The Inside Story on J&J's Revamped Marketing Mission Under Alison Lewis

In the brand-new and buttoned-up New Brunswick, N.J., corporate offices of Johnson & Johnson, there's a conference room whose glass doors are adorned with an aqua decal of a baby's head, plus a couch that features two decorative pillows whose pattern is a mishmash of J&J brand logos and packaging. One could easily mistake this conference room for that of any other billion-dollar conglomerate—except the relentless branding won't let you forget where you are. It's a warm day in mid-May and Alison Lewis, the first global chief marketing officer of the consumer packaged-goods giant's consumer brands, would rather be interviewed here. Her office is messy, she insists, and meeting in the impersonal space allows us to briefly focus on the interior design—specifically, the pillows. "We market everywhere," Lewis jokes.