each of the business units. I am a mother, I have two children, I went through all these stages. My maternity leave lasted four months and I am proud to remember that Nestl was the first company in the country to extend this benefit to six months.
His entry into Nestle was through a trainee program. What is the evolution?
Changed the filter for hiring people. Nestl no longer prioritizes the issue of having university courses in the curriculum. And fluency in other languages, which in my day was a requirement, no longer exists either. The idea now is to expand recruitment to identify initiatives, will, life stories. To have a diverse community talking about marketing.
Could you detail the creator professionalization program to strengthen the influencer marketing pillar?
We understood that bringing nano creators to help us amplify these people’s voices would be very interesting. In combination with their communities for diverse communication and reaching more people. What to do? Stimulate and empower. Some are really small and others that entered at the beginning of the program are already big. And so that they can elevate that conversation in their communities authentically. We propose several challenges, such as talking about the innovations made by Nestl and the changes in packaging, for example. What about Nestl Recipes? With these creators we can bring dishes from the Brazilian regional cuisine and generate an experience for people when they are cooking. They are intellectual and product challenges with a voice to be understood on social media.
And what is the scope?
All regions of the country. With more than 330 participants in the program, which is already underway this year. Everyone connects through a platform where they receive the necessary training so that their voices are amplified. We also believe that they will always have this loving relationship with Nestle. Our role is to help this group to be better influencers. It’s a way that we found and composes this modern marketing, very different from the time I started, when we had few channels available.
Does Nestl have an internal squad?
Yes. They are triggered depending on the scenario, the type of message you want to leverage and for whom.
Was the model carried out with external employees a benchmark for the internal group?
Yes. Based on the program with external creators, we realized the opportunity to do the same with our internal collaborators, who we now call Nestl Creators. Hence, with employees who volunteered to integrate this platform, we see authenticity to talk about Nest’s daily life and values. In May, we held an event with 700 employees, from the factory, sales, etc., to share learning and have a greater impact on their networks. We are present in 99% of Brazilian homes.
How has your experience as CMO been?
Fantastic, with a lot of learning. And trying to bring to Nestle the transformation that marketing is going through. We have all the elements of the traditional, but allied to the science part. What we see today is the intersection of art and science. This new marketing. With people and with all their data. The beauty of marketing is being able to make more personalized communications, being able to better understand the journey of consumers and when we can better impact them with our brands. This is the beauty and complexity of the business, in addition to working by combining technology with art and creativity.
And how does it guide its agencies, of which there are so many, including Ogilvy, Wunderman Thompson and WMcCann, to keep advertising sharp and in tune?
Agencies reflect the importance of this marketing transformation process. We also think about the scope of work we offer each agency. So that we can have the best team and the best talent for our campaigns. For this, it is essential to have a win-win relationship between agency and client. Incidentally, agencies have been transforming with the acquisition of technology and data partners. But we demand that the agencies bring greater expertise to add more and we invite them to be with us and participate in the training sessions of our internal community. For this, we developed a platform called Marketing Escola, where we take communities to bring advanced levels of understanding of the most modern marketing ecosystem through the sharing of cases with an internal look, to observe events that Nestl is taking for the team to attend, talk about and listen. Everything has to work together for the result to be impactful.
In addition to the agencies, Nestl structured the Content Studio. How does it work?
an initiative that has evolved over time. We are leaving an area where people used to talk about brands and now they have migrated to dialogue territories. One is about parenting, and another is about coffee lovers, who have a huge community. So, simulate a nice chat to take advantage of the opportunity of immediacy that we live today with posts and guidelines. Because if we are going to seek the level of approval in a company the size of Nestl, we are out of time with what has to be done. There is training and a bit of risk. We are more exposed, for good and for other opportunities that are not so interesting. And the agency also has a crisis committee, which can be for the product, comments, etc. Within this truth that brands bring, you can no longer limit yourself. It’s nice to know who wants to listen to you. There is also Gen Z territory, linked to music. In this case, we participated in festivals like Rock in Rio, with KitKat. In the case of parenting, the conversation involves Ninho. Content Studio uses Ogilvy’s know-how, which has been there since the beginning of the operation. Territories is the idea for this year.
And what’s the risk?
Those who do not take a stand run the risk of not taking a stand. During a visit by Nestl’s Americas head, we showed how we managed to reverberate our participation in the BBB with a sponsorship that wasn’t huge, but to make it grow by listening to what people comment on our brands. Today we are more subject to criticism, but we work with feedback to stimulate these conversations.
Read the full interview in the June 26 issue.