In this week’s podcast, Happy Marketer Connection welcomes Michele Muhammad, the CMO of DSE Healthcare, to explain why today’s marketing leaders need to be comfortable leading transformational change.
Michele Muhammad, the Chief Marketing Officer of DSE Healthcare, joins Happy Marketer Connection to discuss Transformational Marketing. Hear how to transform your brand, give back with your marketing efforts, market to multiple generations, manage supply chain challenges, and become a CMO.
Episode Highlights
- [0:14] Intro Sue Frech, host of Happy Marketer Connection, and CEO of Vesta
- [0:39] Welcome to Michele Muhammad, CMO of DSE Healthcare
- [1:33] How do you become a CMO? Advice for brand marketers who are striving to become a CMO
- [1:36] Transformational Change – Leaders must be comfortable leading transformational change as everything in marketing is changing right now. Generational identity, media consumption, and competitive set have all changed.
- [2:33] Your competitive set used to just be your IRI competitors. Today you are competing for consumers’ time and attention – it is not limited to your product category.
- [3:09] What is DSE Healthcare?
- [3:31] DSE Healthcare markets Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands in the vitamin, skincare, and gastro-intestinal categories and is sold at stores such as Walgreens and CVS.
- [3:51] DSE brands are Challenger Brands. DSE’s brands are fighting every day to move up to the premium shelves and get attention and consideration from consumers.
- [4:45] Focus is on Digital Marketing as well as acquiring brands.
- [4:56] What are Michele’s biggest challenges at DSE Healthcare?
- [5:52] To make the company ready for the future, DSE Healthcare has made changes in Wholesale, Supply Chain, the kind of brands they purchased, and in staffing.
- [6:37] How much should you rely on agencies vs. your internal team?
- [7:52] How has DSE Healthcare been impacted by the pandemic?
- [9:12] How does DSE Healthcare use its supply chain to its advantage?
- [9:51] Study that Dentsu Aegis published in Adweek that looked at generational differences in what consumers need from brands during the COVID-19 crisis.
- [10:16] How do you market to different generations?
- [10:28] Udderly Smooth brand campaign called “Udderly Thankful” aimed at Millennials
- [11:35] Urinozinc
- [11:45] BPH (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia)
- [12:42] TikTok (formerly Musical.ly)
- [12:54] How do you market to Gen Z?
- [13:26] eCommerce
- [14:09] Question from the Vesta Peer Influencers’ Smiley360 community: How does buying a product from DSE Healthcare benefit the community and world at this time?
- [14:34] Fergon Iron Restore
- [15:53] Toms One for One
- [16:58] Community Powered Marketing delivers a new world of sales growth. Learn more at Vesta-Go.com
- [17:23] Heritage Brands
- [17:28] Where does Michele get her insights from?
- [18:11] The Upside Community powered by Vesta Communities, provides insights in real-time. It’s not possible to rely on the same research you used a few months ago, as COVID-19 has changed how people feel about brands. It’s essential to be able to get immediate feedback and DSE’s online community allows the brand to get deep insights and ask the follow-up questions that they need answers to.
- [20:29] What positive story does Michele have to end with?
- [22:07] A female mentor at The Emerson Group made a positive impact on Michele’s career – being able to ask any questions, the respect that she showed everyone, the way she carried herself.
- [23:04] Michele’s mentor inspired Michele to join We, a group dedicated to empowering women to advance wellness. The group is made up of retailers, suppliers and manufacturers who make themselves available to mentor women in the industry.
- [25:39] Michele’s Final Thoughts
About the Happy Marketer Connection Podcast
Michele Muhammad, CMO, DSE Healthcare
Michele Muhammad leads the Marketing and Sales team at DSE. Since joining the company in 2016, she’s focused on discovering new ways to deliver profitable growth to the portfolio of brands. She leverages her CPG experience, natural curiosity, and love of design to shepherd both heritage and emerging brands to new heights.
Host: Sue Frech, Founder and CEO, Vesta
Sue has spent her career redefining digital marketing in brand and retail marketing, Martech, and advertising, at brands such as Kraft and Glaxo-SmithKline. She is committed to creating fellow Happy Marketers through Vesta’s all-in-one online community building software, transforming the relationships between brands and consumers with Community Powered Marketing.