Remarkable Marketers: Meet Kellogg’s Tamara Howe

There are some pretty remarkable people in our industry, each offering their own unique perspective to adland.

While we spend so much time learning about our peers’ career highlights, B&T, in partnership with Carat Australia, thought it high-time to dig a little deeper, and find out what makes the shining stars of our industry tick and, at times, tock.

So, for the next few weeks, we will be publishing a series of personal profiles.

Get ready to laugh, cry and be taken on an emotional rollercoaster as we hear more about adland’s most remarkable marketers.

Kellogg’s marketing director (Australia and New Zealand), Tamara Howe: The 80s Romantic

When I was 10, I wanted to be a fashion designer when I grew up. I used to love making crazy outfits and I was a child of the 80s, so there were lots of different colours and shapes involved. I love 80s music, particularly the band Toto. I’m also a sucker for a sad movie. . . I tend to cry in sad movies.

My greatest light bulb moment was learning that people make most decisions on intuition or ‘system one thinking’, and not rationally. Understanding system one and system two thinking, or thinking fast and thinking slow – behavioural economics – was a huge light bulb moment for me in so many ways, particularly in a professional sense, but also in understanding people generally.

One thing my colleagues do that really irritates me is evaluate certain ideas or pieces of activity through a subjective lens rather than applying data or evidence. I feel like marketing can still be a very opinion-based discussion versus where we can go with the discipline of being a lot more scientific and a lot more data and
evidence-based.

The best piece of advice I ever received is a quote from a previous global CMO of Kellogg’s called Mark Baynes (I think he stole it from someone else), which is: “Pioneers are the ones with arrows in their backs.” I love that quote and I think it’s one to remember when you’re having a tough day.

I drive a Mini Cooper and have done so for many years. I love the brand’s quirkiness and distinctiveness in what is a very same, same industry. I also admire how consistent Mini is to its brand promise. It’s a very iconic brand and has been for many years.

One person that I’m particularly impressed by and look up to at the moment is New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. I think she’s trailblazing in terms of being both a working mum and a prime minister.

I think what’s going to be really interesting is understanding the changing path to purchase as our homes become smarter. With fridges, you can automatically order groceries from or shopping via voice technology.

Th e role of brands can potentially become even bigger, because what we want to establish is when the
shopper at home is fi lling up their smart fridge or ordering via Alexa, they’re saying things like “Pringles” or “Nutri-Grain” instead of “chips” or “cereal”.

However, we have to make sure our brands don’t become even more commoditised in that environment.

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