Yum! Brands’ Ovens to head to Taco Bell in US Sonja Koremans
Taco Bell Corp in the US has appointed David Ovens to the position of chief marketing officer, a move that will see him relinquish his role as Yum! Brands Australian and New Zealand head of marketing.
The Australian native who has never worked in the US said he was unsure of what changes he would bring to the fast food chain’s marketing in the US but said it would be a Herculean task.
“In the US, I will be overseeing Taco Bell’s domestic marketing and while I am looking forward to it, it will be a huge challenge as it is such a large and highly competitive market, so there will be a whole lot of new pressures for me,” Ovens said.
However, he declined to comment on what strategies he planned to implement to drive the company’s sales.
“It’s hard for me to know what my challenges will be until I am actually there,” he said of his role, which will be based in Yum’s Irivine, California office.
Yum is the parent company of Taco Bell Corp, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver and A&W All American Foods.
Ovens’ successor, who will be based in Sydney, is expected to be chosen internally within weeks.
Yum! Brands Australian and New Zealand head of HR Amanda Flemming said Ovens had been instrumental in driving KFC sales higher in Australia and New Zealand by taking the brand closer to the youth and family market through its sponsorship of Network Ten’s Big Brother and Australian cricket.
Flemming said Oven’s innovation had also revitalised Pizza Hut sales.
“He brought more layers to those businesses by creating discipline around the advertising process and introducing the right products to KFC and Pizza Hut,” Flemming said.
Carat’s group business director Paul Meischke mirrored Flemming’s comments.
Meischke said Ovens had worked closely with the media agency on KFC and Pizza Hut strategies.
“David always has a very clear direction on where he wants to take the businesses and when you are a partner company in that processs, it is fantastic to have someone like David who outlines things so clearly and looks ahead at where the business needs to go with such clarity,” Meischke said.
“If you look at the KFC creative, his mark is all over it – he continually pushes and drives his teams to deliver better products and from all the reporting we get from Yum we see the results of that with higher sales.”
Taco Bell has offices throughout the US and Canada as well as other international locations.
Taco Bell’s Australian franchise launched in 1999 with a handful of stores in Sydney. There were also outlets in shopping centre food courts “piggybacking” off existing KFC and Pizza Hut fronts. The venture only had moderate success.
