Q.P. CORPORATION

Now that LOST is over, it looks like the Dharma Initiative is working in the natural products industry...

Before advertising any nutritional ingredient, consider your target market and their focus on cutting-edge quality. Oh, and taking note of the year, heck, even the decade, helps too.

This Q.P. Corporation brochure (offering nutritional supplement raw materials like lecithin, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin) was printed in 2010. But upon seeing it, my reaction was to call the 1970s and ask if they wanted their brochure back.

The American natural health industry sources raw materials from China and Japan. But clearly, these eastern suppliers often fall short on marketing. Q.P. (a Japanese company) cannot penetrate the American market using promotional materials that feel synthetic and outdated — especially in an industry that values natural origins and nutritional innovation.

The Lesson: Retro is fashion-cool, but it has no place in nutrition marketing… nor does the word “chemical.” Our industry seeks natural, safe, quality ingredients that help people. Q.P. ignores these factors and promotes a ’70s sci-fi nightmare of chemical toxic green. This is not how natural health looks!

Vitamin Code

Find it at your local Louvre.

So, we’ve established that generic is a term you would rather not have associated with your supplement marketing strategy. Generic isn’t sellable. Consumers don’t trust it.Generic is lazy.

Vitamin Code sits on the better end of that spectrum, with marketing  that is alluring and sellable. It taps into consumer emotions by invoking a sense of mystery. We’re curious creatures; we can’t help wondering what the CODE actually means. We observe the CODE’s pyramids, wondering if these supplements will reveal their secrets to us.

Of course, this sort of marketing isn’t always appropriate, especially in health sectors. You wouldn’t take a pill blindly just to reveal its mysteries (at least, I hope you wouldn’t!) – which is why Vitamin Code scores again. They market mystery until they capture consumer attention, and then they back it up with vital, accurate health information and strong research-backed substantiation.

Liquid Shizzle

Blinded by the Li....quilicious Revolution!

If you can't look away, you might as well try it, right?

I wrote copy for these ads for Nature’s Plus’ liquid nutritional supplement line launch.

To make the ads successful, I adopted the trademark bombastic style of Gerald Kessler, founder of Nature’s Plus. The writing is sensory-oriented, emphasizing the taste and feel of these liquid nutritional supplements in great detail. Speed is also emphasized; liquid nutritional supplements are more quickly absorbed and utilized by the body. I feel these nutrition marketing angles were beautifully complemented by artist Dave Bartow’s design work here. Click image for jpeg or the links below for full PDFs (worth the load time!).