The Mentholatum company has come a long way since Albert Alexander Hyde first developed mentholatum ointment to relieve pain in 1889. Marketing director Bernice Simpson Diabate tells C+D about the company’s products and plans following a £10m investment in its manufacturing facility in East Kilbride

Q. So, what are Mentholatum's key pharmacy brands?

There’s Deep Relief (ibuprofen and levomenthol), Deep Heat and Deep Freeze as thermotherapy and cryotherapy, Regenovex, and Bionovex oil for joint health maintenance. And there’s the OXY range: OXY 5 and 10 – these have just been reformulated and will be followed up imminently with a press launch specifically to pharmacy.

We also have Rohto Dry Eye Relief – a brand new, innovative formulation using tamarind seed extract and HA (hyaluronic acid). Many patients suffer from dry eye as a result of taking specific medication and this is a great opportunity for pharmacy to recommend a solution for patients reporting such side effects.

Q. What market share do these brands have in pharmacy and grocery? And what's the growth in each sector?

Mentholatum leads the topical analgesics category (all figures: IRI, 52 w/e April 17, 2010). It has three brands – Deep Heat, Deep Freeze and Deep Relief – in the top 10 and has the largest share of category in the rub, spray and patch sub-sectors for both heat and freeze products.

Deep Heat is the number one topical analgesics brand, growing at 5 per cent year on year. While the rubs sector overall shows a decline of 1.9 per cent, Deep Heat bucks the trend with growth in all outlets and a 60 per cent share of the total market, up 2.4 per cent on the previous year. It accounts for 78 per cent of value sales in major multiples and 51.8 per cent in the pharmacy sector. It is growing strongly in major grocery multiples, but pharmacy sales are in decline in line with the sector fall.

Deep Heat Spray - the brand’s biggest SKU - dominates its sector, with 81 per cent of total market share - which equates to 93 per cent of value sales in grocery and 68 per cent in pharmacy. Unit sales are up 2.8 per cent in the pharmacy sector, which is especially gratifying as it goes against the downward trend of 6.1 per cent in these outlets.

Deep Heat and Deep Freeze patches together dominate the patches sector, with 22 per cent share of the total market, and continue to grow in this growing sector.

Deep Freeze is the market leader in the freeze category with 64 per cent of value sales (74per cent unit sales) and accounts for 96 per cent of value sales in major multiples (almost 98.3 per cent units) and 47 per cent value (or 56 per cent units) in pharmacies, with sales here declining.

Deep Relief sales have been declining in a flat market, but a total brand relaunch this summer, supported by an exciting TV advertising campaign, is set to drive sales growth.

Q. How are you investing in these brands and how can pharmacists boost their sales?

Mentholatum is making unprecedented investment commitment to all its brands and with a growing portfolio this investment will also continue to grow.

All the above brands have above-the-line investment and pharmacy support programmes (OXY coming soon). Deep Heat, Deep Freeze and Deep Relief are all supported by TV campaigns and heavyweight consumer and trade PR.
 
Regenovex has been underpinned by consumer press and PR and will shortly be supported by a heavyweight TV campaign.  Response beta will be supported by press and PR this year and OXY will have both TV and PR support to explain the reformulation and clinical trial data.

Q. What new product developments are in the pipeline? How will they grow the pharmacy market?

We are working on a number of new products which reflect the ethos of innovation in terms of formulations and high level scientific support. Regenovex, Rohto Dry Eye Relief and Response beta are our most recent launches, but there is more exciting news to come.

Q. Is scientific backing important in building credibility for OTC brands?

Mentholatum is working with a number of universities in Scotland and around the UK – these projects are developing new products but also testing and developing scientific data and support for new and existing brands.

Mentholatum is committed to developing more and better scientific support for core brands such as Deep Heat, Deep Freeze and Deep Relief, positioning the company as experts in muscle and joint care using all our Deep brands and Regenovex - and scientific testing is underway to generate more data on these brands. 

Similarly, we are working with a university in Wales to generate more support data on Rohto Dry Eye Relief and there is also clinical work being carried out in Italy that will be delivered at the end of this year to add further weight to Rohto brand efficacy. 

Mentholatum is absolutely committed to supporting all its products and brands with the best possible clinical and scientific support data and there is no doubt that this is the cornerstone of OTC brand credibility.

Q What training and marketing resources do you offer pharmacists and their staff?

We’re committed to training and our pharmacy team regularly visit pharmacies to detail products and new launches. For our new products, we are allocating more resource to this sector and pharmacists play a vital role as they are able to explain the features and benefits of our new products which are often very different from other products in the category. 

We are also keen to work with pharmacists to develop a more category-wide approach to topical analgesics using the insights we have on thermotherapy and cryotherapy together with NSAIDs, which can deliver a pain management regime with or without oral analgesia. Again Mentholatum is putting more focus on how we can work more effectively with pharmacy to develop core benefits for patients.