CPG, Household: Purex's GM of Laundry and Home Care, Henkel North America, Eric Schwartz

There’s a problem in the low-priced detergent category: parity performance. It’s the shopper’s assumption that all discount brands are pretty much the same. That assumption is normally a brand’s kiss of death—but if you’re Purex’s Eric Schwartz, it’s an opportunity. “The advantage of being a value brand,” he says, “is that you can offer a consumer new reasons to be interested—and she assumes there’s already value associated.”