Disrupting the Allergy Category

Situation:

Parents have real ambivalence about how to treat their child’s allergies because they don’t like giving their kids strong, over the counter medicines that are full of drugs & chemicals yet are concerned that natural remedies aren’t effective enough. The children’s allergy category is $305 million with the top 3 players making up 70% of category sales. In addition, because of regulatory restrictions around supplements, Zarbees Naturals couldn’t use the word ‘allergy’ in the product name. These challenges were real, so to fully gain buy-in, Zarbees had to convince moms of three things: 1) what the product was 2) that it would work and 3) that it was safe & effective.

Approach:

We began by researching what ingredients could be used safely and effectively to help create the product proposition, understood which claims we could use and then took these ideas into the homes of mom’s and her close friends to begin our discussion and understanding of the category. This helped us to identify the best product propositions and if not using the word ‘allergy’ would be a deal-breaker. Once we had these insights, we could do quantitative testing to understand the most viable product line up, naming combination and packaging which would resonate with category shoppers.

Results:

Because we had insights to reveal that Zarbee’s Naturals could play an important, complementary role to traditional over-the-counter products, we were able to sell this range to retailers knowing we would increase their overall category sales- a win for all. A top retailer was so impressed by the innovation in this space to drive growth, they asked in addition to the children’s range, an adult one could be created. Both are on shelf in major retailers today.