Select Clients:
Kirk's Natural
The Grandpa Soap Company
South of France Natural Body Care
Vertere Skin Care
Bath & Body Works
About
VICTORIA NEILSON
Global Marketing and Brand Management Executive
[email protected]
Biography
Vicky Neilson will not be pigeonholed.
“They” said she could go into skin care, fragrance, or makeup, but she had to choose one. Vicky worked in all three.
“They” said she could make a career in prestige brands or in mass brands, but never both. Vicky did both.
“They” said marketers would never understand manufacturing or operations. Vicky learned both.
Vicky is endlessly fascinated by every facet of the beauty industry. She has played key roles in every stage of the product life cycle — from concept evolution to product development to operational execution to in-store merchandising.
At Revlon, where she began her career, new brand challenges came up seemingly every day. She was instrumental in the global promotion of several major fragrances, as well as in the launching of new makeup brands in the North American mass-market channel.
Moving on to L’Oreal’s Prestige Fragrance Division, she threw herself into European-style promotional retail marketing, then worked side-by-side with the sales team in the successful launch of a major fragrance.
Then came her most transformative experience — joining Gryphon Development at the start of its partnership with Limited Brands (now L Brands). This led to the creation of both Victoria’s Secret Beauty and Bath & Body Works — the birth of an entirely new specialty beauty channel. Seven years on, as Gryphon’s General Manager, she partnered with The Disney Store in the launch of an innovative line of bath and body products targeting the baby, toddler, and tween markets.
Moving to Paris, Vicky spearheaded the global launch of a home fragrance collection for Coty, then returned to New York to launch six major fragrance lines in three years for Parfums Givenchy.
Recruited back to Bath & Body Works, she revitalized the Hand Cleansing Collection, taking these already popular products to new sales levels. She was then asked to move to Montreal, where she took charge of both retail and brand development, creating a bath and body collection — as well as a travel accessories and hosiery collection — for La Senza, Canada’s leading lingerie retailer.
In 2011, she went solo, creating VSN Brand Innovation to provide brand management, marketing, and competitive intelligence services to clients, including Laura Geller, Avon, and Ross Simons.
She was lured back to the corporate side (and a new sales channel) in 2012, as General Manager of South of France Natural Body Care. Charged with reviving that brand’s flagging hand cleansing collection, she had, within a year, restaged the collection with new sizes, graphics, packaging, pricing, and fragrances — resulting in double-digit sales growth.
When South of France was subsequently acquired by Kirk’s Natural, it became Vicky’s first client as she relaunched VSN Brand Innovation.
“They” said this unique combination of skills and resources couldn’t possibly exist in a single person. “They” were wrong.