When the word 'restructuring' is used in a business context, it is often a euphemism for job cuts. So news that Burger King and Premier Foods are reshuffling their marketing operations, while the government is considering a centralised team, could sound a warning bell for the industry (Marketing, 23 February).
Burger King's announcement was the most startling - it is more than halving its UK marketing headcount from 10 to just four. In comparison, its rival McDonald's has between 20 and 30 marketers in the UK.
According to Burger King, such axe-wielding will help the UK team achieve 'stronger alignment with global marketing and communications'. In other words, UK-specific remits have been cut, and those responsibilities subsumed by the company's EMEA team.
Of course, the fashion in marketing department structures is cyclical, depending on the whims of chief marketers as well as economic imperatives. The issue for the industry is whether it has entered a new phase of brands downsizing domestic marketing operations.
Not reduction
Helen Duce, UK senior partner at consultancy Effective Brands, says Burger King's behaviour does not reflect that of the industry as a whole.
'A lot of companies are coming to us and saying they need to reorganise their marketing, but the majority of restructures are not about downsizing,' she explains.
'Mainly it's about reorganising for greater efficiency and effectiveness. In about 80% of cases, they want to reshape where marketing roles sit and add clarity. In fact, in our experience, marketing often appears to be distanced from the cuts that are happening across the rest of a company,' adds Duce.
While Burger King is shifting its focus to a global approach, Premier Foods, which operates predominantly in the UK, has just created a group marketing division, with Jon Goldstone as its director.
His 20-strong team now has an overview of all Premier brands, and sets the strategy for brand directors in the individual business units to execute. Far from downsizing, Goldstone says the rejig is testament to the company's commitment to the discipline and its recognition of marketing's increasing importance.
'This signals a much more strategic approach to marketing where we are better able to identify brands with the best potential for growth and can allocate resources,' says Goldstone. 'It's all about growth. We are gearing up to grow our brands faster than we have done recently.'
He adds: 'There wasn't a group marketing function or group marketing director on the executive board before now, so these are definitely good things for marketing generally and our marketers.'
Goldstone believes that keeping a tight focus on local markets is vital. There is a risk, after all, of brands losing their local expertise if they pursue centralisation too ruthlessly; only with such knowledge can they give their campaigns the best chance of success in different markets.
Moira Benigson, managing partner at executive search consultancy The MBS Group, suggests that Burger King might come to rue its decision. She blames the cuts to its marketing team on the fast-food chain's private-equity owners, which want to 'take out costs with a view to selling'. This, she says, could prove to be rather short-sighted.
'McDonald's must be rubbing its hands with glee,' adds Benigson. 'This could give it an edge over its rival. Burger King has really opened itself up to being challenged hugely on a local level.'
IN MY VIEW - 'A CENTRAL TEMPLATE TAKES OUT SOME COST'
Mhairi McEwan, Co-founder and managing director, Brand Learning
The fact that consultancy Brand Learning has added 25 clients in the past year, including Kellogg, Bacardi and Paypal, suggests that big brands are investing in marketing.
Cost-cutting is a short-term response to recession, but if you want to drive growth, you have to drive demand. That makes the role of marketing more important and is why so many companies are re-orientating their marketing to be more strategic.
Typically, companies split marketing into teams that handle brand strategy and local brand activation, plus an innovation team. A central template takes out some complexity and cost, as you don't need as many people locally. However, many multinationals are realising it is not a simple task of just setting up a global team and letting the local team get on with it. Getting the balance right between the global and local teams is essential.