Case Study — Brand, Campaign & Commercial Operations
ESSILOR
A dual-function role for one of the world’s leading ophthalmic lens manufacturers — running national brand campaigns across South Africa’s optical retail market, while owning the pricing and margin infrastructure behind them.
THE ROLE
Equally fluent in storytelling and spreadsheets.
Most marketing roles stop at the brief. This one didn’t — it spanned brand-led marketing and data-driven commercial operations at the same time, translating Essilor’s global brand strategy into campaigns that worked in the South African market, while keeping pricing integrity and financial performance intact across a complex, multi-channel business.
The result was a genuinely cross-functional skill set: comfortable shaping a campaign narrative one day and interrogating a margin report the next.
Core Focus Areas
Four responsibilities, one role.
Brand & Campaign Marketing
National promotional campaigns built to strengthen awareness and drive product engagement across optical retail — plus the in-store and digital collateral to back them, kept consistent with Essilor's global brand framework.
Retail & Launch Support
Cross-team coordination on new product launches — promotional assets, pricing materials, and point-of-sale content, aligned for a clean market entry every time.
Commercial & Pricing Operations
Ownership of the full pricing lifecycle — margin calculation, P&L monitoring, price list updates, and import duty and tariff administration, including medical aid tariff schedules.
Performance Tracking & Reporting
Built campaign tracking and reporting frameworks that turned marketing activity into decision-ready insight — reach, engagement, and ROI, reported in terms leadership could act on.
National Campaign Delivery
From strategy to shelf.
End-to-end execution of promotional initiatives that brought Essilor’s product portfolio to life across South Africa’s optical retail landscape.
Brand & Campaign
Campaign Execution
National promotional campaigns spanning consumer awareness, product education, and optician engagement — adapted from global direction to local market nuance.
Collateral Design
Brochures, point-of-sale displays, digital content, and trade communications, each aligned tightly to campaign objectives and brand standards.
Product Launch Support
Go-to-market execution for new lens products — launch materials, pricing documentation and retail activation assets that drove trade awareness and conversion.
Brand Consistency
Acting as brand guardian across every piece produced, from trade promotions to consumer campaigns, protecting visual identity and messaging.
Commercial & Pricing
Margin Calculation
Product and category margin calculations to keep pricing decisions aligned with target profitability across the lens portfolio.
P&L Monitoring
Ongoing profit and loss tracking, flagging variances early to help commercial teams stay on target.
Import & Tariff Administration
Import cost calculation and tariff updates, with landed cost factored into pricing models to protect margin.
Price List Management
Regular maintenance of comprehensive price lists across the full product range, kept accurate across trade and consumer channels.
The Intersection
Brand storytelling and financial rigour — at once.
Operating where brand meets business required equal fluency in campaign narrative and commercial precision — a rare combination that delivered both market impact and margin discipline.
Core Skills Demonstrate
Eighteen, across two disciplines.
Campaign Management
Brand Strategy
Marketing Collateral
Promotional Design
Performance Reporting
Retail Marketing
Product Launch
Pricing Strategy
P&L Management
Margin Analysis
Import & Tariffs
Medical Aid Tariffs
Campaign Management
Price List Management
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Stakeholder Reporting
Trade Marketing
Commercial Operations