Put Consumers First: Interview with Yumi Clevenger-Lee, Chief Marketing Officer of BlueTriton Brands
I recently went one on one with Yumi Clevenger-Lee. Yumi is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of BlueTriton Brands, formerly Nestlé Waters, where she oversees marketing strategy and business development of the company's brands and the work of BlueTriton Brands in the areas of media, insights, innovation, and e-business.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Yumi: Prior to my role at Nestlé Waters, now known as BlueTriton Brands, I held a variety of different marketing positions from my time at General Mills where I worked on brands like Green Giant®, Cheerios® and Walmart®, to working overseas for Cereal Partners Worldwide to manufacture and market cereal in more than 120 countries. At CPW, I was the head of innovation globally in Switzerland and then moved to Mexico City as the head of marketing for Latin America, across 14 countries.
I joined BlueTriton Brands in 2018 as the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer where I oversee marketing strategy and business development of the company's brands, including Pure Life®, Splash and the six regional spring water brands (Poland Spring®, Deer Park®, Zephyrhills®, Ice Mountain®, Ozarka® and Arrowhead®). I lead Marketing, Media, Insights, Innovation, eBusiness and most recently have expanded responsibility to include corporate communications for BlueTriton Brands.
What stood out about this position for me was the ability to help make people’s lives better, and I knew that if I did my job well, Americans would be healthier. What started as a passion to help improve the health of people has quickly turned into a very real and deep sense of responsibility to also help the health of our planet.
Adam: What is the most important attribute of an effective CMO?
Yumi: Remembering that life is a series of experiments. Being not only a CMO, but a wife and parent too, are all ways in which we have to give ourselves and our teams the freedom to try, freedom to experiment, and freedom to do our best in that moment. And if the results don’t play out the way we intended; well, we can try something different next time. This takes the pressure off the fear of failure, which otherwise can be debilitating. As CMO, it’s important for me to remember that we won’t get it all right 100% of the time. But we can learn, lean into what works and understand what didn’t so that we can make a different choice next time. I often find that people are so incredibly forgiving and compassionate for others, but often we forget to show ourselves that same kind of compassion. This is the type of culture I create for my team so people can truly unleash creativity, solve business challenges and have some fun in the process.
Adam: What are three things everyone should understand about marketing?
Yumi: Three things, here we go.
Demand generation starts and ends with the consumer. Marketing is ultimately about solving problems that help make people’s lives better.
Consumers are real people. Take the time to build empathy. This is one area never to outsource and never to deprioritize even if you are the CMO. I like to think of our craft as marketing for humans.
Brands that win push the industry and society forward. Be courageous. Playing it safe is a recipe for mediocrity.
Adam: What are three things people who work in marketing should understand?
Yumi:
Put consumers first.
Create brand love in every opportunity (and with consistency).
Build not only for today but also for the future.
And if you’ll indulge me to give a fourth – lead with passion! Marketing is certainly at the core of driving business strategy and growth; the best marketing taps into creativity, imagination and emotion. We have to unleash our passion to get to the ideas that stir emotion for our consumers.
Adam: What is your best advice for those working at big organizations on how to best climb the corporate ladder?
Yumi: My best advice is actually to forget about the corporate ladder and focus instead on learning. Careers are not necessarily linear. I remember early in my career, I came to my mentor with my career plans mapped out for the next decade. He looked at my plan and laughed, “Yumi, you need to get a new plan.” It made me realize that it’s never going to play out the way you think. Plans are good, but also require agility. Rather than map my every career move for the next decade, I instead have focused on what I can learn and what brings me joy in my job and I pour 90% of my energy into that… well the rest, it’s about doing it well enough to not mess it up. Remarkable results are born from passion. Doing great work in the now, opens the next opportunity. I also advise people to gather a range of diverse experiences. This is what sets you up to lead and significantly expand scope. I’ve worked in brand building, innovation, sales - domestically, internationally, and across categories with each opportunity expanding the size of my team or sphere of influence. Now, I am gaining experience in private equity ownership vs working for a publicly traded company. Each of these experiences provides me with more business insight to bring to the table.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Yumi: The combination of having an entrepreneurial dad and Japanese mom, who migrated to the U.S. before she could even speak English, has had such a positive influence on me. I learned the power of compassion, perseverance with an incredible work ethic, the richness of diversity, and ultimately, the quiet courage to be an authentic leader.
Effective leaders can articulate where the group is headed and what it will take to get there. Inspiring leaders can articulate and motivate a group around why the goal matters.
My best advice is to lead with intention. At one point in my career, I remember mapping out the type of leader I aspired to be, and equally important, the type of leader I did not want to become. This still serves as a guide post for me today so that I stay true to my authentic self especially as I have grown into increasingly demanding roles.
Adam: What is one thing everyone should be doing to pay it forward?
Yumi: You are catching me at a real moment of reflection as I attended the funeral of a former teammate who unexpectedly passed away at only 33 years old. What really matters in life is the impact we have on others. The challenge is to be in the moment and tuned into others. What can I do as a leader, a colleague, a neighbor to lift others up or help a person be his/her best authentic self? At its core, leadership is actually not about you being a great leader but flipping the switch to be about others. It is also what makes great marketers. What do consumers need at this moment and how can I leverage the scale and influence of my brands or company to help?
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Yumi: With the launch of our newest campaign Made For A Better Tomorrow, which debuted in May and will run through October 2021, we’re able to use the power and reach of our brands to be a force for good and a force for growth. This campaign addresses two major issues: access to clean, safe drinking water and plastic pollution. Through the ‘One-for-One Promise’ activation, for every person who pledges to recycle their bottle, we will donate a bottle of water to a community in need.
With this, we are not only highlighting that our bottles are made from recycled plastic, but we are also motivating a consumer behavior change to recycle more. Likewise, this action triggers a way to help people in need in our own communities. We are partnering with local organizations, ranging from The Navajo Nation Baca-Prewitt Chapter to the Greater Boston Food Bank, that are helping us get water to people who lack access to safe, clean drinking water.
This campaign is a reflection of how we build brands that matter — brands that provide a superior product experience, emotionally connect to consumers, and help to push the industry forward.
Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
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