Suppliers See Ingredient Branding As Key To Greater Market Presence

Supply firms are focusing on branding their ingredients as they pursue category leadership within the dietary supplement industry.

Cognis will market its line of Vegapure sterols and sterol esters directly to consumers under the new co-branding name Heart Choice , "nature's choice for a healthy heart," the firm announced at the SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas Nov. 9. The campaign is slated to begin in February 2006 to coincide with the start of National Heart Month.

The company will launch a consumer website called heartchoice.com, will advertise in national magazines and hopes to work with professional associations to increase awareness of the brand. Publicity efforts will expand in September, National Cholesterol Education Month.

In its new ad campaign to manufacturers, Cognis claims: "Boosting your cholesterol product sales just got a whole lot easier." The ad stresses the firm's efforts to build consumer awareness and demand as well as the FDA-approved health claim for phytosterols and heart health (¹ (Also see "Phytosterol CHD Health Claim Expanded Interim Use Permitted By FDA" - Pink Sheet, 24 Feb, 2003.), p. 4).

"Vegapure is a good example of two of the areas that we try to focus on in Cognis," David Eckert, VP, North America, Cognis Nutrition & Health, told "The Tan Sheet" in a recent interview. "One is the science...The other element is: how can we help our customers sell more of their products, in this case, using a branded marketing approach."

"Those are two of our business models that have been successful and are successful."

Specifically, the move follows the success of the firm's branded conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), Tonalin , which bears the tagline, "the shape of things to come."

Cognis says sales of consumer CLA products with Tonalin are selling three times faster than the CLA category average according to data from Information Resources. Tonalin CLA sales "are up 29.2% over last year in the food, drug and mass (excluding Wal-Mart) channels, while all other CLA brands combined decreased 8%," the firm stated in a recent release.

"Consumers want a guarantee of quality and product performance, and that comes with a branded ingredient versus one that is private labeled or generic," Nina Likins, Cognis Nutrition & Health's Tonalin CLA marketing manager explains.

"We have a real focused marketing approach for Tonalin out to the consumer," Eckert noted, citing direct-to-consumer ads for Tonalin in magazines such as Women's Day. The ads also co-promote consumer products, Eckert continued, so "a consumer will say, 'I want Tonalin, but I want Tonalin in a product by this specific company.'"

Likins cites clinical science as what "sets Tonalin apart from the competition and drives our marketing and advertising efforts," adding: "It's evident from the sales figures that consumers continue to connect with our science-based messages."

According to Likins, the Tonalin brand of CLA is the "most clinically tested" in the market. Eckert maintains that 75% of all human clinical trials have been conducted with the brand.

Cognis has also petitioned FDA for a qualified health claim linking its Xangold natural lutein esters to a reduced risk of age-related macular degeneration (² (Also see "Xangold Lutein Qualified Health Claim Sought By Cognis" - Pink Sheet, 24 May, 2004.), p. 16).

A branded ingredient marketing approach is also being employed by the Barcelona, Spain-based ingredient firm Bioiberica, which was selected by NIH to be the sole supplier of chondroitin sulfate for the Glucosamine/Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT) (³ (Also see "Osteoarthritis study" - Pink Sheet, 9 Oct, 2000.), In Brief).

The firm's chondroitin sulfate is sold as a drug in Europe and Japan, but will be sold to U.S. dietary supplement manufacturers as the branded ingredient, CS b Bio-Active , "the most-researched brand of chondroitin sulfate."

The abstract of the GAIT study already is available online; a peer-review article is expected to be published in the Dec. 1 New England Journal of Medicine (⁴ 'The Tan Sheet' Nov. 14, 2005, In Brief).

Pre-market consumer research conducted by Bioiberica demonstrated that consumers were not only interested in the product but willing to pay "premium prices" for a product with scientifically-supported efficacy and safety, the firm said.

Bioiberica's chondroitin sulfate currently is available in the U.S. only in Nutramax Labs' CosaminDS . However, Joan Bassa, Manager, Joint Care Divison expressed enthusiasm over the response the firm was receiving at the SupplySide West trade show.

- Katia Fowler