​An award-winning Cincinnati executive, Carene Kunkler has developed impact-driven brand strategies across a number of beauty, cosmetics, and optical verticals over the decades. In the 1980s, Carene Kunkler was part of a team that developed transformative strategies for the hair care brands of P&G. In the book What Really Matters: Service, Leadership, People, and Values, John Pepper featured her efforts as part of a case study.

As Pepper describes it, the mid-1980s delivered a solution to an industry challenge that had existed for many years. With traditional shampoos stripping excessive oil from the user’s hair, conditioners left a residue that was was also excessive. There was thus an unmet market need for a “total experience” that was more convenient and left hair in an optimal condition.

Four years in the R&D pipeline, P&G’s new two-in-one (shampoo and conditioner) product still needed refinement. In a pioneering approach, technicians created a special showering facility that recorded people’s voices and provided insight into the product’s in-use experience. While this led to qualitative formulation improvements, the new version of the product still had many internal doubters on the quantitative, market-focused side. Previous two-in-one products had failed dismally, leaving companies paying heavily for advertising and production that did not deliver in revenue.

Pert had been in production since 1980 as a simple shampoo, but was losing market share. As Pert brand manager, Ms. Kunkler was a strong proponent of the viability of 2-in-1 product launch as a way of reviving the flagging brand. Her hunch proved correct, with Pert’s decline reversing “almost overnight” and the shampoo/conditioner formulation driving a threefold increase in Pert market share. Moreover, the underlying technology went on to become standard across many hair care brands, including the global market leader Pantene.

​Carene Kunkler is a Cincinnati-based executive who has delivered a host of marketing and brand management solutions across the optical and cosmetics and beauty industries. As a member of the Sight Resource Corp. executive team in 2003, Carene Kunkler was recognized as one of Vision Monday’s “Most Influential Women in Optical.”

Among her peers were female business leaders on the retail side of the optical industry, representing industry-leading companies such as LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, and Bard Optical. In addition, awards went to opticians and dispensing managers affiliated with broader health care organizations such as Kaiser Permanente and Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates.

The Vision Monday award extended to optometrists associated with entities such as the Illinois College of Optometry and the Special Olympics Opening Eyes Program. Other categories of recipient included those involved in laboratory work, field sales, supplier networks, media, and consulting.

With Sight Resource Corp., Ms. Kunkler helped guide one of the nation’s largest 15 US primary eye care providers. The company managed 130 eye care centers, as well as three distribution centers and a pair of regional optical laboratories. It manufactured, distributed, and sold eyewear products and offered related services. In total, more than 200 global optical sector leaders were recognized by Vision Monday with the award she received from 2003 to 2007.