‘That category is very developed in Europe. to boost retail sales of spa skincare brands, she was instrumental in launching a new ROC offshoot, a slimming product. Here too, along with creating an internal retail division in the U.S. at cosmetics firm Prestilux, she oversaw such prestigious brands as Gucci, Anna Sui and ROC. As VP sales and marketing for Canada and the U.S. ‘All the experience I had from before was totally transferable from one continent to another,’ she says. In 1999, when Hamel moved to Montreal (for personal reasons), she showed the same resourcefulness. ‘At that time, Veet was very popular.’ Nair was able to wrestle a significant amount of market share away from Veet, and it is still thriving in France today as the category’s number-two brand. ‘I had to find new pockets of growth,’ she explains. CONDOM ELEXA TVShe noticed the success of the Nair brand in North America and launched it in France in the early ’90s, supported by a TV campaign and a large media event. While there, she launched dozens of new products, including medicated pads for corns, athlete’s foot remedies and a women’s hosiery line.īut it was at her next post as GM consumer packaged goods at Paris-based Church & Dwight division Carter Wallace that she executed a product introduction that to this day she credits as one of her proudest career achievements. It was also during thisġ0-year stint at Scholl, where she oversaw sales and marketing for France, Belgium and the Netherlands and was project leader for launching new products, that she developed her passion for the latter. She made sure to fully understand each retailer’s equity to best leverage it, and adapted programs to meet and anticipate shoppers’ needs. CONDOM ELEXA HOW TOIt was as deputy GM at Scholl PLC, based out of the Paris office and reporting directly to the Italy-based CEO, that Hamel learned how to really maximize her relationships with retailers. While unable to share numbers, Hamel says the Elexa launch has been an undeniable success. She was able to win over retailers by presenting Health Canada stats, including one indicating that less than half of women 20-24 used condoms regularly – a number that demonstrated a potentially untapped market. This move was based on the insight that many women feel uncomfortable being seen browsing in the condom aisle. CONDOM ELEXA PLUSWhat really made the Canadian launch unique was Hamel’s ability to get retailers like Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharma Plus to agree to carry the Elexa line in feminine care aisles, rather than traditional condom sections. The lavish Toronto media launch featured prominent Canadian sex columnist Josey Vogels talking about the importance of sexual health products like the Elexa line, and resulted in plenty of news coverage, including mentions in Elle Canada and the Toronto Sun. She leveraged Health Canada statistics about the rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people, and worked with her PR agency, Toronto-based Veritas, to build the Canadian event of Elexa around the stats to make it newsworthy. While American marketers are well aware of their own sizeable Latino population, appealing to French Canadians isn’t high on their radar, she says.Īfter the product line itself was conceived, Hamel focused on adapting the launch campaign to the Canadian market. There was a lot of French influence.’ Even when it came to naming the product, Hamel was instrumental: She was adamant that it be easy to pronounce in English and French. ‘We were trying to project a certain level of sophistication – a female confidence that wasn’t brazen. ‘In terms of marketing in the sexual health realm, she has provided great insights – from packaging to communications to advertising.’ Daniels says Hamel’s French background – she’s from Paris – helped her grasp and articulate the certain je ne sais quoi the company was looking for. ‘She’s impacting the entire organization, not just Canada,’ notes her American counterpart, Jim Daniels, Church & Dwight’s U.S. Perhaps this is most obvious through her pivotal role in the high-profile North American launch of Elexa, a new line of ‘sexual well-being’ products like condoms and freshening cloths aimed at women. and Canada certainly explains her motto, ‘think globally, act locally.’ Now Mississauga, Ont.-based Church & Dwight Canada’s director of marketing and development, Hamel, 45, is constantly looking at other markets, gauging possibly transposable trends and hunting for best practice models to apply to her roster of 30 products, including such prominent brands as Trojan, Nair, Arm & Hammer and the recently acquired Crest Spin Brush Pro. Veronique Hamel’s experience overseeing brands in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the U.S. She’s an international woman of marketing.
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