Eileen I. Ruiz Tabbed as new Hispanic Marketing Director
LaVERDAD Marketing and Media President and CEO Mike Robinson announced today the hiring of former Gillette Company Marketing Manager, Eileen I. Ruiz, to assist the company’s Fortune 500 clients with their Hispanic marketing efforts. Mrs. Ruiz, a native of Costa Rica, will provide expertise and direction as LaVERDAD’s director of Hispanic marketing.
“This was an opportunity for us to add a true professional who possess a great deal of global marketing expertise,” said Mr. Robinson. “Mrs. Ruiz will assist us in expanding our growing business, and will provide our clients an expert resource in areas of international marketing development and sales, brand management, global multi-media development, point of purchase strategy, and special event planning.”
In 1994, Mrs. Ruiz joined Colgate-Palmolive’s Central American operation, where she served as a brand manager for Baby Magic Mennen, senior brand manager for Baby Care and Family Talc, and a category manager, in which she oversaw the planning, organizing, and implementing of all marketing activities for the company’s personal care products.
In 1998, Mrs. Ruiz joined the Gillette Company in her native Costa Rica and was responsible for implementing all marketing strategies for the company’s many personal care and battery (Duracell) products in the Central American region. Her duties included launching Gillette’s Mach3 triple razor campaign by coordinating a highly technical, state-of-the-art, national advertising event. Her efforts in that campaign produced a 20% increase in sales for the Mach3 and Sensor shaving systems. Her overall efforts netted Gillette a 4% boost in market share for all product line categories.
After earning a promotion to regional marketing manager in 2000, Gillette tabbed Mrs. Ruiz to simplify and integrate the Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras markets into the Costa Rican operation. Her responsibilities included completely reorganizing each country’s marketing department and creating specific strategies to develop new third party distribution opportunities.
Prior to relocating to the Cincinnati area, Mrs. Ruiz joined Philip Morris International in 2002 where she was responsible for establishing and implementing the company’s first trade marketing department in Costa Rica and Central America. As Trade Marketing Manager, she organized client programs, developed a customer information system capable of tracking sales and volume, and led an in-house point of purchase task force responsible for developing, installing, and maintaining all POP materials.
As marketing director for LaVERDAD, Mrs. Ruiz will assist the company in providing clients with solutions as it pertains to the growing national Hispanic consumer market. She will also play a major role in expanding LaVERDAD’s national and local business seminars, aimed at helping executives create better products and services for Hispanic consumers.
Mrs. Ruiz earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Costa Rica in 1990 and her MBA from National University in San Diego, CA in 1998.
LaVERDAD Marketing and Media was founded in 2003 by Mr. Robinson, following a career at Procter & Gamble. LaVERDAD is an integrated marketing and media company specializing in providing winning solutions to Fortune 1,000 companies wishing to compete and win in the U.S. Hispanic market, strategic media purchasing and planning, and general market research, consultation, and development.