When Zicam was introduced, its price was $10.99, whereas the price of the average cold remedy was $5.29. Thus, Zicam cost almost twice as much as the average cold remedy. This price was mainly based on the company’s financial requirements. It was not based on consumer research to determine how much the consumer would be [...]
Monthly Archive for August, 2009
The design of the Zicam packaging was a very important part of the overall marketing mix. It was critical to communicate to consumers that this was a product that actually shortened the cold. One way this was done was by placing the statement ‘‘actually shortens the cold’’ in a prominent location on the label. As [...]
The entire Matrixx Initiatives, Inc., product line uses the Zicam brand name. Company management believed that Zicam was a good name because it was unusual, and therefore memorable. The name actually came from the technical features of the product. ‘‘Z’’ is the chemical designation for zinc, and ‘‘icam’’ was included because the product is effective [...]
The initial Zicam product launched in 1999 was a nasal spray that actually reduced cold symptoms very quickly and shortened the length of the cold. There was a big difference between Zicam and other nasal sprays. The others simply made you feel better while you had the cold. With Zicam, you were over the cold [...]
Like many entrepreneurs, the developers of Zicam launched the product without the benefit of a formal marketing plan. The product was developed, some distribution was obtained through good salesmanship and aggressive trade terms, and then it was hoped that the consumer would buy the product. Luckily, a press release caught the attention of USA Today, [...]
In order to legally claim on the packaging and in advertising that Zicam can lessen the duration and severity of the common cold, Gel Tech paid for an independent formal clinical trial of the product. The purpose of the research was to prove that the direct application of the ionic zinc nasal gel within twenty-four [...]
At this point the Zicam venture needed money, and a lot of it, to finance the growth stimulated by the USA Today article. Gum Tech provided some of the financing for growth, and some initial financing was provided by venture capital. The real solution to the funding problem, however, came in the fall of 2001, [...]
At this point, the entrepreneurs realized that they had the basis of a great new product, but that they lacked the resources for obtaining a patent on the idea and for moving the venture through the production and distribution phases. They recognized that they needed help if their idea was ever to become a reality. [...]
Zicam began as an entrepreneurial venture by two individuals who believed that zinc could form the basis of a very effective cold remedy if it could somehow be applied directly to the nose. This belief was based on literature published in the mid-1990s on the effectiveness of zinc lozenges as a cold remedy. The entrepreneurs [...]
Convenience is a key characteristic that often separates the new products that are winners from those that are not. Whether you are looking at it from a trade or a consumer standpoint, the new product or service must be easy to buy. There are so many options available today that people are just not willing [...]
If there is one word that describes L’eggs’s current vision, it is innovation. The current L’eggs organization is dedicated to keeping the brand fresh and vital to the interests of its consumers and retailers. Using the system it has established to monitor consumer needs, the company now introduces several new products each year. There are [...]
A system has been put in place by L’eggs management to monitor the constantly changing needs of the American hosiery consumer. This system of qualitative and quantitative market research is used to keep track of attitudes toward existing L’eggs products and programs as well as to identify and test new products. L’eggs has become one [...]
In the 1990s, L’eggs realized that consumer needs were dramatically changing and that the key to maintaining L’eggs’s leadership position would be product innovation. L’eggs management made a commitment to identifying the rapidly changing needs of its consumers, and to bringing new products to the market to meet these needs. The plan was to create [...]
L’eggs is one of the few ‘‘new products’’ that has lasted over thirty years, and there are several reasons for this longevity. One of the main reasons is that L’eggs did such an excellent job of marketing when it was launched. The brand equity that was created through excellent positioning and promotion has carried over [...]
In 1969, when the original L’eggs marketing plan was being written, the market environment was ideal for the launching of a major new brand of pantyhose in supermarkets and drugstores. One of the biggest fashion trends of the times was the miniskirt, which made pantyhose almost a necessity. In addition, large numbers of women were [...]
Because of capacity considerations and the unusual sales/distribution program, with its requirements for personnel and training, L’eggs had to expand region by region and required approximately three years to become fully national. The anticipated start-up costs and gradual buildup of distribution and consumer acceptance prevented L’eggs from achieving a profit during its expansion phase. However, [...]
L’eggs made the assumption that no viable competitors would enter the market. If competition did appear in one or more of the rollout markets planned for L’eggs, the company had some flexibility to change the sequence of the rollout markets. This and other alternatives were to be considered only after careful evaluation of the competitive [...]
The L’eggs program was tested in four medium-sized U.S. cities. A high-level plan was tested in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in Sacramento, California. A low-level plan was tested in Kansas City, Missouri, and in Portland, Oregon. The four markets covered approximately 3.6 percent of all U.S. television households. These markets were selected to be representative of [...]
During the introduction of L’eggs, a traveling spokeswoman was used to discuss the L’eggs product and program with the media. The publicity program entailed personal appearances on television and radio plus selected interviews with key newspapers in each area. The introductory publicity program also included a contest for the most creative and/or humorous secondary use [...]
One of the things that Hanes determined during interviews with retail executives was that the best way to achieve broad-scale distribution on L’eggs would be to merchandise the product on a freestanding display. The result was a display unit that tied the entire merchandising program together. The original L’eggs display was a tall, round unit [...]