Ken Muench

Ken Muench is the Chief Marketing Officer for Yum! Brands (Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and The Habit Burger) and leads The Collider Lab, a think tank made up of social scientists, marketing strategists, cultural trend forecasters, and data gurus. Ken has been working in marketing and strategy for more than 25 years.

Since Yum! Brands acquired Collider Lab in 2015, marketing effectiveness at Yum has surged globally as the R.E.D. marketing system has been rolled out around the world.

Before founding Collider Lab, Muench led Strategic Planning at the Orange County office of Foote Cone & Belding (FCB) and all of FCB's North American Multicultural offices. Prior to that, he led strategy at the creative boutique Gallegos United– where he won several high-profile industry awards.

Unlike a traditional CMO, Ken acts as a master aggregator of marketing discoveries for the entire company, cracking the toughest marketing challenges globally, figuring out what is working around the world and what isn’t, and creating repeatable models to implement everywhere.

Prior to being acquired by Yum!, Collider Lab worked on Taco Bell’s turnaround, as well as positioning and growth mapping projects for Nestle North America, Verizon, Toyota, Tyson Foods, Hulu and more. Since then, Collider Lab has tripled in size occasionally still works with other companies around the world, repositioning brands, mapping out growth opportunities with Category Entry Point studies, helping brands find their distinctiveness with Distinctive Brand Asset studies and helping businesses rediscover their mojo in culture with strategic firepower.