Biography

Anne-Marie Watson, small business owner, marketer and mother of two, is the brainchild behind Southside Marketing Solutions.

A resident of Sydney NSW, Watson comes from a long career in sales and marketing roles in small, medium and large sized companies. She cut her marketing teeth in the Pharmace utical and Healthcare industries, in senior roles both in Prescription and Consumer marketing.

Watson has worked for blue chip brand marketing companies such as Schering-Plough, Nestle, Reckitt Benckiser, Merck Sharp & Dohme, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Her other small business, Oz Pharma Contracting & Consulting, started in 2001, provides specialist marketing consulting services to the Australian Pharmaceutical and Allied industries. In this business, which she also operates, Watson is proud to say she has amongst her current clients, several true “Start Up” businesses, who gave her the idea initially of starting Southside Marketing Solutions.

In her many years working in marketing roles, Watson has designed and implemented a swathe of successful marketing campaigns across a wide area including Pharmacy Customer loyalty programs, skincare Brand range repackaging, Nutritional Product complete relaunches, website content redesign and copywriting, Direct Mail campaigns, Sales force training and material development, company own generic brand launches, new Division Business Identity development, and many, many more.

Through her work in building an improved “Customer Awareness culture” in one of Watson’s senior pharmaceutical marketing roles, her sales and marketing teams achieved industry recognition through “Supplier of the Year” awards, and No.1 ratings amongst pharmacists for customer awareness, in an extremely competitive environment.

Some of her biggest successes include the 1994 “Demazin” TVC campaign, a Globals Advertising Award Finalist, and winner of the prestigious “Diana Award”; and the highly successful switch campaign that turned antihistamine product, Claratyne from a small doctor-only product into a market leading consumer brand. This was recognised by two highly coveted industry awards including a ‘Diana Award’ and an ‘AJP Product of the Year Award’.

Anne-Marie holds a Bachelor of Science from University of Sydney, and a Masters in Marketing from University of Technology, NSW. She is an Associate member of the Australian Institute of Marketing, and holds memberships in her local Business Enterprise Centre, the Engadine Chamber of Commerce, the Business Women’s Network, and the Micro Business Network.

Watson’s philosophy about small business marketing is that some ‘marketing gurus’, make it seem much more mysterious and harder than it needs to be.“Most business owners don’t have time to have detailed lessons in Strategic Marketing…. They need quick, effective and easy-to-implement ideas that are based on sound marketing principles.

I decided to start Southside Marketing Solutions when I saw that there were many business operators who needed some cost-effective marketing guidance, whether they are a Start Up or an existing business.”

Southside Marketing Solutions is only one of Anne-Marie’s passions. She is the very proud mother of two young children, and enjoys a number of other past times including reading, movies, helping at her son’s school, browsing bookshops, and anything to with the ancient world. She has travelled widely around the world, and hopes to become one day a frequent participant with one or two Near East archaeological dig teams. She is an active member of Amnesty International, and tries to contribute her services when possible to other aid organisations.