My Humble Beginnings in Marketing

24 years ago, I was a brand marketing trainee who managed a portfolio of small brands from Johnson & Johnson. In those days, small brands meant a few million dollars. The small brands I handled were either low in sales or low in profits.

One of those brands I handled was Reach #. It was hard those days because Reach was in a market where cheap toothbrushes abound and dental habits of the majority were very basic, i.e., people did not see the need of changing toothbrushes every 3 months.

Little did I know that handling Reach taught me the fundamentals of marketing - product positioning, pricing, distribution and promotions. I can still hear the words of my valued marketing bosses who trained me in market segmentation in order to properly position Reach in the category. It meant clearly identifying the target market and putting resource where needed.