Growth, Brands and More

Filiberto Amati
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  • Marketing
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Growth, Brands, and More is the FMCG Growth Operating System in podcast form. Each episode breaks down how consumer goods brands win (or lose) in competitive markets. Hosted by Filiberto Amati, a growth consultant with 25 years of experience across P&G, Philips, and Campari, the show goes deep into the levers that drive real commercial results: portfolio architecture, route to market, pricing logic, brand strategy, shopper behaviour, and category dynamics. Guests are operators, not theorists — senior executives and founders from Heineken, Diageo, Coca-Cola, Unilever, P&G, Danone, and Pernod Ricard, alongside entrepreneurs building the next generation of FMCG brands. No generic marketing advice. No thought leadership filler. Built for the people running brands or advising the ones who do. For more on FMCG intelligence: https://www.filibertoamati.com/ For more on GOS: https://www.amati-associates.com/diagnostic/ www.filibertoamati.com

  1. RTDs, Conjoint and Consumer Choices | Andy O'Brien | Part 1

    5d ago

    RTDs, Conjoint and Consumer Choices | Andy O'Brien | Part 1

    Can we model consumer choices in a timely fashion? Shouldn’t we test product-related design choices before launching them into the market? The episode features Andy O’Brien, FMCG & RETAIL VP at Epic Insights, discussing his FMCG background and Epic’s software-driven, decision-based research, which delivers faster insights. They emphasise the need for rapid data to support innovation, challenge assumptions, and keep pace with retailer and internal decision timelines, noting procurement and organisational volatility as barriers and arguing that better tools should reduce high new-product failure rates. The conversation presents Epic-sponsored conjoint research on alcoholic RTDs in Germany, France, and Spain: product is the main choice driver, packaging is second, and their interaction shapes decisions, with price reinforcing expectations. Findings also suggest premium glass packaging complements rather than replaces mainstream cans, with cans driving volume while glass supports higher-value occasions and specific cohorts (e.g., female consumers in France). 00:00 Welcome and Preview 01:49 Meet Andy and Epic Insights 04:17 Fast Conjoint Research at Speed 08:22 RTD Study Insight One Drivers 20:05 Insight Two Packaging Premiumisation Wrap This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.filibertoamati.com/subscribe

    25 min

  2. May 18

    The Relevance Blueprint | Magda Adamska

    Why do brands follow trends and waves, embracing change when it is not needed? Why aren’t they obsessing about brand relevance, which is potentially the mother of all brand problems? In this Growth Brands and More episode, Philippo interviews brand strategist Magda Adamska, who moved from agency planning (Nike, T-Mobile) to operator roles at MTV/Viacom and Pearson, then became a consultant and built Brand Struck, a database tracking 250 brand positioning analyses. Adamska contrasts the agency's focus on communication and creativity with client-side realities of the full marketing mix, citing Kinder Bueno’s repositioning, which tripled share. She describes shifts from fun/rebel branding to purpose and sustainability, and now “cultural relevance,” warning that fundamentals and measurement matter most. She argues relevance is the key driver of resilience (Uber, Instagram), while decline can stem from lost relevance (Bud Light) or bad business decisions despite relevance (Nike’s DTC shift). They discuss brands travelling internationally (Liquid Death in the UK), the importance of fame/awareness and investment, and why brand architecture projects start from portfolio messes driven by short-term incentives, acquisitions, and weak CEO stewardship. 00:00 Meet Magda Adamska 05:25 Brand Trends and Relevance 22:32 Brand Architecture Fixes 29:40 Short-Termism and Fake Innovation 32:43 CEO Stewardship and Brand Splits 40:45 Future Priorities and Value This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.filibertoamati.com/subscribe

    54 min

  3. May 11

    Avoiding Toxic Growth | François Bazini

    Growth at any cost is still a mantra. But toxic growth creates more problems than it solves. In part two of the chat with François Bazini, the host continues a conversation about “toxic growth” and why CMOs fail, arguing that marketers often chase glamorous, short-term levers, flavour “innovations,” promotions, ill-conceived category moves, or new consumer targets that look good on paper but poison brands, instead of doing the harder work of growing the core. François illustrates toxic growth through Ribena’s decline from a top UK brand in 2015 to outside the top 100 by 2022 after shifting away from families, launching non-credible flavoured water and sparkling RTDs, and becoming promotion-dependent. They discuss how companies mismanage brands, avoid postmortems, and misread success, citing Celsius’ growth as driven largely by a competitor’s delisting and a COVID-era shift to no-sugar. He also predicts that successful CMOs must both strengthen core brand growth and build disruptive new brands. 00:00 The types of Growth 00:43 Fake Innovation and Incentives 02:26 Defining Toxic Growth 06:33 Ribena Case Study Breakdown 26:46 Future of the CMO This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.filibertoamati.com/subscribe

    34 min

  4. May 4

    Goodbye CMO. Hello Chief Growth Officer | François Bazini

    From Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Growth Officer. New Label or New Reality? What’s the future of marketing? Filiberto interviews François Bazini, former CMO Europe at Suntory, about how the CMO role is changing and why some companies relabel it as a Chief Growth Officer. François recounts his global FMCG career (Danone, PepsiCo, Suntory) and contrasts functional marketing leadership with P&L general management, arguing that strong CMOs act as “brand CEOs” who own trade-offs across top line, bottom line, capital, and time horizons. He says CMOs often fail by avoiding ROI discussions or shifting spend to only what’s easily measurable, overemphasising short-term activation over long-term brand building. He also argues that CMOs must be brand stewards while improving ROI credibility by reframing returns around equity and pricing power, and advises marketers to build both “PowerPoint and Excel” skills and to speak the finance, supply chain, HR, and commercial languages. 00:00 Meet François Bazini 02:42 From CMO to P&L Leader 06:00 Brand CEO Mindset 10:56 ROI Trap and Brand Stewardship 23:08 Chief Growth Officer: The Future This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.filibertoamati.com/subscribe

    34 min

  5. Apr 27

    The Blurring Boundaries of Nicotine | Joel Rubenstein

    Nicotine Products are not a smoking cessation category anymore.The Blurring Boundaries of Nicotine. And that changes everything. Nicotine pouches show this shift clearly. They look less like medicine and more like mints. Consumers prefer formats that don’t make them feel like patients. In this episode, Filiberto interviews Joel Rubenstein, an LBS alumnus and consumer health veteran, about his career in consumer health and the evolution of nicotine products. Rubenstein explains why tobacco companies are moving into cessation/harm reduction: nicotine is both the addictive problem and the cessation ingredient, it is hazardous to manufacture, and cigarette sales are declining. He contrasts highly regulated pharmaceutical players with rapidly innovating non-pharma products (vapes, gums, strips, and especially nicotine pouches), predicting recreational products will outcompete pharma’s. He stresses policymakers often wrongly equate tobacco with nicotine, notes inconsistent regulation (e.g., marijuana legalisation vs pouch bans), and warns unethical marketing, teen targeting, and ultra-strong pouches could trigger backlash, arguing for stronger retailer/supply-chain accountability and self-policing. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.filibertoamati.com/subscribe

    44 min

  6. Apr 21

    FMCG Portfolio Decisions | Todd Kirk | Part 2

    Why are so many FMCGs so focused on cannibalising their own demand? Why is volume growth not really at the centre of the way they operate? Todd and Filiberto discuss how innovation can create incremental demand rather than just redistribute it by targeting unmet occasions and clarifying each product’s role in the portfolio across four buckets: entry (trial), frequency, upsizing, and upscaling. They argue portfolio pruning often lacks discipline because firms fear losing shelf space and cut based on past sales rather than on incremental value, creating future competitive gaps; research cited claims that incremental value stops around the fourth SKU. They critique promotions for often subsidising existing buyers and driving unprofitable spikes, and warn that innovation and siloed decisions break pricing ladders (e.g., multipacks priced higher than singles). The proposed fix is a shopper-centric, system-wide “wide-angle” mindset that uses existing data and tools, along with virtual testing, to align assortment, pricing, and promotions. 00:00 Innovation That Creates Demand 01:14 Four Portfolio Roles Explained 03:47 Real-World Examples By Bucket 07:50 Pruning SKUs And Promo Myths 19:03 Pricing Architecture And Systems Mindset This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.filibertoamati.com/subscribe

    36 min

  7. Apr 13

    FMCG Portfolio Decisions | Todd Kirk | Part 1

    Why do companies in FMCG choose low probability growth? In the big data era, why are most of the FMCG launches supply-driven instead of demand-driven? Today’s guest is Todd Kirk, Principal and Managing Director at Middle Game Services. Kirk explains his background across client-side (e.g., Coca-Cola), retail data (IRI), and consulting, and says Middle Game focuses on performance marketing at the shelf—assortment, merchandising, pricing, and their overlaps, such as promotion—using a shopper-centric, “wide-angle view” of choices. He contrasts shifting existing tactics with “better things” like line-filling, imitation, and true innovation, and describes applying choice-based analytics to tracking data (e.g., Nielsen/IRI and e-commerce). Discussing a key growth problem, he argues that companies overload on low-probability innovations, starving the core “base” (a Jenga analogy), creating value-chain inefficiencies, and often generating transfer demand rather than incremental value, urging portfolio and retailer impacts to be modelled before launch. 00:00 Show Intro 01:01 Meet Todd and Middle Game 04:11 Shelf Choices and the Four Ps 11:26 Do Better Things Wide Angle Growth 20:15 Growth Problems and Closing This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.filibertoamati.com/subscribe

    36 min

  8. Mar 23

    Embracing Change and Risk | Rafal Walendzik

    Why do some executives keep growing and others plateau? How do you balance the short-term objectives with the long-term plan? In this podcast episode, host Filiberto interviews Rafal Walendzik about his 30+ year career across FMCG/CPG, food and beverages, and spirits, spanning Unilever, Kraft Heinz, and roles in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Southeast Asia, leading multicultural teams. Rafal says continued growth depends more on mindset than title, emphasising learning through failure, leaving the comfort zone, and taking calculated risks rather than plateauing. He explains that leading across markets and company sizes requires co-creating a strategy with teams, understanding what motivates people and owners, and focusing limited resources in smaller firms while staying agile as conditions change. Rafal connects cycling to goal-setting, self-talk, and the rewarding experience of progress. 00:00 Podcast Welcome and Guest Intro 02:58 Career Growth Mindset and Risk 14:34 Leading Change Focus and Motivation 29:47 Building the Next Chapter 33:04 Influence Without Authority 45:00 Three Questions to Move Forward This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.filibertoamati.com/subscribe

    51 min
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About

Growth, Brands, and More is the FMCG Growth Operating System in podcast form. Each episode breaks down how consumer goods brands win (or lose) in competitive markets. Hosted by Filiberto Amati, a growth consultant with 25 years of experience across P&G, Philips, and Campari, the show goes deep into the levers that drive real commercial results: portfolio architecture, route to market, pricing logic, brand strategy, shopper behaviour, and category dynamics. Guests are operators, not theorists — senior executives and founders from Heineken, Diageo, Coca-Cola, Unilever, P&G, Danone, and Pernod Ricard, alongside entrepreneurs building the next generation of FMCG brands. No generic marketing advice. No thought leadership filler. Built for the people running brands or advising the ones who do. For more on FMCG intelligence: https://www.filibertoamati.com/ For more on GOS: https://www.amati-associates.com/diagnostic/ www.filibertoamati.com

Information

  • Creator
    Filiberto Amati
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    90
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Filiberto Amati
  • Show Website
    Growth, Brands and More