What could be better than having an ice-cold Bud Light? How about working for the company that brews it?

That’s why I invited Francine Katz, one of the top decision makers at Anheuser-Busch and one of the most influential trend setters in the industry, to be interviewed for The Creative Connector.

Here are some interesting things you’ll learn while reading this interview:

• Why the message is most important in communicating with consumers
• The top 3 characteristics that will help make you successful in any business
• How Anheuser-Busch is helping American adults fall back in love with beer

And just a few fun facts that I learned along the way:

• Francine, along with the other top executives at Anheuser-Busch, has a tap installed at her house with kegs full of Anheuser-Busch beer delivered upon request
• Anheuser-Busch is celebrating the centennial year of its corporate library. This library houses the largest collection of books and literature on the brewing industry and it’s located on Anheuser-Busch’s campus in St. Louis
• In addition to making beer, Anheuser-Busch makes many of the aluminum soft drink cans for Pepsi

The Interview

So what exactly do you do?

My title is Vice President of Communications and Consumer Affairs. My groups are responsible for the company’s brand marketing public relations, employee communications, communications for investor relations, government affairs and legal communications, as well as business communications. We also produce the company’s annual report, environmental report, and starting next year, a report on the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts.

The Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, group is also in my portfolio. It consists of the company’s alcohol awareness and education programs, environmental outreach and all of the things we do in the community as a good corporate citizen.

One of the tenants of Anheuser-Busch is giving back to the communities where we live and do business. I also oversee the African American, Latino and Asian outreach efforts, which consists of programs and support designed to demonstrate Anheuser-Busch’s commitment to each of those communities.

Smaller groups that I oversee are corporate research, the corporate library, and the corporate archives. We have full time archivists who are responsible for being stewards of the company’s history and all of the artifacts and information regarding our corporate history. Whenever someone wants to do an in-depth look at Anheuser-Busch or the brewing industry, we are a primary source of that kind of information.

Personally, I sit on what’s called the Strategy Committee. It’s the top executives of the company, responsible for overseeing all of the business units. We meet regularly to discuss, formulate and strategize the company’s plans for the future.

I am also a spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch. In that capacity, I have been interviewed by virtually every news media outlet out there, from the Midland-Odessa Evening News to 60 Minutes. I’ve been interviewed by Geraldo Rivera, Katie Couric, A&E, the History Channel and Dateline. That’s a really fun part of my job.

How did you get started in the industry?

I’m an attorney. While I was working for Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis, I was asked to come down and take over the portfolio of one of Anheuser-Busch’s marketing and distribution lawyers—the woman who is now the company’s general counsel. In essence, I was acting as a rental lawyer. A couple months into that assignment, I was made an offer to join Anheuser-Busch. I loved Armstrong Teasdale, but as a corporate lawyer, it was much more interesting to be a part of the business side of the equation. I was later asked to join a new group being formed called Consumer Awareness and Education, which was an opportunity for me to move into a management position as the director of that group. I then became vice president of the entire portfolio.

Did you have any previous experience in media or public relations?

No, but the people in our communications group that I oversee have extensive backgrounds in PR. I learned on the job, although my legal training really does help me with developing convincing positions and structured communications. Even as a lawyer, good communication is key.

What are the greatest challenges that you face in your role at Anheuser-Busch?

I deal with any kind of issue that the company faces, including external criticism, shareholder activism or government scrutiny. That’s part of what I find so exciting about my job. It generally involves, not only making sure that we have formulated our best argument in response to a challenge, but finding a common ground, working with groups, bringing people together and looking for resolutions that are win-wins.

When communicating with consumers, what do you find to be most important, the message or the channel?

It would be hard for me to pick between the message and the channel because you need both, but if I had to pick, I would say the message. One of the arts of communication is being able to take an abstract principle and translate it into something that is understandable and digestible. Sometimes this involves using words, graphics, and sometimes this involves holding up something when you’re on TV to visually demonstrate what you are talking about. Once you have developed the message, then getting that message out is critical. Otherwise, if you don’t communicate, while you may feel really good about crafting it, you haven’t accomplished anything.

When crafting your message and deciding on your communications channels, what strategies do you find to be most useful?

I rely heavily on research as a tool to help define messages and hone strategy. Let me give you an example. We wanted to create a program to discourage parents from hosting teen parties, which is a very prevalent. Parents either look the other way or condone it. So we convened groups of parents and talked to them about the issue. One of the things that we learned from talking with parents is that they were very responsive to a message about not hosting teen parties, but they were very careful about telling us not to take it any further than that, and that Anheuser-Busch should not be telling parents what they should do with their own children in their own homes. That was an instance where research helped us determine what the most effective message was.

How has technology influenced the way you communicate with employees and consumers?

Obviously, technology has definitely changed the way that communications are conducted. When I came here, technology consisted of a Wang system that allowed us to send emails to each other within the company. It’s an understatement to say that the world has changed, but we have changed with it. For instance, we now oversee numerous websites that get information out to people. My group is also responsible for the Anheuser-Busch homepage for our employees. Communicating with employees is just as critical to a company’s success as external communications. It is important for us to let employees know what is going on. We make sure that when there is news about the company, they hear it from us first.

The digital marketing world is something we’re actively involved in. Anheuser-Busch is one of the largest advertisers in the country. Being such a powerful media force, we have all of the tools at our fingertips to deliver messages. I would say that we take full advantage of them.

If you could pick 3 characteristics that you believe are most important in business, what would you tell the readers of this blog?

In terms of leadership, the most important thing you can do as a leader is to choose the right people for the right job, and then give them the tools they need to do the job. That sounds easy, but it’s definitely a talent to be able to identify who is best at doing what, put those people in those positions and then motivate them and provide them with the resources to do their jobs to the fullest.

In terms of work ethic, what I look for in people is whether they are able to take nothing and make something of it. When you’re talking about creating a communications plan, you start with nothing or maybe a concept or a business proposition, and then you have to translate that nothing into something. Being able to do that is critically important.

Someone once described that kind of person to me as a “closer,” somebody who can take something from start to finish and be relied upon to get the job done and get the job done well. That’s something that is sometimes missing. Lots of people have great ideas, but they’re not able to implement them.

Being creative and being smart are table stakes at Anheuser-Busch. Everybody’s creative. Everybody’s smart. It’s the people that can harness that creativity and intellect and can turn it into something who are successful. Not just here, but everywhere.

The third thing that I think it paramount, both in your career and in your life, is adhering to a code of ethics. Anheuser-Busch, and I personally, will only have as much credibility as we demonstrate. It is critically important for a publicly held company to be seen as transparent, honest, credible and also ethical. Especially when you make a product that is illegal for a portion of the population. We have always done the right thing. When you do the right thing and when you are honest about your position on an issue, I think you gain the public’s trust.

What is your favorite Anheuser-Busch product?

That’s like asking me to pick my favorite child, I can’t do that, but I can tell you what’s on tap at my house right now…Bud Select. I like the fact that it has a full, rich flavor and not too many calories.

Do your children know that you equate them to beer?

My poor children have been used as examples in so many interviews. When it comes to the underage drinking front, one of the things that I have always said is that I do work for a beer company, but I’m also a mom and I’m out there dealing with these issues like every other mom. All four kids have been mentioned in interviews and they always cringe because I use them as examples of good behavior, most of the time, and sometimes not.

What do you see for the future of the beer industry?

Under the direction of our Executive Vice President of Global Industry and Creative Development, Bob Lachky, we created a campaign called “Here’s to Beer”. The reason we did it was because beer was taking a backseat in terms of its sophistication and trendiness to hard liquor and to wine.

The company formed this external image campaign, which is really a consortium of brewers at every level of the business, from the smallest craft brewer to our competitors in the US and around the world. We said there are lots of things that we cannot agree on and lots of areas where we compete with each other, but there’s one area where we ought to work together and that’s in promoting beer and everything that is wonderful about beer. All of the interesting stories about the history of beer, all of the different types and styles of beer, all of the friendships and social occasions that call for beer, where no other alcohol beverage will do.

What do I see as the future, as something that will be important to our industry? It is promoting the uniqueness of beer and making American adults fall back in love with beer. Some of that has already been achieved and I give Bob and his team credit for that.

How is what you do unique?

In terms of the group that I oversee at Anheuser-Busch and what we do, we are very unique in the industry. I don’t think that many companies dedicate the resources and personnel to have this type of infrastructure within their companies. A lot of companies hire PR agencies or advisors, but we have dedicated teams within the company that do these types of things. That makes us that much smarter and that much stronger. We don’t have to rely on educating third parties on our business and then asking their advice. We have people who know our business, who are involved in the day to day aspects, and they’re the ones that are giving the company advice on communications. We are unique in the way that we approach communications and corporate responsibility.

Just to give you an example, on the alcohol awareness effort, we’ve invested more than $675 million dollars in these initiatives, so its not just a PR effort, it’s run by a group of more than 20 people and then we draw on the wholesalers that Anheuser-Busch has in every market across the country to bring these efforts to the local level. They are required to spend a penny for every case of beer they sell towards these programs that promote responsible drinking and fight abuse.

What’s the coolest thing about working at Anheuser-Busch?

I work for a company that is associated with all different types of fun activities, whether its sports or entertainment. We sponsor concerts, golf tournaments, football games and baseball games. One of the perks is that it’s not usually hard to get tickets to those types of events.

When I was offered a job here, the General Counsel said to me, “I’m not sure you’re going to want to leave your law firm because I know you’re going to be eligible for partner, but we’d like you to consider coming to Anheuser-Busch.” I thought to myself, “Let’s see, I can go back to the law firm, but here I’ve gotten to go to a Rolling Stones concert, gotten to fly on the company jet, and I’m getting free beer…”

Wow, those are great perks…

Yes, but I think what makes Anheuser-Busch such a great place to work are the people. Anheuser-Busch is a company that attracts a certain breed of people who work hard and know how to have fun. It’s what makes us successful.

Anything else you’d like to say that we haven’t already covered?

David, you are my first to interview me for a blog! I enjoyed it – thanks.

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Anheuser-Busch Links:

Anheuser-Busch
Here’s To Beer
Alcohol Awareness Research Library
Anheuser-Busch’s Programs to Prevent Alcohol Abuse and Drunk Driving
College Talk Online
Family Talk Online
Prevent Don’t Provide
Designated Driver
African American Bud
LatinoBud.com
Who’s Your Bud