Prestige Brands Says Some OTC Brands Will Go, But Major Lines Will Stay
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Prestige Brands looks to shed less profitable brands, including personal care products, and shift resources to Chloraseptic sore throat remedies and its other major OTC brands and household lines
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Conference Presentations In Brief
Prestige seeks innovations for focus brands: Rather than wait for the next Allergen Block to come from an entrepreneurial inventor, Prestige Brands shifts to an active approach to finding breakthrough innovations. At the William Blair & Co. Growth Stock Conference June 9 in Chicago, Prestige CEO Mark Pettie explained the firm is moving away from depending on ideas from "opportunistic sources," and instead is building "standing relationships with technology houses with specific purposes." The firm then will apply the innovations to its focus products, including Chloraseptic treatment for sore throat, Little Remedies and Clear Eyes. Pettie referred to Allergen Block, a drug-free nasal gel, as the paradigm of a "fully differentiated technology" compared to other products in its segment. Irvington, N.Y.-based Prestige additionally is driving growth by prioritizing its focus brands, penetrating further into the Canadian market and shifting toward a direct-selling model with its retail customers (1"The Tan Sheet" March 16, 2009, p. 9). Pettie added the company soon will begin weighing possible business moves following a "self-imposed moratorium" on mergers and acquisitions
Chloraseptic Max ads deemed too “strong”
Prestige Brands should change marketing that touts its oral anesthetic products as "The strongest medicine you can get without a prescription," according to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Consumers could interpret the slogan used in broadcast and print insert ads for Chloraseptic Max lozenges and spray as a claim of superior pain relief, which "is unsupported by the evidence in the record," NAD said May 27. The spray product qualifies to bear a "maximum strength" claim since its 1.5 percent phenol formulation is the strongest allowed by FDA's monograph, but cannot imply superiority over other sore throat relief products, NAD said. Combe Inc., maker of competitor Cepacol, brought the challenge. Prestige said it plans to "adopt more traditional maximum strength parity claims in the future" and use different language to communicate the products' benefits. The Irvington, N.Y.-based firm previously said it is shifting marketing resources toward Chloraseptic and away from less-profitable brands (1"The Tan Sheet" March 16, 2009, p. 9)