supplement marketing Archives | Natural Health Writer

Selling Resveratrol

: Resveratrol: substantiated to the nines with seven references!

How do you make a nutritional supplement sexy? It sounds strange, but if you can sell an image, you can sell anything. Especially Resveratrol.

Though commonly sourced from knotweed, Resveratrol’s sexier source is red wine grapes — an origin that sells a mindset of escape. Consumers associate the Resveratrol with romantic images of rolling vineyards in warm, lively, summer months. Not to mention that special feeling of lightheartedness that comes after a glass of favorite Pinot Noir. Resveratrol tips its cap to the good things in life and promises, through these positive associations, to be one of them.

But all the romance is useless without substantiation. My Resveratrol piece to the right balances romance with strong supportive evidence. By presenting relevant figures and credible references, this piece successfully integrates two keys to successful supplement marketing: desire and credibility.

Old(er) and in the Whey

Below are links to three Nature’s Plus Spiru-Tein Whey brochures that I wrote. Clearly this is for an older crowd than the Jersey Shore demographic we discussed in an earlier post. I mean, come on… look at this guy on the rollerblades. You think a Jersey Shore type would buy a protein powder supplement from that??

Don’t scoff, though. Read and consider how the brochures target a wealthier whey demographic: Buff Boomers.

SPIRU-TEIN whey protein shake brochure – original flavors.

SPIRU-TEIN whey protein shake brochure – new flavors.

SPIRU-TEIN whey brochure for low-carb diets.

The Lesson: Whey protein powder is an agile supplement that crosses demographic boundaries. Speak to your audience — sports nutrition success will follow.

Q.P. CORPORATION

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

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.

Selling Healthy Weight: CLA

CLA_training — There are facts. There are figures. Get confident about it.

Weight management is a tricky category when it comes to supplement marketing.

Outrageous claims have placed the entire category under a microscope. Consumers remain eager to buy supplements for healthy weight management (a.k.a. WEIGHT LOSS. There, I said it!).

CLA is a strong weight management play. To the right is a page from Healthy Sales, a newsletter I created to teach nutrition sales techniques to Vitamin World Associates. My approach is a clinic for marketing weight management supplements: Note the conservative language, authoritative facts and strong substantiation. These all empower VW Associates to communicate CLA’s benefits to customers in a clear, compliant manner.

The Lesson: With effective writing, you can successfully sell weight management supplements — while keeping your marketing materials clean and accurate.

Selling Resveratrol

I created marketing direction and wrote all copy for LifeTime Nutritional Specialties* Resveratrol Life Tonic.

The campaign succeeded; now Resveratrol Life Tonic is a featured flagship product for LifeTime. Visit their website and see. Click this link to see some of my copy.

I believe Resveratrol remains a sleeping giant. There’s no denying healthy aging, and resveratrol has considerable sex appeal in that sector. I’ll never forget around the same time I did this ad, I was involved in a conference call with a high-profile financeer who kept repeating “I’ll make you rich, Patrick. I’ll make you rich.” He was trying to get me to write for a resveratrol campaign that never materialized. He was onto something, though… he had the right marketing writer picked out, anyway.

* A quick side note on LifeTime, and blatant plug: LifeTime produces one of the most amazing supplements I’ve ever taken. It is called Calm & Calmer II. For me, it’s one of those rare products that you can feel working right away — and it’s true to its name!