How To Create Brand Awareness For New

Products
Solid science, proprietary positioning and carefully planned communication strategies all play
an important role in the launch of new products and ingredients, says Pedro Vieira.

How can a manufacturer communicate the benefits of an ingredient that has proven health
benefits yet lacks sufficient consumer awareness to make it an attractive buy for both consumers
and manufacturers? This question has been posed by manufacturers of ingredients and end
products alike when faced with a decision about launching new products into the market.
However, only a few have successfully been able to achieve their goals. Through the
combination of solid science, proprietary positioning, getting to market first and using carefully
planned communication strategies, consumer products manufacturer Yakult, ingredients
manufacturers Kemin Foods LC and Orafti have each created new, highly profitable categories
and positioned themselves as isolated leaders within those newly created categories.

When talking about successes in the functional foods arena, Yakult is the first name that springs
to mind to illustrate the creation of a new category and make it successful. Based on a vision of
health through diet, Yakult was built upon the health benefits of live probiotic lactic acid
bacteria, which help keep intestines healthy and functioning well.

From the date of its founding in 1955, Yakult has

Consumers are not looking for
continued the same strategy of investing in consumer
elaborate health claims—they
education to achieve a strong brand awareness and loyalty.
are happy to know the product
The Yakult education strategy has always relied on direct
will lead to overall better health.
contact with its potential consumers for better and first-
hand information. Amongst its educational strategies,
Yakult invests in consumer product sampling; educational seminars for opinion formers, such as
hospital staff; and educating directly at its production facilities.

This philosophy, plus marketing its brand in one package size, one design and bearing one
uniform message, has yielded solid and impressive results, not only in Japan but also in the UK
market. It is a success story from which all industries could learn.1 A strong component of this
strategy was the timing of entry into the market—always first—which has given Yakult
sufficient time to build category awareness followed by a strong brand awareness.

Building A New Category

In 1995, Kemin Foods LC patented the process for purification and crystallisation of lutein (a
natural antioxidant found in most green leafy vegetables) and entered the market with FloraGLO
brand lutein, thus establishing a new category for lutein. Kemin has been able to grow the
purified lutein business into a multimillion dollar business worldwide by backing lutein's
benefits in preventing degenerative eye conditions (age-related macular degeneration and
cataracts) with solid science, along with a strong manufacturing patent and solid communication
strategy. It also has been able to create a record consumer-aided awareness level of 55 per cent
for the lutein category in the US market.2

In 1996, Kemin launched an ongoing US public relations campaign that has been extended to the
UK and Italy. The objective of this PR campaign is to educate three different targeted market
segments on the benefits of consuming lutein. The target groups are health care providers
(ophthalmologists, medical doctors, nurses, patient support groups); business-to-business groups
(pharmaceutical companies, food and beverage manufacturers, dietary supplements
manufacturers); and end users.

Through the creation of the Lutein Information Bureau, an educational Web site on lutein and
eye health, and through the creation of strong alliances with patient support groups, Kemin has
been able to generate the needed support to educate these segments on the role of lutein.

Understanding the needs of the different market segments, Kemin focused on promoting lutein as
'the eye-protective nutrient,' giving lutein an overall healthy message. To solidify these
communication efforts, it launched simultaneous public relations activities, relying heavily on
press releases, and advertorial and editorial material. Having established a strong category
awareness, Kemin established its own branding programme, developed simultaneously with a
co-marketing programme offered to its customers. These two actions have led to more than 100
logo partners using the lutein FloraGLO brand logo on their final products. To date, these
communications efforts are responsible for the 55 per cent awareness levels registered in the US
and to some significant progress in both the UK and Italian markets.

Keep It Simple
It follows that consumers realise the full benefits of functional foods once they are fully aware of
them. Belgian company Orafti, which centers its activities on the valorisation of the unique
characteristics of chicory roots and rice, created the BENEO programme to communicate the
health benefits of inulin and oligofructose to the consumer. The communication strategy was
designed to create consumer awareness of the benefits of both ingredients, which ultimately
would lead them to look for products containing BENEO. Orafti achieved this by creating a
branding programme that made products containing the BENEO logo easily identified by
consumers.

The message was simple: because products featuring the logo were easily identified and positive,
these products did not make references to complicated health benefits. The health benefits and
the science behind them were, in turn, transmitted directly to health care providers, who passed
them on to potential consumers. Simultaneously, a toll-free line was established to directly
answer questions posed by potential consumers or health care providers, and a Web site was
created to give access to more detailed information on the benefits of the BENEO programme.
Today, companies like Campina and Puratos carry products with the BENEO logo.

Through intensive consumer research, Orafti was able to determine specific needs of consumers
seeking health benefits from functional products, and contrary to the common belief that health
claims are necessary to promote functional foods, Orafti discovered consumers are not looking
for elaborate health claims. Instead, they are happy to know that the product will promote an
overall healthier gut flora that will lead to overall better health, leaving the complicated
messages to be transmitted on relevant sources of information such as the Web site.

Standing Alone
Of course, this strategy may not be appropriate or successful for all European countries, but it
does serve as a cautionary lesson when so much emphasis and effort are being placed on on-pack
communication of health claims for functional products.3

The three cases have used similar strategies, based on simple communications strategies, to
ultimately reach consumer awareness and sales of new functional products/ingredients
categories. Common to the success of all three companies is that their ingredients/products were
scientifically proven, well-documented and patent protected; their timing of entry into the market
was well-prepared; and they concentrated their efforts first on creating category awareness and
only afterward on creating brand awareness. As a consequence of such strategies, today Yakult
can boast a unique market share in the probiotic market, and both Kemin and Orafti stand alone
in their unique markets.

Pedro Vieira is European marketing manager for Kemin Foods Europe.

E-mail: pvieira@keminfoods.com
www.keminfoods.com

References

1. Heasman M, Mellentin J. The functional foods revolution, healthy people, healthy profits?
London: Earthscan Publications Ltd, 2001.

2. Market Facts 2002.

3. Extracted from Foodingredientsfirst.com.