PepsiCo's CMO, Salman Amin, is leaving the company for S.C. Johnson on a high note, having helped CEO Indra Nooyi deliver over the last year on a number of crucial, marketing-based promises, including something of a turnaround for the company's flagship Pepsi brand, which is still duking it out with Coca-Cola and other beverage giants.

The departure of the company's Global Chief Marketing Officer from PepsiCo's Purchase, NY, HQ to Racine, Wis.-based S.C. Johnson—maker of Pledge, Glade and other household products—was disclosed in an internal memo at PepsiCo, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

Amin's exit opens up a top marketing job at PepsiCo just as the company has been reporting gains in sales and market share for Pepsi, having doubled down on marketing following the company's market share slip in recent years in U.S. sales even behind Diet Coke.

A PepsiCo veteran of more than two decades, Amin became PepsiCo CMO only last May. He was able to leverage a $600 million increase in Pepsi's annual marketing budget and a refocusing of spending on top brands including Pepsi and Gatorade into significant gains. "Salman has made contributions that have touched nearly every market in which we do business," said Zein Abdalla, president of PepsiCo, in the memo, according to Ad Age.

Amin also launched the first-ever global marketing campaign ("Live for Now") for Pepsi and inked pop star Beyonce to a $50 million partnership that included the halftime performance during last month's Super Bowl telecast.Continue reading...

It’s hard to know if architectural icon Frank Lloyd Wright liked such products as Pledge, Windex, Ziploc, and Fantastik, but there is one thing for sure: The folks that manufacture those products, SC Johnson, love Wright.

The 126-year-old megabillion-dollar company — which is so proud of its buildings' architecture that there's a top nav link on the corporate website — is kicking off a new on-site art gallery at its corporate HQ with an exhibit entitled “At Home with Frank Lloyd Wright” on its Wright-designed campus this weekend that is free to the public. The exhibition collects some of Wright’s Prairie Style designs and related artifacts, according to a press release.

“SC Johnson’s history with Frank Lloyd Wright spans many decades, and his impact on our headquarters campus is enduring,” stated Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of SC Johnson. “But Wright’s influence goes beyond that, to the home.”Continue reading...