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Coopervision marketing director outlines his plans for the brand

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

November 5, 2009 | 3 min read

Michael Wilkinson, marketing director for contact lense brand CooperVision has outlined his marketing plans for the brand.

Wilkinson joined the company in August 2006 as general manager and implemented a number of initiatives and territory-wide campaigns including the company’s first cause-related marketing initiative.

This involved partnering with Breast Cancer Care to launch and drive sales of the Proclear 1 Day product line. The strategy was a genuinely innovative approach for the marketplace and the charity benefited by over £100,000 in year one alone.

In May of this year, he was promoted to marketing director EMEA, taking on the role from Stuart Cockerill, who was promoted to the role of global senior product director of Daily Disposables at CooperVision.

Wilkinson explained that he was looking to unify the brand message across the whole of EMEA while also accommodating local initiatives and create an entrepreneurial spirit. He will also focus on the support elements of the business model that can create differentiation within the marketplace.

He continued: “It’s also about educating our customers, optical professionals, about the wide range of technically advanced products we have available, and how these lenses can best meet the needs of their patients. Practitioner training and support will continue to be a high priority for us going forward, to provide professionals with the confidence they need when recommending and fitting lenses.

“When looking at the company’s marketing vision for the future, we are strategically focused on our strapline of ‘clearly contact lens experts’ and we aim to achieve this through enhancing the overall contact lens experience. Our belief is that all people who require vision correction should have the option of wearing contact lenses and this is the core of our marketing strategy.”

The brand will look to use various channels in its media strategy including social media sites such as Twitter and commercial B2B space.

“My question to our marketing team is ‘how relevant is it to each campaign and how tangible are the benefits?’”

The company is currently working alongside Five by Five for most EMEA activity including media relations, crisis management, product launches, strategic planning, brand management and channel marketing. It has also recently commissioned a large scale research project, which will include a significant review of the brand from a global perspective and will largely inform all of CooperVision’s future communications.

He concluded: “Our brand review will set the guidelines for CooperVision’s strategy for the next couple of years. I believe it will provide a much clearer vision of who CooperVision are and will reinforce our partnership with eye care practitioners.”

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