Revlon New CMO Wants to Deepen Customer Engagement Levels
by Jim Tierney - Loyalty360
Benjamin Karsch, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Revlon Consumer wants to deepen customer engagement levels at the iconic company. Karsch, who was hired by Revlon in early February, is an expert in consumer-facing brands and packaged goods. Most recently, he served as Cigna’s chief marketing officer where he was responsible for shifting its U.S. health insurance business from a B2B focus to a customer-centric approach, re-launching its brand, and building digital, mobile, marketing analytics, customer insights, and customer experience capabilities. Karsch told Loyalty360 that deepening customer engagement levels is one of his overarching goals at Revlon. “We are growing our consumer insights capabilities so we can develop products that consumers want and communicate their benefits in the most compelling way,” Karsch explained. “We will work to maximize our use of all the digital mobile and social channels−as content publisher and as conversation moderator. The entire cosmetics category is lagging in its effective use of ecommerce channels and social shopping. Innovation in digital and social enables better targeting and audience segmentation.” Karsch said the world is changing so fast and Revlon has so many new opportunities to take advantage of: “What we called new media a few years ago is already old,” he explained. “With social, marketing is more and more in the hands of the consumer. What consumers say to each other is more important than what we say ourselves. If we are going to be relevant in the next few years, we need to be moderators and stimulators of conversation. LOVE IS ON has been played nine million times on YouTube. We’re very proud of that.” Good marketing is the perfect meeting of the right brain and the left brain–creative ideas that you can quantify in terms of ROI, Karsch explained. “You need to encourage creativity to come up with the most compelling ideas, and combine that with a deep understanding of the economics of the business, competitive positioning, and core capabilities in order to identify the business direction that will create the most value,” Karsch said. “Marketing spans across the entire business: Identify the right consumers, understand the needs of those consumers, develop products and services to meet those needs, convince customers to choose our products by articulating why they’re the best and make sure the price is fair. That’s the way to satisfy consumers.” Karsch said that Revlon must have an emotional connection with its customers. “Our CEO, Lorenzo Delpani, understands that and it is in the DNA of both of the rebranding efforts he has launched since arriving at Revlon,” Karsch said. “The Revlon LOVE IS ON campaign has one mission: To inspire LOVE. From the moment a woman puts on her makeup, we want her to enter the world of LOVE, where emotion, positivity, and affection fill her heart.”