Yum! Brands CMO on why brand purpose is not marketing

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2022-01-14 20:00:07

Ken Muench, who oversees global marketing for KFC and Pizza Hut, says marketers shouldn’t use purpose as a way of defining their brand or marketing it.

Yum! Brands CMO Ken Muench has slammed marketers’ use of brand purpose as an advertising tool, calling the practice “bullshit”.

While he believes brands should take steps to improve aspects of how they run their business and their impact on society, this shouldn’t be the basis of their marketing, he says.

“[Brand purpose] truly is a bunch of crap, because it’s disingenuous. You’re saying, ‘My purpose is to make the world a better place’. No, your purpose is to make money,” he tells Marketing Week.

Muench, who oversees global marketing for KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, says there’s a lot of “mumbo jumbo” and “garbage” in the marketing sector that could prove detrimental to marketers.

“What I rally against is training marketers to use ‘purpose’ as a way of defining and marketing your brand. It often leads to very fake communication that belittles any real effort companies are trying to [achieve].”