Andy Tosney, with 25 years of experience in sales and customer marketing, is the vice president of Sales for Kraft Foods Asia Pacific. Prior to his current role, he was Kraft Foods' global customer director, leading the Wal-Mart International team for a USD850 million business. Andy takes time out to talk to Retail in Asia about how the world's second largest food maker transformed itself into the Asia-Pacific region's No.1 biscuit and confectionery company. He also shares some of his top tips on how to cultivate good sales people.

RIA: How did Kraft Foods adjust its products for the Asia market?

Andy Tosney (AT): Consumers around the world have different taste profiles and different wants and needs, and it’s really important that we recognise these differences. For example, in China, the market for Oreo biscuits was relatively small three years ago. We did a lot of research on the Oreo brand, which is very successful in other parts of the world. And what consumers told us was that in China, it was actually too sweet for the Chinese palate. So we did an enormous amount of testing and re-configured the flavour profile and I can tell you today, we quadrupled the China Oreo business in four years and it is now the #1 biscuit in China. And that’s because as a company we recognise that what works in one market may not necessarily work in another.

We have a global understanding of trends, but we are also very local in our understanding of what our consumers need. Another example is we discovered that biscuits and sweets snacking tends to be a "cold weather phenomenon", meaning that sometimes consumption tends to slow down if the temperature gets very hot. With this insight, we developed Oreo IceCream. The fillings in the biscuits have different ice-cream flavours. The advanced technology we use allows the ice-cream fillings to give out an amazing cooling sensation in the mouth as though you’re eating an ice cream. The product is fantastically successful in China and Indonesia.

RIA: Can you talk us through how Kraft applies its business strategies to the Asia-Pacific market?

AT: Kraft's business strategy depends on the market maturity, the consumers that live there and the trends we see in that market and the trade environment; for example some are heavily modern trade like Australia, and others are heavily traditional trade like India. Asia is not a homogenous market. Kraft Foods looks at the whole environment and decides what are the best brands, platforms and initiatives to fulfil the needs of our consumers and customers in that market, and we plan our business on the basis of this evaluation.

We have built a simple focused framework for our sales development. First, we focus on route to market – what customers, what channels, flow of goods and services, and so on – a complete evaluation for each market. Second is winning in store through our research on shopper behaviour; third is customer joint business planning, and finally our talent management. This is the framework that everyone across Asia Pacific is working to, but they take out what is relevant to grow and be the best in class in their market.

Since 2007, we have doubled the size of the sales force across Asia. In some areas sales forces increased more than others, depending on the needs of the market. We also developed a robust regional market model in regions such as China, India and Indonesia. We ensured that we analysed it fully and put forward the right model and the right sales force for our markets. And because of this, distribution of our focus brands in countries such as China has grown 200 percent since 2007.

We have also focused on in-store programmes. In the Philippines, we found only 9 percent of shoppers were actually going down to the beverage aisle. We therefore adapted our winning idea from Latin America, putting permanent sampling units in the aisle, creating excitement in the aisle, which attracted shoppers. As a result, sales of that category increased more than 50 percent in the Philippines.

We invest heavily in research on shopper behaviour. This helps us to learn how we can meet the needs of the market. At some stores in Indonesia, for example, our merchandising and store displays were not in the right positions. With some simple merchandising guidelines and the development of a permanent piece of shop display at cashier counters, we resolved this problem. Just before Christmas I talked to the shop owners in their stores and some of them told me that consumers are buying four times more product than before.

We also focus on the right customers through customer joint business planning. For instance, we launched a sales innovation and customer show called "Kraft Delicious Town" in Shanghai last year. In one week, we shared our R&D, consumer insights, merchandising in-store and innovation plans with more than 300 customers. By launching this show, our sales have already increased threefold on our new product introductions.

RIA: Kraft bought out Cadbury last year, how do you see the two companies working together?

AT: The acquisition of Cadbury has been a phenomenal success for us. It now makes Kraft the biggest confectionery and biscuit player globally. In terms of geographic footprint, the two companies are complementary. Kraft is one of the largest players in the biscuit sector, while Cadbury is an iconic chocolate brand. The huge amount of capability brought new things and people to the business and all these benefits strengthen the overall business in all areas. One plus one now equals six!

RIA: Can you share with us how you cultivate good salespeople?

AT: For developing a good sales team, first of all we develop leadership training programmes. We train people in a six-to-twelve month leadership programme. Sales are not just about sales. Sales are about leading the organisation and building leadership talents. Salespeople should be good communicators. They should work very closely with customers. Other people think salespeople should be talking all the time. They are only partially right, as good salespeople should not be only talking but also they should be asking questions. They should try to understand the needs of their customers, consumers and the company they work for.

We have to remember that we are the change-maker – every morning when I wake up, I can make a difference on that day. I can make it positive. 

Talking Shop is the Retail in Asia section devoted to interviews with brand CEOs and retail industry leaders.