With women’s health products on the rise, we are sharing with you one of our most successful client case studies achieved with >Your< UTI Free Sachets. The product was launched by a pharmaceutical company in the CIS region and achieved a selling rate of 60.000 units per month in the 15th month after launching. To help you reach even better results when launching your next product, we are presenting the methods our client used to accomplish this success.
Our client, a substantial pharmaceutical company, has launched our >Your< UTI Free Sachets in the CIS region. They used medical detailing with the combination of ATL and got immediate results.
They reached 9.000 sold units/month and 12.000 prescriptions/month in their 3rd month. The product became the number one selling D-mannose containing cystitis product with 37% market share in just 3 months.
In 2021 the yearly orders surpassed 600.000 units. The client was selling at a rate of 60.000 units per month already in the 15th month after launching.
So what are the take-aways of their successful case study that can be useful for your business?
Women’s health supplements have had a recent surge in growth of sales and were one of the fastest growing categories in 2021. There is a growing offer of branded and clinically studied ingredients in the Western markets.
Specific areas in the market, such as menopause, UTI, fertility, lactation, PMS, etc., are developing quickly and there are more and more brands, dedicated to women (Health & Her, TrueYou by Vitamin Shoppe, Uqora by Pharmavite, O Positiv, Donna+, etc.).
UTI supplements are a well-established segment in the women’s health category. The growth in sales is affecting this segment as well and brands and product lines, dedicated to urinary tract health, like Uqora by Pharmavite and AZO by i-Health, are appearing. They include various products with specific positionings, at-home test kits, apps, subscription models et cetera.
UTI market data from around the globe shows, that products with cranberry, D-mannose, and their combinations, like Cistiflux (the number 1 selling SKU among all UTI supplements in Italy that sold 403.000 units in 2020) and Femannose N (the fastest-growing product in Germany that sold 21 million EUR in its 4th year), are very successful.
In their market research, our client found, added-value cranberry sources are also on the rise. For example, the global number one cranberry supplement brand AZO, The Vitamin Shoppe’s recent launch True You, and 3 of the top 9 UTI SKUs in Italy, use branded cranberry sources. They also discovered D-mannose containing products to be on the steep rise.
The above-mentioned factors influenced our client’s decision to launch >Your< UTI Free Sachets.
After the initial market research and deciding upon which product to launch, our client identified 3 patient/consumer profiles in their market. They segmented women with bacterial vaginosis into 3 groups to address them with specific promotional channels more efficiently.
The local patient profiles they discovered were:
After identifying the patient profiles, our client started with a massive doctor detailing campaign to influence the first purchase of the “newcomers” and create a loyal consumer base. To address chronic patients and experts that do not consult doctors anymore, they supported the campaign with pharmacist detailing and ATL promotion (TV & digital) to stay “top of mind”.
There were 3 key factors that determined our client’s success case:
You can read more about these factors below.
Especially for the first purchase, doctors’ recommendations were found to be key and resulted in consumers choosing the product despite the higher price. Our client launched an extensive campaign, of both F2F doctors detailing to urologists, gynecologists, and GPs, as well as events. The high-intensity campaign was necessary to gain attention because they were entering a mature market – competitors were present and promoting for more than 20 years already.
Our client found it is more effective to have events (congresses, scientific events, or even more relaxed semi-scientific retreats) rather than only typical medical detailing. “The attention of doctors is so limited today. When the rep enters, the doctor is not exactly happy to see him. If possible, we focus on specialists,” they remarked. “If the doctor knows your company, then they will listen. If not, even more effort needs to be made.”
They found the best way to get the doctor’s attention is to not just go through a presentation but to ask questions. What are the problems, the doctor is encountering? What are his patient cases? What information can the rep share with him, that will be helpful?
They then adjust the presentation according to the doctor’s answers and the doctor feels more involved. This, plus inviting doctors to events, gets more attention and effect.
The combination of the best-quality cranberry extract, D-mannose at a clinically relevant dose, and microencapsulated vitamin D3 in >Your< UTI Free Sachets has shown to be highly efficient. This is especially important because UTIs are often a recurring issue and consumers tend to return to efficient solutions and self-medicate as shown by market research at the beginning of this case study.
Cranberry, D-mannose, and their combination are particularly booming and are found in some of the most successful products globally.
The client emphasized that, especially with preventive products, simultaneous investment into brand-building through ATL is very important. Not only does it affect consumer purchases, it also affects doctor prescription rates, as mentioned above.
In a quarter our client spent about 1,2 million EUR for TV ads on the brand. With an intense TV campaign, they saw an immediate boost in sales up to about 30%. A drop in sales followed, but only about 15%, so the baseline was still above the previous. “Every time we launch a TV campaign, the baseline grows,” they noted. “We presume this to be a combined effect of TV and doctors.” Our client learned that doctors are also people and are affected by ATL, as their prescriptions increased even more than sales after TV campaigns.
Pharmacy promotion should also be done, according to the client’s experiences, but will not bring long-lasting results. The peak in sales is temporary. However, promoting in-store is still important when launching a new product to educate the pharmacists about it, so they are not confused when a consumer comes and asks for it.
There are 3 main marketing reasons, why our client was able to achieve such great results so early after the launch.
UTIs are a very serious and widespread problem.
Prevalence and recurrence is very high. It’s a serious problem that keeps bothering you and lowers your quality of life. There is no need to artificially create demand through marketing. Purchase motivation is high, regardless of the financial situation.
The solutions are well-known.
Supplementation with ingredients like cranberry is widely recognized – no need to educate consumers about a new concept.
The available products have substantial flaws.
The vast majority of the market has drawbacks: no direct clinical support, low digestive tract survival is common in cranberry extracts, recurrence is not addressed well with formulations, and many products come in capsules.
While cranberry-based products are successful, clinically supported solutions, suitable for medical detailing, are still a minority. Cranberry ingredients can lack efficiency, as low digestive tract survival is common amongst them. The majority of available products fail to address the recurrence. This presents a promising market opportunity for products with branded and clinically supported ingredients that can address the recurrence of infection well.
Our client did their homework by researching the market and addressing consumers through the right channels. The combination of medical detailing, building their brand through intense ATL campaigns, and a highly efficient formulation of the product helped them achieve 60.000 sold units per month in the 15th month after launching.
PharmaLinea’s >Your< UTI Free Line is a market-leading supplement line with high prescription rates. It convinces doctors due to several advantages: a leading cranberry source Qcran, a clinically relevant dose of D-mannose, microencapsulated vitamin D3, and a clinical study on the finished product. It comes in convenient delivery forms with great taste, and it’s sugar-free. We recently added an extension to the line, which comes in a trending user-friendly delivery form – orosticks. You can find out more about the line in our portfolio.
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