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How to Build a Marketing Organization That Thrives on Change
Join Lee Roth, Co-Founder of The Actionists, and Nicole Kane, former GM of the Breakfast Category and VP of Marketing at Grupo Bimbo, as they explore what it takes to become a more versatile marketing leader, build truly integrated teams, and create organizations designed to embrace change.
Drawing on her experience at Grupo Bimbo, Molson Coors, McDonald’s, and in the agency world, Nicole shares how working across brands, categories, and disciplines has shaped her approach to marketing. She also discusses rebuilding brand momentum, creating cultural relevance, designing effective marketing organizations, leading through influence, and why the human side of transformation matters just as much as structure and strategy.
CMOs, marketing leaders, brand strategists, agency leaders, and marketers looking to build more adaptable careers, create stronger marketing organizations, lead through change, and connect marketing more closely to business growth.
00:00 – Meet Nicole Kane and explore her career highlights
02:29 – Leading global connection planning at McDonald’s
04:26 – Nicole’s unconventional path to marketing leadership
08:32 – Why diverse experience matters in a rapidly changing industry
09:55 – Applying cross-category experience to the Thomas’ brand
13:09 – What truly integrated marketing looks like
14:10 – How to build a modern marketing organization
17:53 – Designing organizations that can continuously evolve
18:16 – The human side of change management
20:27 – Connecting organizational transformation to business outcomes
21:45 – Nicole’s advice for marketing leaders entering a new organization
24:21 – How marketing can help address the impact of social media on children’s mental health
26:35 – Closing thoughts
Lee (00:01)
Welcome back to Breaking the Mold. I'm Lee Roth, co-founder of The Actionists, and today's guest is someone who spent her career shaping how the world sees some of the biggest food brands. I'm thrilled to welcome Nicole Kane, former GM of the Breakfast category, VP of marketing of Grupo Bimbo, to the show. Welcome, Nicole.
Nicole Kane (00:20)
Hi Lee, thanks for having me today.
Lee (00:22)
it's my pleasure. I'm so glad you were able to do it. So, Nicole, tell our viewers a little bit about yourself and in the process, give us a career highlight or two.
Nicole Kane (00:33)
Yeah, you know, I think if I were to summarize it, I would say, you know, I'm someone who helps consumer businesses find and unlock their next phase of growth. I've done that across a number of brands. You'll probably hear me talk about today, most recently, as you mentioned, at Grupo Bimbo, as well as Molson Coors, McDonald's, and some time on the agency.
And you know, I think two things that I would really say were standout highlights in my career. I'll start with one that was more recent. hopefully many of you have seen our new brand character that we launched on the Thomas' brand, whose name appropriately is Tom. you know, we had really decided to put this new brand character out there because we had to think smarter, not spend more when we were thinking about our competitive set. And we thought, you know.
We can talk about our product, but at the same time, that's pretty functional. It's kind of what a lot of people do. So, how do you break through the mold? You know, we looked at a lot of research that said brand characters sometimes can be the second most memory device that you can have out there. And so we've went out there and we built this man Tom. so Tom is in the pantry, has a lot of great lore to him, and we call him our breakfast provocateur.
He comes from Old England. Ironically, the man who plays the character's name is also Tom, so it was just meant to be. And we launched him in our campaigns in 2024. Since then, we've really seen an increase in our sales as well as our long-term brand health metrics. And one of the reasons you know that he started to really come into culture is both of my kids' friends actually knew about him and didn't know that I worked on the Thomas brand. So it's great to hear them talking about them. And you know, we're in our next evolution of that, a new campaign launch last week.
But just bringing a new character in the world, I think, was something that I was really proud of and was really a fun thing to do. You know, the second career highlight I would say was when I was at McDonald's and we'd just gone through a lot of new brand positioning, and it was really my task to figure out how do we launch the new McDonald's way of feel-good connections planning.
Lee (02:29)
Mm.
Nicole Kane (02:29)
It was a really ambitious task, and the fact that you think about, you know, we oversaw 110 different markets around the globe. And so one, I was proud of it because it was about a truly
Collaborative effort. We had a steer co of different marketers around the world who helped us to develop the process as well as our agency partners. But more importantly, it was about how do we really solve a business challenge that's in front of us and how do we use process to do that. We were seeing at times that you know, as many times it happens, brand brand, creative, and media weren't all working together on the same sequencing. They weren't always interacting in a way that got us to the best work, but also sometimes would delay the work output because we'd have to go back and start again.
Yeah.
So in order to do this, I had to also really lead through influence. It was one of the first times I was really tasked to do that because at McDonald's they're a decentralized structure. So I didn't have the authority to make some of these decisions. I needed to bring people along on the journey and make sure they felt like they were part owners of this. So what we did is we sought out and developed this new process that was really about what are the times, places, and spaces that are most relevant to bring McDonald's into a consumer's life. And it went into pretty good depth. It talked about, you know, how do we think about the an occasion-based segmentation, right? If you think about McDonald's, it can be anything from when does a family want to go get a treat of a happy meal together? When does your average daily commuter pick up a coffee on their way into work, right? There's so many different occasions where it's relevant. But it also went into things such as what does innovation mean for McDonald's? It went into things such as not every campaign is going to be the exact same shape and size, so it doesn't need equal effort. So when do you put a lot of work and time and energy into building something? And when can it be a bit race and repeat and that's okay. So that was just another one that I was really proud of because I think it had a great impact overall on the business just to drive improve strategic thinking but also to make the time and our resources much more effective and efficient.
Lee (04:26)
I want to get back to that in a moment. what I should have done beforehand is tell our our viewers what Grupo Bimbo is, which is the biggest bakery that you probably haven't heard of, but really have heard of all their brands. So from Thomas's English Muffins, like you mentioned, to my kids' favorite Takis to my wife's favorite Little Bites. You have so many brands that we're all familiar with that you looked after. So it's a pretty amazing company and company of brands. But getting back to your story, just in your case study alone, your two case studies, you went from campaign planning, creative campaigns, connection planning, business strategy, integrated marketing, innovation. That is a wide array of skill sets. And it very much kind of matches your story. Your rise to VP of marketing is not your typical corporate ladder story. I think.
One of the things that I really like about your experience is that it's such a diversification of experiences that I think have made you a very holistic marketer. Could you tell us about like your journey? Was it planned? And how has it shaped your approach to marketing today?
Nicole Kane (05:39)
Yeah, I would say I'm definitely not your traditional marketer, especially on the brand side. You know, I didn't start in brand building penals on day one of my career. But I think that differentiation actually brings a lot of benefit to it, to your point. I think it allows me to come in and look at things through different angles and apply what I've learned across different categories or different types of desks that I've sat at to whatever the business problem is ahead of me. So to your point, you know, I've sat on the agency side, I've sat on the brand side I've done.
Every marketing service that's out there today as a leader, as well as you know, run a $1.6 billion portfolio, which has been my most recent accomplishment. And so, you know, part of it I would say has been pretty purposeful in terms of how I got there. I don't think when I started my career on day one, I necessarily knew where I wanted to land, but on the journey, I started to make some pretty purposeful decisions. It's something I try and really encourage a lot of people who I mentor to do. Some are open to it, some are not, and that's okay.
It's always a personal choice. But you know, there have been a couple pivot points in my career where I actually took a step back in title and in pay because I knew there was a capability that I thought was going to be important in the future. And so I wanted to make sure I really understood that. And each time I made those decisions, it helped me propel forward and actually got helped me get promoted and move up in my journey. So I'm a huge proponent for you know being mindful and being curious and seeing.
What is that next big thing that's out there in the marketplace? How do you learn it? And so then you can apply it in the future. Another thing sometimes is, you know, you go into interviews and you hear people say, Well, do you know this? Have you led this? Have you been responsible for this? So when you start to hear some of those themes, it can also be a signal of, okay, how do I go get this to make sure I'm enhancing my background? But at the end of the day, you know, also I've had the opportunity to work across categories. So, you know, you heard me talk about McDonald's.
You heard me talk about Molson Coors of about Bimbo. But on the agency side, I also worked in technology. I worked on Hewlett Packard. I worked on retail. I worked on JCPenney. I worked in travel. I worked on Sea World Parks and Entertainment. But each of those different journeys and opportunities, one thing you start to see is some of these categories aren't that different. There's a lot of similarities in terms of how you think about marketing strategy. There are nuances, right? Like if you work in CPG, you need to understand what trade marketing is. You need to understand.
How to sell into a Walmart. If you work in SeaWorld, you do need to understand that people travel from different locations and you might need some different strategies for that. But at the end of the day, I think the more broader experience you get, it just makes you a well-rounded strategic thinker and helps you solve problems through a different mindset. So definitely a differentiator from
Lee (08:27)
Yeah.
Nicole Kane (08:28)
that perspective.
Lee (08:29)
I I love that. And I love that for two reasons. One, because to your point, it does give you a much wider view of the world and allows you to go from scenario to scenario. But I also think it's incredibly important for a world that's changing so quickly to have a very diverse skill set. Because the idea of you doing the same thing for 50 years, that's not going to happen anymore. So the more that you can shift and change and evolve.
I think the better you'll be for the long term health of your own career and what you can bring to a company.
Nicole Kane (09:00)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, even if you think about the world today, you know, the customers that we shop at are different, right?
Lee (09:08)
Yeah.
Nicole Kane (09:09)
you used to walk into a grocery store to do all your discovery. Today you're doing a lot of it through AI agents or through e-commerce shopping. so having a background that was first grounded in digital is helping you now compete in the digital world, but through a brand lens. And so it all kind of starts to come full circle as long as you know the basic building blocks.
Lee (09:27)
Yeah, I agree. It's funny. I think my insurance broker is going to kill me because I have been using AI so much during my new insurance search. But you're right. It's it's very funny how quickly our shopping habits have shifted, right? It went from brick and mortar to e commerce to AI driven search. I mean, and that has really happened in last year or so. So
Nicole Kane (09:50)
Yeah, without doubt.
It also helps inform your demand planning because at the end the day, if there's going to be foot traffic at the store because of what you're doing, you need to make sure your product's on the shelf, especially in e-com. The worst thing you can do is have a consumer order your product, want your product, and it doesn't get delivered for them because the picker can't find it. So I think those are just a couple examples of how you can use experiences outside of CPG to even inform how you think about CPG. And at the end of the day, what we started to see is we were bringing in net new households, especially younger consumers because we were showing the relevancy there. But we also were really stabilizing our baseline. So at the end of the day, your brand is healthy when your baseline is healthy and you're not just renting shoppers. And that's what we started to do with some of the actions we're taking.
Lee (09:52)
So talk to me, now that we've talked a little bit about your diverse experience, talk to me about how you were able to apply that diversity of experience to one of your brands over the last few years.
Nicole Kane (10:05)
Yeah, I mean I think, you know, most recently Thomas's is a great example. you know, the team and I built a turnaround plan. We had been on a multi-year decline and started to really put some life into the brand and start a positive momentum journey. And, you know, one thing I would say we did is we looked at how are we thinking about audience strategy? And so when I was at Molson Coors, we spent a lot of time, I helped to stand up their consumer data platform.
So we spend a lot of time thinking about what some people call the movable middle. So who are those people that you can actually influence and how can you get them to take a behavior or buy something that you want them to buy? How can you use purchase-based data versus just claims behavior data? Because we know people don't always do what they say, but they do things and don't talk about it.
So you know, we really took the time to understand how do we think about recruitment versus retention on Thomas' and what were those reasons why a consumer left and how can we bring them back? And so we built a pretty strong architecture through that lens that has really brought some great business benefit, and we saw the KPIs going in the right direction. I would say, you know, I took a lot of what I learned at McDonald's in terms of why does brand fame matter and how do you break into culture? And so one thing we recently did earlier this year is we did a partnership with Thomas English Muffins and Milk Bar. So Christina Tosi had a new butter ice cream coming out and we actually at a couple of her locations sold toasted English muffins with the butter ice cream. And so for a product that isn't as well known to younger consumers, all of a sudden they loved it. And you know we made it into eater trends and all these great KPIs. It was one of their best ice cream partnerships that we've done. So it was about how do you break through into culture and get relevancy which McDonald's obviously does really good at. And then you know even clients I have like JCPenney, they had such a formulaic structure on how they ran their sales, right? I mean they run tons of sales like on the weekends during the day. But that type of logic of when consumers shop and how they shop actually applies to CPG. So it applies to CPG through the lens of what days of the week are they shopping. So that helps to inform your flighting.
Lee (13:04)
I think what you're saying is you actually had a truly integrated marketing approach where you're actually connecting all the dots, right? It was I think one of the challenges that I see in large corporations is that connections planning, shopper marketing, brand marketing, they're all they run in silos and they're not connecting those dots. And I think what you've done so beautifully in your examples is you've shown how one activity and brand might then connect to shopper that may connect to loyalty and so forth. But I really appreciate how you've outlined that because it sounds obvious, but it's rarely done well.
Nicole Kane (13:41)
Yeah, and I think especially, you know, in different types of roles, it's also how are you aligning those actions with your cross-functional partners? So anything that we're doing in marketing has to align with our price and promotion strategy. Everything that we're doing needs to make sure that we our sales operations team is aware of what we're doing so they are getting the product out when it needs to be, right? So it really becomes a 360 effort across the organization. Yeah.
Lee (14:03)
Yep. That's fantastic. Well, speaking of marketing organizations, let's shift gears a little bit because there's so much chatter right now around how do you build a marketing organization that's really built for today, but also the ever-evolving tomorrow, right? And and there's so many factors that come into that. It's you know, everyone's favorite two letters AI.
But it's way beyond that. Even if you took AI out of the equations, how do you work with agencies? What do you build internally? How do you look at generalists versus specialists? So I'd love to understand from you in your last org structure or the last organization you built, what was your philosophy and how did you go about building it?
Nicole Kane (14:45)
Yeah, I think it's a great question. And I think sometimes people get caught in a couple things. one is from my perspective, it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. There's some basic standards that make sense. but I think a lot of it starts with what are you actually trying to accomplish? so what is the business overall trying to do? Because again, marketing is one of the functions that goes into that. but what is that long-term vision? And so once you understand the long-term vision, then you can go through and do an assessment or an audit of the current structure and team and figure out where are we on that journey? there are going to be places that you're in a really good spot, there are going to be places where you have an absolute deficit, and there are going to be places where you have some opportunity to optimize, right? but I think especially if you come in new to an organization, there's always good and the bad. You shouldn't just walk into something and assume that you just need to blow it up and everything needs to be torn apart, especially culturally if you want people to adopt what you're doing, you need to you know give them a little credit for the things they've been doing well. So I think after you understand the vision, too, a lot of times it's about do you have those brilliant basic fundamentals in place? If not, then how do you build almost like a multi-year step in order to get there? Because a lot of times there are dependencies you're going to need. There might be places you see you can leapfrog, and that's great. but what I've seen to be successful is you don't build to the end goal, you build the journey with some key milestones of how you get there. So I think that's more structurally, and then you understand.
How do the cross-functionals work within your organization? So depending on that, you might need something different. If you're in a big multi-category, many brand organization, you might want to have different people who are almost somewhat embedded into the different brand teams, right? So you need to understand how the company operates. And then from there, I think it really is about defining what are the structural elements, but then also what are the enablers.
To your point, AI machine is not going to be a person who sits in a box and an org chart, but technology and data is an enabler that you need to think about as part of your overall operating system. another one that I think people miss a lot is what are the cultural change management pieces that you need to think about on this? So if you're standing up a new capability, you need to tell the organization the purpose of that capability, how they use that capability, how they interact with it.
So when I was at Bimbo Bakeries, for example, when I was leading the Marketing Center of Excellence, I set up two fully new departments. The company had never had an insights team before, and they never had a creative services team. So I really need to go through and educate everyone on why do they now exist? How do you use them? When do you go to them? What is their role versus maybe your legacy role? And so I think there is just that educational element as well that comes into it.
Lee (17:45)
And how do you set it up in a way that will constantly evolve, right? Because you know what you need today is going to shift tomorrow. So how do you set it up with some flex in it so it can evolve? And second, on a related note, is how do you get people comfortable with the fact that things will keep changing? Because that's really hard for a lot of people.
Nicole Kane (18:08)
Yes, I think a lot of this is don't underestimate the human element of it. So one I would say is think about who you hire and how you hire. So in a job description a lot, like I'll put things in such as, you know, people who are good with ambiguity, people who have a growth mindset, people who get energy from building, things of that nature, right? It's not just a standard deliverable type of job set. I think it also then is about making sure they feel like they're building this with you where they can, right? Sometimes you can't ignore adjustments because of there's confidentiality. But I think the more the people can have ownership of defining certain things that they do as part of their job and giving them energy behind that, they're more open to the change because they're part of the journey on it. I think you also are going to, as you go through it, you're going to find there can be people who don't wanna be on the journey and they don't want to be part of the change. And so sometimes, like that's okay, and you might have to have a heart to heart conversation with them.
But they can be really big disruptors that get in the way of the journey you're on. So I think a lot of it does comes down to the people and helping them understand why you're doing it. The last thing I would say too is it's about consistency. So if you are consistently repeating the purpose of your vision and why it matters to the business and how it's going to actually drive the business forward and unlock the growth that the business needs, people are more willing and likely to get on. I always joke it's just like in media, you know, it's like effective frequency matters. But if people don't understand where they're going, they might be more resistant to come on the journey with you.
Lee (19:47)
I I think that's really key. I think bringing people along the journey and having them inform the journey along the way is makes it so much easier than the, hey, I was off my office and I was playing with the org chart to match, you know, whatever cuts or reorgs I need to, and here it is, ta-da. I think if people are along the journey and feel like they're giving input to it, it is much easier. But I think you're also right. Sometimes there's just the hard conversations that have to happen when people don't want to go on that journey. And that's okay too.
Nicole Kane (20:18)
Basedon my background and my career, I've been in rooms with brands who say, but I've pulled my money off and it doesn't do anything, right? So I think brands do have a role in trying to fix the situation and partner with the social platforms. I do think there's government legislation that's needed. I think the social platforms have an opportunity to be a place for actually creating positivity in the world and using their algorithms to bring forward happy topics and actually connect people versus the strive loneliness.with children. But I do think the addiction pieces and all of that that you're seeing that's coming up quite a bit is one that I would hope marketing through the lens of how we're involved in the algorithms and the content that is put together and all those things that we could get the world to a better place on it. I think it's going to be a journey. But I would love to think that we can make that happen.
Yeah. The I mean the other thing I would say on that is, you know, a lot of times you're having to sell this into leadership too, right?
Lee (20:24)
Yeah.
Nicole Kane (20:24)
Because many times you're looking for headcount reduction, but when you're trying to do transformation in some of these things, you might actually need more people in your org chart.
Lee (20:33)
Yeah.
Nicole Kane (20:35)
So the more you can build out a vision and tie it back to business outcomes, the more likely you are to get the investment from the leadership team to have potentially more people on the team or more senior people or whatever that looks like. Especially with some of these new changing skills, sometimes those resources can be more expensive. So you have to be able to validate and get people on board so they can invest in what you're trying to build.
Lee (21:00)
Yeah,
I think and you've actually said it a few times, which is it's all about driving the business. Right. And and obviously for those of you who have watched a lot of our videos, you'll hear us say it over and over and over. It starts and ends with the business. But I think Nicole has demonstrated that it's about driving the business outcomes. And if you're pushing it towards your C suite or also to your media team, showing it how showing everyone and demonstrating how it drives the business is critical because that's what it that's what we're here for.
Nicole Kane (21:29)
Exactly.
Lee (21:31)
Okay, two more questions for you.
Nicole Kane (21:34)
Sure.
Lee (21:35)
The one is, and you've given a lot of advice already, but if you are a marketing leader going into a new organization and they're trying to determine the shape of their marketing organization, what would be a really solid piece of advice as they start this journey?
Nicole Kane (21:52)
Yeah, I think one thing I've talked about it a little bit, but I think doing a bit of a listening tour with all your cross functional partners to really understand how the business operates can really pay off. because and I'll give you an example of you know a situation I ran into when I was looking at orgs with Bimbo. One of the things I found was we had e commerce being bought and planned in four different departments. So as you can imagine, that's not very effective. It's not efficient. I think at times we were bidding against ourselves. You know, it was just messy.
So for me to build what I thought was going to be the right model moving forward, I needed those leaders who sat in the other departments to understand why I want to do some consolidation, right? for leaders like our sales operations team, they want to understand why marketing impact what they're doing, and if they can have integration between the two teams and see the benefit of it, that matters. So I think the risk is just building a silo of how marketing should work without understanding how the business works and how that team is going to interact with the other departments. I think also when you ask the other leaders for their device, it just is a way to start building trust out of the gate when you're new into an organization. So I do think that's a really critical piece that maybe not everyone thinks about.
Lee (23:15)
Yeah, I think it is critical. Cause a lot of times when you're a new CMO, you get this speech from the CEO saying, Go do whatever you want. We need a change engine. We need to break things. We need to rethink things, right? And so you kind of go like a bull in a china shop, which is usually a recipe for failure. I think to your point, taking the time to really build the relationships and listen to what's needed in the org is critical. Even if you do have to go break things, at least you know what you're breaking and why you're breaking it and where you're trying to.
Nicole Kane (23:47)
Yeah, I mean at the end of day, there are going to be times you need to take big bold risks, right?
Lee (23:51)
Yep.
Nicole Kane (23:51)
And you might have to have some controversial conversations and get to outcomes that not everyone's going to like. But there are also times that you need advocates in your corner. And so how do you figure that out? And work designed just always tends to be a controversial topic as everyone starts to, you know, be very protective of what they have.
Lee (24:11)
Yeah, listen. And we're taught to kind of look after ourselves first. So that's what you're going up against. Okay, so my last question for you, and this is my favorite one I ask everyone, is if you could take on any issue in the world and use marketing to help solve it, what would be the issue and how would you use marketing to help solve it?
Nicole Kane (24:33)
Yeah, I mean, I think it's such a great question. There's so many answers because I do think when you think about marketing, it can solve a lot of things through the influence and consumer centricity it drives. One thing that I think is a really important one right now is mental health with children. and when you look at the impact that the social platforms are having on them. so you know, anything from people who are you know, having eating disorders because of the body images elements that they're seeing on there, anything from, you know, kid cyberbullying, anything from the I'm just going to say like, you know, false news of controversial topics that drive you know decisions that give kids anxiety. You know, there's a lot I think in that space and I'm really hopeful that maybe we are gained to a place with some of the lawsuits that are going on right now that starts to get to better regulation and other things.
But I do think the addition pieces and all of that that you're seeing that's coming up quite a bit is one that I would hope marketing through the lens of how we're involved in the algorithms and the content that is put together and all those things that we could get the world to a better place on it. I think it's going to be a journey. But I would love to think that we can make that happen.
Lee (26:26)
Nicole, as a father of a teenager and a preteen, I really appreciate your answer because it is a hot topic. It is always a debate and discussion on what the kids can go on, how long they can go on it, for all the reasons that you just defined. So I I really do appreciate your answer. And more importantly, I appreciate you being on the show. It was awesome to have you on Breaking the Mold.
Nicole Kane (26:49)
Yeah, thanks so much. It was fun.
Lee (26:51)
It was fun. well, thank you again. I hope all of our listeners enjoyed it, and we'll see you on the next Breaking in the Mold.