Sainsbury’s expands CMO role to oversee data and sustainability

Sainsbury’s has added data and sustainability to CMO Mark Given’s remit, whose title has been changed to chief marketing, data and sustainability officer, as it looks to expand its use of Nectar data to personalise offers to customers.

Given, who has been at the supermarket for 12 years and CMO since 2019, will now oversee “sustainability strategy and plans across the business” and “enterprise-wide data science and analytics” according to his LinkedIn.

Sainsbury’s has confirmed to Marketing Week it is growing its data and analytics function. It comes after the retailer revealed its plans to expand its personalisation capability for offers.

The brand has strengthened its Nectar value price offer, with 5 million customers using Nectar deals each week, and Nectar participation up 6% year on year.

The expansion of its retail media offering, Nectar 360, has also given it “greater access to innovation and insights” after it deepened “ its partnership with two of the big four media agency groups”, according to its report for its interim results for the 28 weeks ended 14 September.

Given’s promotion comes as Sainsbury’s announced a reshuffle to its central management structures at the end of January, and an overall reduction of over 3,000 roles from across the business.

The restructure was part of Sainsbury’s ‘save and invest to win’ programme, designed to deliver £1bn of operating cost savings.

Sustainability is another focus for the grocer, in line with its ‘Next Level’ strategic three-year plan, which has been in place since last February. It has been using its ‘Plan for Better’ over the past three years to improve commercial and sustainability outcomes.

In Sainsbury’s annual report for 2024, it said the sustainability plan sets out its “ambition to play a leading role in creating a more sustainable food system”.

Tesco has also expanded its data focus in recent months. Its Christmas campaign emphasised personalisation using Clubcard data.

“We’ve really upped our personalisation this year, which will continue to be a massive focus for us by making sure we’re serving our customers with the most relevant ads in the most relevant places for them. This plays a big role when talking about our products in particular,” said its head of marketing, Alicia Southgate.