BackTalk
What's In A Brand Name?
How often do you look on your store shelves and notice unique and patented supplement formulations next to the generic? Is the only difference in the labeling and marketing, or is there something superior to proprietary vitamin and herbal formulations? One thing is for certain—an increasing number of branded products is being manufactured and marketed in the natural products industry. Why the rush?
"One of the motivations in branding is to develop a trademark strategy that builds brand equity into the product, as our company does with Ostivone. If you are going to promote an ingredient in the marketplace, it's nice to own the name and have some equity in the actual material.
"The most important thing when you have a brand is to actually step up to the plate and educate both the trade and the consumers. With Ostivone, we hired a celebrity spokesperson, Linda Evans, to promote the brand. We also have a medical advisory committee.
"Look at a branded or generic creatine or ginkgo product. Is the branded product superior? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the quality of the generic material. Ostivone is not something that has a patent, but it undergoes severe scrutiny for quality.
"We are doing clinical studies on an advanced form of Ostivone that will not only be trademarked, but potentially patented. And we're looking at other delivery forms for the ipriflavone that would have more of a proprietary slant beyond just a chemical one. I envision this second generation of Ostivone as part of our commitment behind the brand. You have to constantly address what the market is demanding."
Larry Kolb
Executive Vice President,
Technical Sourcing Inc.
Missoula, Mont.
"As a pharmacist and a patient advocate, one of the key factors I look at is the health and safety of the consumer. When we look at a branded product instead of a lower-cost alternative, quality is the overriding factor. Depending on the manufacturer and my comfort level with their research and the quality of their product assays, choosing between a branded and generic product is a neutral process. I make differentiations by looking at such things as dosage and gelcap vs. tablet.
"There's a perception that a particular branded line must be significantly better than other products. From a quality perspective, it provides a comfort level for consumers as well as pharmacists, but so much of that is perception."
Dan Steiber
Vice President of Retail Marketing,
Bergen Brunswig Corporation
Orange, Calif.
"The future of this industry is in branded products. We're moving closer to the pharmaceutical industry, which is all about branded drugs. Drug companies are doing a lot of research through scientists, universities and manufacturing methods, and coming up with something that is altogether different and unique to the market. Then they are developing an exclusive agreement or patent that makes it proprietary to a certain company, and giving it a name. As the natural products industry moves toward pharmaceutical legitimacy, we're going to be incorporating more of their policies, procedures and philosophies, and branding is one such thing.
"Products are branded for a number of reasons, among them a patent on the extraction process or an exclusive from the supplier or manufacturer. A brand categorizes a certain product as having a number of attributes your consumer can identify with.
"What we're trying to do in building the Ribocell brand is not specifically talk about the product itself, because there are plenty of energy and sports nutrition products out there. What's different is it's new and has never before been available. It has potential to be as big as creatine and androstenedione. That's the end benefit to my target market, which is product developers and formulators. They don't want an energy product or a fatigue product or a diet product, they want the newest product that's going to be the next big one. They want a product that sells."
Paul Zullo
Marketing Director,
Nutratech
Fairfield, N.J.
"Pycnogenol-brand French maritime pine bark extract is cited in discussions about what comprises an ideal brand. That's because it is a quality product backed by a company that funds and conducts research around the world. Inherent in the brand is a product that works and a track record to prove it. The registered trademark distinguishes Pycnogenol from the rest because it is a proprietary ingredient made only from trees that grow in the south of France. From the moment the extract is processed, to the marketing that supports the product on the store shelf, each step of the process is monitored.
"Pycnogenol also has two U.S. patents that demonstrate the efficacy of the product—one for use as a free radical scavenger and another for use as a platelet aggregation inhibitor."
Joe Weiss
Group Brand Manager,
Henkel Nutrition and Health Group
LaGrange, Ill.
