Feb 17 2025 28 mins
Episode #143. Today’s topic is a technical and leadership skill exploring building and leading brands with soul, which doesn’t just arise from the company strategy or tactical execution but from the passion, love, and responsibility of the leaders and people in the business.
Abby’s guest who is passionate about this topic and author of ‘Building Brands With Soul’ is Siew Ting Foo. An impactful and influential marketing leader, Siew Ting is named consecutively, six times as Asia's most purposeful and influential CMO, and named Asia and China's top woman leader, having worked on brands including Unilever, Mars, Diageo, Fonterra and most recently, HP.
In this episode, Siew Ting shares her definition and characteristics of brands with soul and why it’s important, the five pillars, human-centric leadership, global brands to local markets and how she connects to her team through ‘Friday emails’.
Plus Siew Ting’s career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.
00:00:00 Welcome and introduction to ‘building brands with soul’
00:03:45 The Five Pillars of Brands with Soul
00:05:13 Writing the Book for future leaders
00:06:29 Why is Human Centricity important
00:09:15 Siew Ting’s Personal Discovery and Purpose
00:11:00 First 100 Days Framework
00:15:21 How to Create Global Brands with Local Soul
00:19:49 Building Internal Belief
00:22:27 Authentic Leadership through Friday Emails
00:25:51 Personal Career Highs and Lows
00:27:36 Advice for Future Marketers
Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn
Guest: Siew Ting Foo | LinkedIn
Siew Ting Foo will be part of The Marketing Society's Global Conversation How CMOs can build Brands with Soul, a Virtual event covering many of these topics discussed, on 27 February 2025 - find out more here
The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com