The new chief marketing officer and senior vice president of sales for Afexa, the maker of Cold-FX, plans to increase the company’s marketing presence online.
Tracey Ramsay said she will focus on expanding the company’s digital division. “We have made great strides in that area, but we will actively explore making even greater use of social media.”
She will also retain Afexa’s trademark mix of PR, viral marketing and high-profile athlete endorsements that helped the Edmonton-based health product manufacturer earn Marketing’s Marketer of the Year title in 2005.
Ramsay’s mandate also includes guiding this year’s launch of several new products. She added that there is still room to increase sales of the company’s signature cold and flu remedy Cold-FX, “not only into Canadian households” but also “beyond Canada.” An unsuccessful U.S. launch in 2007 by predecessor company CV Technologies led to a precipitous share price drop and a management reorganization, among other problems.
Ramsay, who joined Afexa Jan. 31 after holding senior executive positions with Johnson & Johnson and the Canadian arm of Takeda, is the first person to concurrently hold the top job in both marketing and sales. “It is a new position and it speaks to how closely the two need to be integrated to allow our marketing efforts to support sales.”
