In R.E.D. Marketing, Muench and Creed Outline Proven Fundamentals from Yum! Brands to Build a Holistic Marketing Strategy for Long-Term Results

“The R.E.D. Marketing principles were pioneered by Ken and Greg more than a decade ago and are still driving results for Yum! Brands around the world. These concepts, illustrated by real-world examples from two of the industry’s most innovative leaders, will be valuable to marketers of any experience level.” – David Gibbs, CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc.

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Yum! Brands CMO Ken Muench and former CEO Greg Creed share expert guidance to create impactful marketing campaigns in new book, R.E.D. Marketing: The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands (Photo: Business Wire)

“This is a must-read for all brand builders and business leaders! R.E.D. Marketing is a simple and powerful blueprint that weaves in captivating stories and lessons.” — Diane Dietz, CEO and President, Rodan and Fields

“Provocative yet practical.” — Ken Langone, Cofounder, Home Depot and Founder and Chairman, Invemed

“I have gotten to know Greg Creed as a truly forward-thinking, innovative, and hugely successful marketer who is also fun to listen to. Glad to see that with R.E.D. Marketing, he and Ken are willing to share their knowledge and insight with the world!” — Marc Bitzer, Chairman and CEO, Whirlpool Corporation

“Greg and Ken’s take on marketing is a pleasing, frank, and plainspoken wake-up call for marketers to slow down long enough to ensure the lifelines for brand building are moored in relevance, ease, and distinctiveness with their R.E.D. framework.” – Russ Klein, CEO, American Marketing Association

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) announced today the publication of R.E.D. Marketing: The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands (Harper Collins; June 8, 2021) by Ken Muench, CMO of Yum! Brands, and Greg Creed, former CEO of Yum! Brands. The book explores the importance of a holistic marketing strategy that creates a brand for the long-term. Muench and Creed share R.E.D. Marketing principles – Relevance, Ease and Distinctiveness – and how they have led Yum!’s well-known brands, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and The Habit Burger Grill, to sales growth around the world.

The book combines Creed’s bold personality and Muench’s scientific curiosity to bring to life stories of R.E.D. Marketing in action at some of the world’s most beloved brands. Creed was CEO of Yum! Brands from January 2015 to December 2019. In addition to being Yum! Brands CMO, Muench is also the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Collider Lab.

“As culture continues to shift dramatically around the world, and the competitive context gets tougher and tougher, R.E.D. Marketing gives brands a simple framework and toolset with which to confront the challenge and end up ahead,” said Muench. “The concepts in the book are proven to be effective, as they have helped lead our brands to sales growth in many worldwide markets.”

R.E.D. Marketing also emphasizes that marketing should be fun and exciting while showcasing the latest marketing science that leads to lasting growth and sustained sales. The book shares marketing concepts that are applicable during good times, but critical during challenging times.

“The pandemic tested companies around the world and highlighted the importance of R.E.D. Marketing fundamentals. The underlying brilliance of this framework is that it allows marketers to operate effectively by using a shared approach, being more focused, staying nimble and keeping it simple during times of change,” said Creed. “The book is timely because its concepts are particularly useful to marketers who see opportunities for their brands as they emerge from the pandemic.”

The book provides guidance to marketers of all levels, using the powerful R.E.D Marketing approach, which highlights the elements needed for brand success. Key insights and concepts discussed in the book include:

• The brand must have something that is particularly Relevant (R) to a consumer need, that is Easy to get (E) and that stands out as Distinctive in the consumer’s mind (D).
• The importance of holistic marketing, and the need to excel in all three R.E.D. areas.
• The conflict between modern marketing science and old-school marketing beliefs.
• Cultural Relevance: How to understand where culture is, where it’s headed and how to make your brand part of a trend.
• Distinctiveness: The area where many marketers are least connected, and the area that could provide the most immediate ROI.
• Ease: The pitfalls faced by marketers who don’t consider ease to be part of their jobs.

Muench, Creed and their teams developed the systematic approach of R.E.D. Marketing, which has been successfully applied by Yum! marketers around the world and by Collider Lab, a strategy, branding and innovation consultancy acquired by Yum! Brands in 2015. Collider Lab is Yum!’s global marketing center of excellence, led by Muench.

All proceeds from R.E.D. Marketing will be donated to The Yum! Brands Foundation, which is committed to unlocking opportunity in people and in communities where they work and live. The Foundation assists employees who give back to organizations that are important to them, supports local communities through grants and volunteerism, and provides assistance for disaster recovery.

To learn more or purchase R.E.D. Marketing: The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands, visit www.redmarketingbook.com.

About the Authors

Ken Muench is the Chief Marketing Officer for Yum! Brands and co-founder of Collider Lab. In his role as Yum! CMO, Ken acts as a consultant to the brands and master aggregator of marketing discoveries for the entire company and creates repeatable models to implement in Yum! Brand markets around the world. He has 25 years of marketing and strategy experience.

Greg Creed was CEO of Yum! Brands from January 2015 until December 2019. Prior to leading Yum! Brands, he was head of Taco Bell, serving as CEO after a successful run as President and Chief Concept Officer. Working with Ken Muench, he re-energized Taco Bell with the launch of the “Live Mas” brand campaign in 2012, the reinvention of the taco with the Doritos Locos Taco and the introduction of the Cantina Bell menu. He has more than 40 years of marketing and operations experience.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 50,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries and territories, operating the Company’s brands – KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – global leaders of the chicken, pizza and Mexican-style food categories. The Company’s family of brands also includes The Habit Burger Grill, a fast-casual restaurant concept specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches and more. Yum! Brands was included on the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. In 2020, Yum! Brands was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America and was ranked among the top 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media.

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