Help Remedies Hopes “Less” Is More In Campaign Skewering Complex OTCs
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Help Remedies looks to transition from a niche OTC player to a nationwide brand with its expansion into all Walgreens stores and a marketing campaign touting pharmaceutical simplicity.
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Help Remedies looks to transition from a niche OTC player to a nationwide brand with its expansion into all Walgreens stores and a marketing campaign touting pharmaceutical simplicity. The New York company launches its “Take Less” campaign Oct. 25, comprising outdoor advertisements, newspaper and TV spots and a redesigned website.
The national campaign squarely takes aim at major OTC brands offering complex, multi-active ingredient formulas in varying flavors and delivery formats. For example, one of Help’s ads encourages consumers to “take less: day/night multi-symptom relief.” Defying Category Norms The idea is to question category norms that people have come to reflexively accept, says Help co-founder and CEO Richard Fine. “I think inherently we are pushing a message that goes against the prevailing winds of the category,” Fine said in an interview. “By showing people how this kind of thing has become normal, we’re hoping to remind them that things have gone a little off the rails in some places,” he added. As an OTC alternative, Help markets stripped-down, single-ingredient drug products with few excipients, such as “Help I have a headache” (acetaminophen) and “Help I have allergies” (loratadine) (Also see "Help Remedies Builds OTC Brand Based On Simplicity, Young Adult Appeal" - Pink Sheet, 25 Apr, 2011.). In another poster, Help implicitly skewers the coloring of Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol by instructing consumers to “take less: red dye no. 40.” Seeking Broader Appeal With National Growth Though Help still describes itself as a “boutique pharmaceutical company,” it hopes the expanded retail availability of its OTCs through 8,000 Walgreens stores, as well as in select Target locations, will broaden the brand’s appeal. Fine says Help has developed a loyal base of New York consumers via distribution in Duane Reade stores, but “nationally right now, we’re a relatively unknown quantity.”
Shoppers who find Help products on Walgreens shelves in the immediate future likely know little, if anything about the brand, he said. But Fine, a former advertising executive, expects the “Take Less” campaign to eventually build a critical mass of consumers. “We’re definitely not trying to do the same thing as everybody else, so it takes time for us to educate people and get people to understand what we’re saying and doing,” Fine added. Though starting from a relatively low base, Help is on target to grow revenue 1,000% in 2011, he said. The company also is building its portfolio: “Help I have a stuffy nose” (phenylephrine) launched recently, “Help I have chest congestion” (guaifenesin) will soon and “Help I’m nauseous” (meclizine) is slated to hit retail by February. By Dan Schiff |
