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McDonald's US CMO steps down amid falling sales, Kraft Heinz flags volume recovery headwinds, and Liquid Death breaks from Publicis-owned LiveRamp over data conflict concerns.
McDonald's just made marketing accountability very public — and Kraft Heinz and Liquid Death are each wrestling with their own uncomfortable trade-offs. Three stories every FMCG marketer needs to hear today.
In this episode:
The FMCG Marketing Daily is a concise briefing for FMCG and CPG marketers, brand managers and CMOs, hosted by Marco & Klara. New episode every day.
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Also from Marco & Klara: The Digital Commerce Daily · The Health Marketing Daily
The essential morning briefing for brand leaders in fast-moving consumer goods. Hosted by Marco and Klara — two senior strategists with decades of experience inside global CPG companies and consultancies. Every episode covers retail media and distribution shifts, brand and competitor moves from Unilever, Coke, Nestlé, and challenger brands, and the macro and regulatory forces reshaping the category. Authoritative. Analytical. No noise. Built for brand managers, trade marketers, CMOs, and agency directors who need to stay ahead.
Marco: Three stories landing on your desk this morning — and they're all connected by one question: who's actually accountable when growth stalls?
Klara: We've got a CMO exit at McDonald's, Kraft Heinz trying to rebuild demand without losing its pricing power, and Liquid Death making a very deliberate break from one of the biggest data platforms in the industry.
Marco: Let's get into it.
Marco: McDonald's US chief marketing officer has just stepped down — and the reason given makes this more than a routine leadership change.
Klara: McDonald's has been struggling with falling customer numbers in the US. To fight back, they've been pushing hard on value meals and a loyalty programme — the kind of digital rewards scheme where customers collect points and get discounts. The idea was to bring people back through the door.
Marco: But the sales recovery hasn't come fast enough. The CMO is now leaving, and the company has been unusually open about linking that departure to commercial underperformance. That's rare. Senior marketing exits usually get dressed up as "pursuing new opportunities." This one doesn't have that cover.
Klara: And that's what makes it worth talking about. When a board connects a marketing leader's exit directly to sales results, it's sending a signal — not just inside McDonald's, but across the whole industry. Marketing is being held to a commercial standard, not just a brand-awareness one.
Marco: Brand awareness is about how many people recognise or think of your brand. That's historically what marketing was measured on. What we're seeing now is a push to hold marketers accountable for actual sales — revenue, traffic, market share. That's a much harder target to hit.
Klara: Though I'd say it's also a riskier way to run things. Sales are affected by pricing, supply, the economy, what competitors are doing. Putting all of that on the CMO's shoulders feels like it could push marketing leaders into short-term thinking — chasing quick wins instead of building something lasting.
Marco: That tension is worth sitting with. The question for every brand manager listening is straightforward: does your marketing function own commercial outcomes, or does it just report on brand metrics and hand the sales problem to someone else?
Klara: Worth an honest answer. Now, on to our next story.
Marco: Kraft Heinz has told investors it's on solid ground for a volume recovery — but it's also flagging some real obstacles ahead.
Klara: To understand why this matters, you need to remember what the last few years looked like for big food brands. During the inflation surge, companies like Kraft Heinz raised prices significantly. Revenue held up, but shoppers bought less — they traded down to own-label products, or simply cut back. Volume, meaning the actual quantity of product sold, dropped.
Marco: Now Kraft Heinz is saying volume recovery is the priority. Not just revenue — actual units moving off shelves. They've used the phrase "solid foundation" heading into the new year, but they've also flagged that inflation hasn't fully gone away, and that further price increases may still be needed. Those two things are pulling in opposite directions.
Klara: And that's the uncomfortable truth sitting in the middle of this. You can't easily raise prices and win back volume at the same time. Shoppers who've already switched to a cheaper alternative aren't coming back just because your brand says it's ready for them.
Marco: That's the needle they're trying to thread. And they're not alone — this is the central challenge for almost every branded food company in Europe right now. You look at Nestlé, Danone, Unilever — they're all navigating the same tension.
Klara: I'd argue Kraft Heinz being this open about it is actually useful. It's rare for a company to publicly frame the dilemma so plainly. Most just talk about "growth plans" without acknowledging the trade-offs.
Marco: Agreed. So the question for any brand manager listening is this: have you actually decided whether you're in a volume recovery phase or a price-holding phase? Because trying to do both at once, without a clear priority, usually means you do neither well.
Klara: Up next — our third story of the morning.
Marco: Liquid Death — the canned water brand famous for its heavy-metal branding — is publicly breaking away from a data tool called LiveRamp, and the reason tells you something important about where FMCG marketing is heading.
Klara: To understand this, you need to know what LiveRamp does. It's an identity infrastructure tool — basically, software that helps brands track and match audience data across different advertising platforms. It's become a critical piece of plumbing for media buying. The issue is that LiveRamp was recently acquired by Publicis, one of the world's biggest advertising agency holding groups.
Marco: And that's where the conflict of interest becomes obvious. Publicis now owns both a major media agency network — the kind of business that buys advertising on behalf of brands — and the underlying data tool those same brands rely on to reach their audiences. Liquid Death's media chief looked at that combination and decided it was too uncomfortable. They're now actively searching for alternatives.
Klara: I think their concern is legitimate. If the company managing your ad spend also owns the system tracking who your customers are, that's a lot of control sitting in one place. For a challenger brand with a tight media budget, that feels like a risk.
Marco: Though I'd push back slightly on the drama of it. This kind of consolidation happens constantly in media technology. The real question is whether Liquid Death — or any brand — has a viable alternative they can actually move to. Wanting independence and achieving it are two different things.
Klara: Fair. But the signal matters regardless. Data infrastructure — who owns the tools that identify and reach your customers — is no longer a back-office IT decision. It's a brand strategy decision. Liquid Death making this public is a nudge for every FMCG marketing team to ask: who actually controls access to our audience? Because if you don't know the answer, someone else does.
Marco: Today's clearest thread across all three stories — accountability follows the money, and when results slip, marketing is where everyone looks first.
Klara: So ask yourself: if your numbers dropped tomorrow, could you clearly show what your marketing actually built? Not spent. Built.