The moves comes as restructuring starts to pay dividends and efforts to rebrand the business and reformulate some lines have made headlines in the past few months.
Karsch has shaped his career developing consumer-facing brands and packaged goods, and his most recent position as Cigna’s chief marketing officer saw him shift the US health insurance provider from a B2B focus to a consumer-centric approach.
His career has involved experience in different industries and geographies, having worked in consumer goods, hospitality and healthcare businesses in worldwide postings that have included Israel and China.
Experience with big brand players
As well as Cigna, he has also held brand management positions at Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, both in the US and overseas.
Karsch will report directly to Lorenzo Delpani, Revlon’s CEO, who commented that the appointment was an important part of its renewed strategy to focus on key brands.
Last November the company announced that it was rebranding, with a new marketing initiative that centers on the phrase ‘love is on’ that will be projected through a wide range of media.
This new tag line is the first in over 10 years for the company, and is built visually around a mnemonic reshuffling of the letters in ‘Revlon’ and emotionally around love.
Working with Revlon's new tag line
“The idea for LOVE IS ON grew from our quest to find a universally inspiring emotion. Love is by far the most powerful and most positive. It is very important for us to evoke positivity with our new brand cause,” said Delpani, when the new strategy was first announced.
Delpani is hoping that he can maintain the company’s increased impetus, which has been on the up since he took over the top position in November of 2013.
The company is readying to announce its all-important fourth quarter results later this month, but when it published its third quarter results in October of last year, it showed that sales were marginally up at $472.3m, although this figure was negatively impacted by currency translation.
Last month Revlon also confirmed that it would be reformulating one of its line without the allegedly toxic ingredient butylparaben, after pressure from lobby group Environmental Working Group.