Who said the market was quiet?
There are $36 billion reasons that tell me it’s going to get much more exciting – and that is exactly the price Mars has paid for Kellanova (the FMCG previously known as Kellogg). We love a business on a journey, and we have two giants of our world hoping that life will be “better together.” Time will tell, but the brands are complementary, and Mars is a privately owned business that does things deliberately and without haste, so our opinion is positive.
But, it’s not just our tier 1 clients who are exciting us. We are currently talking with three businesses with huge ambition: one will disrupt, one will grow and one will blow apart their category. Yes, we are still suffering market headwinds, but fortune will favour the brave. More to come…
At [axr], we’re into our 5th year as a Sales, Marketing and Category FMCG specialist, and gathering momentum in the consumer services space with industry powerhouse, Ben Carnegie. Our mission is to enable you to make a great career decision, brought to life with podcasts, guides, blogs, and so much more. A fresh take on our customer experience has also given us the confidence to add our 6th consultant to the team, Bernice Goodwin, an Aussie recruiter returning home after a successful career in London. That gives us more reach, enables us to have more conversations and to help more and more of you with your career. We’ll be honest with you; like any recruiter, we place very few people week to week, but, unlike any recruiter, we will help you. When you’re in the [axr] ecosystem, you will get every insight you need to get the most out of your career.
So, how has the market been for August?
Sales cannot get enough of the new-breed National Business Manager (NBM)
We’re 6 months into the NBM resurgence and it shows no signs of slowing down, bridging the gap, beautifully, between the expanded National Account Manager (NAM) role and Customer Director.
Marketing is edging, slowly, towards the senior market
While marketing roles are veering closer towards the senior end of town, there is still a long way to go to achieve balance, with too many good people still scratching their heads on how to get on a shortlist. FMCG demand for Brand Manager and Senior Brand Manager roles is still steady, while the broader Consumer Services market remains balanced in the mid-market for Performance, CRM and Generalist Marketing positions.
Category is in a (temporary?) state of abeyance, but Revenue Growth Management (RGM) roles are heating up
In fact, given the increasing popularity of the RGM roles, it’s quite timely that we are in the midst of running our ‘9% club’, with Paul Bull and Matt Freebury’s FMCG Analytics as more and more clients look to allocate headcount to RGM. If you would like to attend our next RGM event, get in contact with us. You might also like to download our latest RGM whitepaper, ‘Converting Complexity into Opportunity: The Importance of Revenue Growth Management for FMCG Careers.’
Finally, what’s the big news for September?
We’re excited about our all our new clients in waiting, but who knows. Could we see consolidation, disruption, and/or Private Equity (PE) aggression? And we didn’t even talk about Accolade’s acquisition of Pernod Ricard’s wine portfolio! There’s never a dull moment in the world of FMCG careers, that’s for sure!
