You might think that launching an extension of a brand with the equity and awareness of Advil would be a breeze compared to introducing an entirely new brand.

You’d be right, too. Except, that is, when the new product happens to be a medication for children.

In that category, says Shari Read, category manager, analgesics with Whitehall-Robins, there is one major stumbling block marketers must overcome, whether they have a recognizable brand name or not: Parents won’t switch to a new medication for their kids until they’ve checked with a health-care professional.

Such was the challenge the Mississauga, Ont.-based pharmaceutical manufacturer faced this past October, when it launched a liquid children’s version of its Advil brand analgesic – a product that currently accounts for two-thirds of the dollars spent in Canada’s adult ibuprofen category.

Read says that consumers are, as a rule, very slow to try new otc products – especially those for children.

‘What we found with adult Advil is that once people do try it, there’s a very high conversion rate. They do adopt it as their regular brand. [But] generating trial is pretty challenging.

‘With a children’s product, there was no question in our minds that generating trial would be even more challenging, because parents aren’t going to experiment with something on their kids. You need to give them a good reason to switch, and you need to make sure the product backs up whatever you’re going to say about it.’

That means the traditional dual marketing strategy for otc products – in which both consumers and health professionals are targeted – is even more important when it comes to children’s medications.

Whitehall-Robins also had another issue to deal with – namely, coming up with a positioning for Children’s Advil that is different from that of the adult product.

Because fast pain relief is the key motivator for the adult market, Advil has been touted as a strong pain reliever ever since its introduction in 1989.

For the children’s market, the fact that ibuprofen effectively relieves both pain and fever for up to eight hours – twice as long as acetaminophen products – was seen as the more significant benefit.

At the same time, Read says, parents had to be convinced that the product wasn’t too strong for youngsters. ‘With kids, there’s a bigger safety concern. We had to make sure that parents in no way associate Advil’s strength with being unsafe.’

The consumer campaign from Toronto-based Young & Rubicam uses ads in parenting and women’s magazines as the primary vehicle for the message. That has been augmented by in-store signage, couponing and information brochures, as well as some tv advertising.

Read says Whitehall-Robins wanted an approach that would set the campaign apart from the mass of advertising for children’s medications – most of which features images of either unhappy sick children, or happy no-longer-sick children.

While the images used in the campaign are not readily associated with Advil, they are easy for parents to recognize and relate to.

The Children’s Advil packaging – which recalls the adult Advil package, with similar colors and the same grid-pattern background – forms the focus of each print ad.

One execution depicts the package in the shape of a night-light, with the heading ‘Works late.’ Another has it in the shape of a backpack, with the heading ‘Extended Day Care now available.’

The tag line on all: ‘For long-lasting fever relief, ask your doctor or pharmacist about New Children’s Advil.’

The professional side of the campaign uses print advertising in physicians’ and pharmacists’ journals.

While there is also a direct mail campaign to physicians, most of the communication to health-care professionals and pharmacists is on a one-on-one basis. Whitehall-Robins has a non-prescription salesforce of more than 100, half of whom work with physicians, and the other half with pharmacists.

While journal advertising will create awareness among physicians, it won’t persuade them to switch, Read says. It is important to meet physicians in person, show them the clinical studies and give them product samples, so that they can get to know and understand the product.

Pharmacists also receive extensive clinical information – plus a taste test of the product, so they can assure parents that their children will enjoy the fruit flavor.

The market for children’s analgesics is about $31 million in Canada, Read says, and accounts for roughly 15% of the total analgesic market.

When Children’s Advil entered the category in October, there were only two other brands on the shelves, both of them acetaminophen products: Tempra from Mead Johnson Canada and Children’s Tylenol from McNeil Consumer Products.

In early December, a second ibuprofen product hit the shelves, when McNeil began the rollout of Children’s Motrin, the kiddie version of its adult brand.

Until now, Read says Tempra and Tylenol have together accounted for approximately 89% of the children’s market, with Tylenol claiming nearly 60%. That should change now that there is more choice for parents.

One advantage that Tempra and Tylenol have over the new ibuprofen entries is product range – from drops for infants, to chewable tablets for older children.

Read says this gap in the product lineup indicates that there should be even more opportunity for the Advil brand in the future.

Also in this report:

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* Rx manufacturers start spreading the news: Must now target brand messages to a number of different audiences p.18