TAMPON WARS
THE Queen of Tampons, one of several nicknames, is a jubilant woman named Melissa Suk. Five years on the throne as the associate brand director of Tampax, Melissa holds court at the head office of the multinational consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
From there, she oversees an empire spanning 70 countries; filling bathroom cupboards in cities, towns and villages across the globe. When it comes to tampons, Tampax is the undisputed overlord, with a 29% global market share (P&G’s nearest rival in the sector, Johnson & Johnson, still has less than 20%).
In 2019, more than 4,5 billion boxes of Tampax were bought worldwide. And yet, somehow, there are still corners of the earth untouched by Tampax. If your potential territory is all of the world’s pre-menopausal women, there is always opportunity for further conquest.
On a recent chilly afternoon, I met Melissa, beamed in from Ohio onto a giant screen in a meeting room in P&G’s European headquarters in Geneva. The multinational occupies a vast white block with blue glass windows, a design best described as hospital chic.
Perhaps because the conglomerate owns so many cleaning-product brands, every surface has an antibacterial gleam and every staffer appears to have just passed through a delicates cycle, shining with corporate hygiene.
Though it’s dawn in Cincinnati, Melissa is undimmed. She holds a pink breakfast milkshake, her blonde bob immaculate as she speaks of her millions of customers in the very brightest of voices.
“We have a commitment to let her live a life without limits, whether she’s on her period or not.”
From a day spent listening to Tampax staffers and watching
