‘The default way of thinking’: Haleon’s outgoing CMO on cementing marketing’s role

Consumer healthcare business Haleon didn’t exist just five years ago. The company, which owns brands including Panadol, Centrum and Sensodyne, became an independent company in 2022, separating from parent company GSK.

As chief marketing officer, first of GSK consumer healthcare business, and then of an independent Haleon, Tamara Rogers has been responsible for stewarding the company and its brands through the transition and then into its first chapters as a standalone entity.

Rogers is now departing the business, with the confidence that brand building is now embedded in the “lifeblood” of the company. Marketing has become “the default way of thinking” at Haleon, she says, expressing pride in leaving that legacy as she departs as CMO.

Haleon was formed out of the pharmaceutical industry, where science and driving innovation are highly prized. While these are obviously powerful drivers of growth, Rogers notes that most brand growth comes from the core.

You cannot do great marketing today without really thinking in a joined-up way.

Tamara Rogers, Haleon

“I think in the past, we were a little bit more science, only innovation-driven. Actually that recognition that there is more to your brand, and the thing that pays the bills day in, day out is the core of your brand is really understood now,” she says.

An understanding that brand building is the work of the whole business has also been created at Haleon. While marketing sits at “the centre of a branded organisation”, Rogers says all the other functions must be linked in.

“I think about a wheel, the hub and the spokes, and the spokes are going out into all the other functions,” she says. “You cannot do great marketing today without really thinking in a joined-up way.”

As CMO of Haleon, Rogers worked very closely with teams in R&D, technology and sales. The modern marketing ecosystem necessitates this joined-up approach, she notes. At the beginning of her marketing career, each function could work “in their own silo” and come together at certain moments, she says.

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“The pace of change now, the changing trends of the consumer, the changing trends in business, you need to be running holding hands, so that integration is happening from the very inception of any new ideas and new thinking,” she says.

The need for integration across functions was a motivation for Haleon introducing a new C-suite role. The business is not replacing the CMO role like-for-like when Rogers departs, instead choosing to introduce a chief growth officer role, which will oversee marketing as well as commercial functions.

Rogers describes herself as a “key architect” of this new chapter for Haleon, and says the chief growth officer role will ensure “integrated thinking from the get-go”.

While there will no longer be a chief marketer in title at Haleon, Rogers believes the move provides marketing with more influence across the organisation, not less.

“We’ve got this opportunity, which I think is incredibly exciting, for marketing actually to shape an even broader agenda,” she says.

Human-centric

A highlight for Rogers as CMO of Haleon has been shaping the identity of the organisation as it came into being. “Always having human in the loop” has been a key focus for the organisation, as it went from a unit of a pharmaceutical business to a consumer healthcare company.

“Nothing matters more than health, and yet it felt so distant, when you’re not well and sat in front of a shelf trying to figure out what’s best for you,” Roger says. “It felt very clinical and cold and didn’t have all of the connection and relatability and warmth that I think health needs.”

Building human connections has been a priority for the organisation, that doesn’t just apply to the relationship between the business’s brands and consumers, it also means engaging all the stakeholders.

“I don’t know how many CMOs get to be a brand manager again,” says Rogers, speaking about the process of developing Haleon as a corporate brand.

You earn your future by performing today.

Tamara Rogers, Haleon

Not only did that corporate brand have to resonate with employees, who were effectively joining a new business when the spin-off happened, but it also had to be respected by healthcare professionals.

“Nothing matters more in health than trust and having trusted brands that healthcare professionals felt comfortable to recommend,” she says.

Healthcare professionals had been used to seeing the GSK identity on the back of Haleon’s brands, and were now faced with “a bit of an unknown”.

“We had to spend a lot of time and effort establishing with all these key communities, but also testing with them,” Rogers says.

Effectiveness as well as efficiency

Another set of stakeholders that a newly independent and listed business Haleon must speak to are its investors. The company was the first large consumer healthcare business launched and so as it was “setting up a new sector” it had to make a case to investors about why the proposition is worth investing in.

Clearly, Haleon’s corporate brand was an important part of this, but so too was delivering on growth, especially in the initial days of the business.

“When you stand up a new company, the most important thing […] is that you perform. Because, you earn your future by performing today,” Rogers says.

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Particularly in the initial years, Haleon was quite “choiceful” says Rogers, focusing on the things that would really make the impact in terms of growth.

“At that same time, one of the areas that I really wanted to make sure we drove was that shift from efficiency to effectiveness,” she says. “I took a look at our media investment, and we were incredibly proud of just how efficient we were, but I had an instinct that we were not necessarily as effective as we could be.”

That involved shifting from the cheapest media to more expensive and effective media. Rogers highlights the contribution of Haleon’s market mix modelling capabilities in helping drive effectiveness.

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“The contribution to sales growth from our media spend has been increasing 10% year on year,” she says.

Another aspect to drive effectiveness in Haleon’s advertising has been working on a process of “simplification”. Marketing is more complicated than it has ever been before, notes Rogers, and so driving simplification “on every front” make sense.

One area in particular has been in the number of campaigns it runs across its brand and markets. The markets were running too many campaigns, which were actually having a fragmented impact. Instead, under Rogers’ leadership, she encouraged bigger and fewer campaigns.

“We’ve now reduced the number of campaigns by 23% and actually, by doing that, you can take the same money and have a much bigger impact,” she says. “So, trying to encourage marketers that less is more, rather than more is more.”

A next chapter for Haleon

When it comes to preparing for the next chapter, Haleon is centring health inclusivity, Rogers says. This isn’t just something she sees as a nice to have, but as a growth driver for the business.

“The more people we can bring into better everyday health, the better the company does,” she says.

That’s brought to life in its advertising, with the company introducing an AI tool designed to make advertising more inclusive for consumers. AI in general will only increase in importance for Haleon, while maintaining the human at the centre of everything it does.

“I see it as an enabling force,” Rogers says. “It can help get some of the boring stuff done, which means marketers can get back to doing the stuff they love doing.”

As we’ve thought about the next chapter, we want to build a company that is around forever.

Tamara Rogers, Haleon

She expresses excitement for what AI will bring to the future of Haleon. However, that is a future that Rogers will be cheering on from the outside as she departs the company.

Haleon is entering a next chapter, she says.

“I knew that if I stayed, I’ll be all in,” she says. “I mean, I don’t do anything at 100%; everything I do is like 200% and I knew I’d be all in.”

Rogers will move onto new “adventures”, but she maintains her excitement to watch what the consumer healthcare business does in the future.

“As we’ve thought about the next chapter, we want to build a company that is around forever,” she says.