Coffeehouse company Starbucks has promoted its global chief marketing officer Brady Brewer to CEO and will not replace the role.
Instead, in the corporate restructure announcement, Starbucks will distribute marketing support under each of Starbuck’s geographic CEOs.
Starbucks chief executive officer Laxman Narasimhan said the restructure aims to "balance clear geographical focus with investing in functional capabilities to scale around the world".
The news follows a global trend of phasing out the C-suite marketing role, most recently United Parcel Service, Etsy and Walgreens have eliminated the role.
But the trend has been happening for years with Lowe’s, Hyatt Hotels, McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, Uber, and Lyft making the same cut.
VP and research director at Forrester Mike Proulx told AdNews Forrester finds when big brands eliminate the CMO role, several reverse course – including Coca Cola and McDonalds – when business growth is at stake.
"The good news for Brady Brewer, who has served as Starbuck’s CMO since 2020, is he’s been promoted to CEO of Starbucks International – further underscoring the notion that CMOs who act as broad business leaders have a path to the CEO job," Proulx said.
In 2022, Australian chief marketing officers told AdNews the ‘death of the CMO’ is more clickbait than forecast.
“Taking away the CMO is like taking away the head chef. Sure, you’ve got great ingredients and really good cooks, maybe even an incredible sous chef," Catherine Zaharias, chief marketing officer at TRAVLR, told AdNews.
"But if you lose that holistic viewpoint and overarching strategist, something’s going to burn!"
Starbucks intends to appoint a global brand creative leader soon.
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