JEFF BLACK Savvy Saucier

Let's call a spade a spade. Back in early 1997, Molt's was boring. The Cadbury Schweppes unit was synonymous in people's minds with apples and little else, even though it owned a variety of familiar, non-apple brands such as Clamato Tomato Cocktail, and while its heritage whisperingly suggested Mott's worth to moms as a good-for-you line of beverages and side dishes, the whisper was not nearly audible enough to draw consumer attention to what were basically irrelevant products from a company that seemed like, as vice president of new products and licensing Mike Judlowe put it, "Norman Rockwell in an MTV world."

Incredibly, in barely a year, all that has changed. The Stamford, Conn., unit has reinvented itself and its brands as innovative and fun, driving double-digit sales growth thanks to a new line of fruit-blended applesauces called Fruitsations that is being promoted with animated dancing fruit, the signing of sitcom star French Stewart as a celebrity spokesperson to drive awareness of Clamato, and a gangbuster tie-in to Nickelodeon that has had Molt's turning applesauce blue to appeal to young fans of the network's Blues Clues program and developing must-have merchandise for kids, such as The Rugrats Movie Adventure Watch.

The shift can, in part, be attributed to a new management philosophy Cadbury has adopted in recent years to push financial responsibility down to the brand level and become more consumer-focused, determining what brands within the portfolio have the greatest potential for profit and then giving teams that work on those brands the latitude to maximize that potential through marketing. Eight months ago, when vice president of marketing and technical at Mott's, Mark Smith, left to join Cadbury in the U.K., that push-down philosophy led to the con solidation of sales and marketing vps into one senior vp of sales and marketing, and Jeff Black, a Canadian with a 16-year history at Cadbury, six as vp-sales and trade marketing for Mott's USA, took the helm.

Black, free from the friction between sales and marketing. has clearly accelerated Mott's "reinvention" and heralded a continuing stream of non- traditional products, advertising and promotions by doing away with the hierarchy that often quashes creative thinking. As he sees it, "My job is about marshaling resources and attracting, keeping and rewarding people. My sales background has made me more inclined to let good marketers market without interfering."

The result of such an approach, not surprisingly, is a team that is palpably excited about new initiatives they take ownership of, people that are near-giddy talking about the past year's successes, thrilled to be behind the wheel at a dynamic place Black refers to as "a $550 million company that acts like a $1 billion company."

"Maybe because he's not a traditional marketer, Jeff has a great sense of fun and an ability to read people's passions, and he lets you follow those passions in a way you think will get the job done," said Judlowe, a five-and-a-half year veteran of Mott's. Black tries to instill a sense of passion and excitement by encouraging his "gang" to spend as much as 25% of its time developing what he calls "visionary leadership," especially during this period of intense change, to increase the relevancy of high-potential brands.

"I love to see a brand manager just sitting there looking out the window," Black said. But such freedom is not completely without boundaries. Black fully expects that the brand teams be responsible for reinventing their businesses, but he asks a lot of open-ended questions, most often, "What comes after, what comes next?" to get at what he calls the "real truth about what we can get out of the business." Once marketing folks answer those questions, even if they've changed their mind mid-stream ("which shows they're open-minded," Black insists), they are expected to accept full accountability. A recent memo from Black reiterated such accountability for brand plans, pointing out that those responsible should have the tools to develop projects to successful completion and if they don't they need to come to him.

Clearly, the brand teams have had the tools. Black calls Don Gates, product manager, trademark sauce, "one of the true heroes of applesauce," an integral force in changing consumer perception of Mott's applesauce from a commodity apple-based side dish to a branded fruit snack with the introduction of Fruitsations. Mott's has spent well over $10 million this year against the line of fruit-blended, single-serve applesauces, which is credited with driving applesauce sales up 63% last year upon its introduction and 42% this year, according to Gates. The ads, based on whimsical animated fruit characters from Play With Your Food author Joost Elffers, have driven awareness 150% and are now going to be integrated into packaging, displays and Mott's Web site.

"Jeff gives us the backup to move change in the organization and, while years ago we would have just stopped, now when we've hit on something we keep going," Gates said.

The Fruitsations model has also been applied to other brands in need of facelifts. Black gives credit for such a "fruitsationization" of Mott's Clamato to Jim Harris, vice president of specialty brands, who came up with the tagline, "99.9% Clam Free" as a way to overcome consumers' negative perceptions of the clam taste in the Tomato Cocktail, a problem that was often referred to at Mott's as "the clam barrier." The tag, together with the idea of signing 3rd Rock from the Sun's French Stewart to star in the advertising, was one of Mott's "first efforts to be fun," Black said, and succeeded in bringing the brand a new quirky, irreverent personality as well as double digit sales increases.

"When we talked to consumers, we found out that Mott's meant 'heritage', 'good for you', 'Mom-trusted', but nowhere did it say 'fun', 'compelling', 'different,' Black said. "That's what we're striving for."

While pr clips from Entertainment Tonight, America's Funniest Home Videos and a slew of local news programs all featuring Stewart comedically interpreting the "99.9% Clam Free" tagline ran on the screen, Harris beamed, clearly amazed that a brand with only a 2% household penetration less than two years ago could be so well publicized and could become a $30 million brand due to an alliance with a star from a top-rated show.

It doesn't end there. Harris and his team are continuing to innovate on Clamato. Having just re-signed Stewart, the team is following up on the initial Just for Laffs promotion with a new Stewart-themed promotion called Destination Unknown that launched during a party for the season premiere of 3rd Rock, an extravaganza that is "traditionally something not done for Clamato, but we're doing what we need to do to exceed all the benchmarks," Harris said.

Black initially challenged the new promotion, questioning Harris on whether it was right for the brand, but, quickly convinced by Harris' clear enthusiasm, Black gave the thumbs up, saying, "If you think it's right, make it the best consumer promotion you can."

The same sort of directive was given to Mike Judlowe and his team when they brainstormed about the idea of joining Nickelodeon as part of efforts to move Mott's from mom-trusted to kid-demanded. "Blue applesauce was not Mott's, but we thought, not-Mott's might be good since 80% of households were not buying it," Judlowe said.

"In the past, we had done much safer stuff," Black agreed, ''moral-high-ground promotions for back-to-school, like offering free computers for school systems and literacy programs that were successful. But [Nickelodeon] is bigger and broader. There is nothing better than sharing brilliant equities."

The Nick promotions, first through Blues Clues-themed apple juice and applesauces and now with Rugrats characters on upwards of 50 SKUs, have been fully integrated, even crossing boundaries into foodservice. "This is the most holistic thing we've ever done," Black said.

Aside from driving awareness and sales (the Nick-themed products will sell at least $13 million combined by the end of November, Judlowe said), the tie to the kids network has helped Mott's overcome traditional hurdles with the trade. "Retailers usually resist in-and-outs, seeing them as a disruption to their daily operation, but this property was strong enough and consumers wanted the merchandise enough that we got a much bigger bang with the same amount of money we spent last year," said Rosemary Grabowski, director of promotions. Black was quick to cite Grabowski as the "brains behind the promotion" that gained close to 100% distribution at retail, including huge displays at Wal-Mart.

"A kid can't go down an aisle without seeing their favorite Rugrats character and begging for an Adventure Watch, our mail-away, self-liquidating offer that was redeemed at 10 times the historical levels of any promotion here," Black said.

While Black and his fired-up team are still riding high from the successes of Fruitsations, Clamato and the Nickelodeon promotions, they are not satisfied. Relying on a similar level of innovation, action and integration, the teams are all extending the more relevant equities built up over the last year and a half and forging ahead on other projects, such as promoting new Mott's-branded fresh apples and driving packaging changes, promotions and sponsorships on Mr. and Mrs. T's mixers to attract younger audiences.

As for Black, he will continue to push the change agenda and let creativity bubble to the top about how to decommoditize a new slew of products. Much like the people who work for him, Black is enthusiastic. to a degree that might ordinarily seem inappropriate to a marketer lodged in a 'mature" food sector. "We've had a decent past, a great present and 1999 will be a watershed year," he said. "I look to the future with unabashed optimism."

JEFF BLACK, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Mott's USA

College graduated/year:

York University, Toronto, Canada, 1975, degree in history and political science

Personal motto:

"Not managing change is a failure of duty"

I define my role as...

"creating an environment and attitude where reinventing and thinking about the future is very common.

Last book I read that stuck with me:

The Value Imperative: Managing for Superior Shareholder Returns, by James M. McTaggart, Peter W. Kortes, Michael C, Mankins

Job I'd want if I didn't have this one:

"I love what I do. I start solving problems the minute my feet hit the shower, so if I wasn't doing it for Mott's, I'd still be a managing director of an important business enterprise."

COPYRIGHT 1998 BPI Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group