home : hartbeat : boiron-homeopathic-medicines-go-mainstream

05.26.2011

“HartBeat” is The Hartman Group's FREE online newsletter, providing insight, analysis, information and strategy to give business leaders the knowledge and vision to build sustainable brands.

Archives »
Click here for an archive of past HartBeat articles

digg
del.icio.us

reddit
twitter

friendfeed

StumbleUpon

Boiron: Homeopathic Medicines Go Mainstream

As many as 50% of French consumers use homeopathic medicines, yet among the broad range of over- the-counter (OTC) products available to consumers in the United States today, homeopathic medicines have (until fairly recently) occupied mainly a fringe position in both retail settings as well as mainstream consumer medicine cabinets. Yet, as with other formerly fringe alternative medical practices and products (such as acupuncture, massage and consumption of specialty dietary supplements), homeopathic medicines are moving steadily into the mainstream.

The mainstreaming of homeopathics hasn’t occurred overnight: Certainly for the most active "Core" health and wellness consumers, products such as those produced by French-based pharmaceutical company Boiron have been well known for over two decades, and yet, while embraced as part of the most active and integrated wellness regimes, it’s only in the past eight years that the company's best-selling products (like "Oscillococcinum," a product used to treat flu-like symptoms) has been found in conventional settings like Walmart.

Figure 1: Consumers are seeking higher quality experiences in the context of health and wellness—one part of which includes a positive and experiential approach to wellness. Homeopathics are seen as one element of treating illness symptoms preventively at the outset of illness.

Source: Hartman Group Health and Wellness Studies, 1997 to 2011, and Hartman Group/Boiron health and wellness research 2010 and 2011.

As found for Boiron in two studies conducted by the Hartman Group in 2010 and 2011, several changes are driving increased consumer demand for homeopathic medicines—not the least of which is a heightened desire among consumers (women in particular) for OTCs they view as “purer,” potentially safer for children, and made with less chemicals and irritants. Additionally, and in step with what the Hartman Group has been documenting as a profound shift occurring for several decades, those consumers most involved in health and wellness lifestyles (the Core and Mid-level) are taking a proactive, preventive approach to wellness, elements of which include a holistic, positive and experiential approach to health treatments and practices. In contrast, and reflecting the dominant thinking of health and wellness behaviors of the past, those consumers least involved with health and wellness (the Periphery), take a perfunctory, reactive and "medical" approach to health behaviors (Figure One).

In step with rising consumer demand for products such as Boiron’s, another important change has been an evolution in retail placement of homeopathics. Like another formerly fringe and segregated health-oriented category of products, organics, instead of being placed in nutritional and supplement sections, products such as Boiron’s Oscillococcinum are now found integrated into the cold and flu section of diverse retailers. As with the ongoing integration of organic products into conventional food and beverage categories, the placement of homeopathic medicines such as Boiron’s in cold and flu sections in conventional retail settings is making them easier to find for the very large segment of consumers occupying the “Mid-level” (or mainstream) of health and wellness (a full 62% of consumers make up the Mid-level of the world of health and wellness).

To understand more about the rise in demand for natural OTCs, we interviewed John Durkin, Vice President of Marketing at Boiron:

HartBeat: Why do you think homeopathics are gaining acceptance today, compared to say 10 years ago when other products like organics and dietary supplements were rapidly moving into the mainstream?

I think many more consumers today are knowledgeable about vitamins. There's a certain comfort and knowledge among consumers in supplements like vitamin C, vitamin D and specialty supplements. This makes them more comfortable with trying products like ours. Also, we're advertising more today, and several of our products are now found in most food/drug/mass retail outlets. Over the years, too, I've seen a trend in placement of a product like Oscillococcinum, which was formerly in the nutrition section of stores, moved from there into respective OTC categories such as cold and flu.

HartBeat: So instead of products such as those sold by Boiron being segregated off in nutritional or supplement sections, they're being increasingly integrated into condition-specific product sections?

Yes, and what we've found with consumers as shown in your research is that they say they expect to find products like ours next to their traditional OTC counterparts. Based on the study and how people shop, when they walk into a drug store or retailer, they're shopping by category for something like cold and flu or pain—that's why we wanted our products placed in their appropriate category. So they're shopping by health condition. And as your research shows, the Core health and wellness consumer will find products like ours, but those Mid-level consumers who are starting to seek out more natural products might not know where to go. Now if they go to the cold and cough section, they'll see the products.

HartBeat: We saw in the most recent Hartman Group research for Boiron that consumers, women especially, are increasingly concerned about the healthfulness of traditional OTCs. Specifically, while they believe in the efficacy of OTCs, they feel these products aren’t “good” for them, especially when used frequently. Why do you think homeopathic medicines such as Boiron's are gaining interest among such consumers—are things different today compared to five years ago?

I would say yes, and that was another big insight that came out of your study: Consumers are increasingly looking for OTC products that are purer and healthy for them. So, besides efficacy, which is still king, right after that we're seeing high demand for products that are purer, more healthy, with less chemicals, and have less irritants if placed on the skin. Coming out of the study we’re also seeing that 4 out of 10 consumers are looking for a more natural option to treating their conditions.

HartBeat: Do you think there's a new generation of consumers who are better versed in wellness practices that include homeopathy?

Yes, we see a great deal of interest among younger consumers who say they grew up in a household that used homeopathic medicine—these are consumers in their twenties or thirties. They are quite knowledgeable.

HartBeat: How important does it seem to be to consumers that Boiron describe itself as a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the highest standards in manufacturing, when compared to the broadly defined dietary supplement category? Do you think this has helped with mainstream acceptance of Boiron products?

I think it’s very important. We’re a pharmaceutical company; as such our products are regulated by the FDA as drugs. In fact, we're the world leader in homeopathic medicines. We have drug fact labeling guidelines that we need to follow, and we have FDA inspections like any other pharmaceutical laboratory.

HartBeat: Boiron manufactures over 800 homeopathic medicines and sells in 80 different countries—how far in the future do you think it will be for Americans to embrace a wider range of such products, compared to, say consumers in France?

We see that roughly 50% of consumers in France are using homeopathic medicines, and there's a correlation there between familiarity and interest in vitamins and supplements with homeopathics. Here in the United States, we see word of mouth is a major component of our brand. When we look at what people say about how they start using homeopathic medicines 36% of consumers say they're hearing about them from friends or family. What was very interesting and shown in the study is that they are also hearing about them from healthcare practitioners (both conventional and complementary-and-alternative). Twenty-two percent say they are using homeopathics based on recommendations from those practitioners. So we see the market here expanding at a greater pace than say five years ago.

Take Away:

As consumers increasingly seek out holistic, positive and experiential approaches to health and wellness treatments and practices, products such as homeopathics take on greater significance, notably among women who say they are seeking products (both for themselves and their children and families) that they view through a lens of purity and healthfulness. As with other wellness-related products and practices that formerly existed on the cultural margins, such as organics or specialty dietary supplements, homeopathics and natural OTCs are yet one more symbol of how changing consumer behaviors are pushing formerly fringe health and wellness practices into the mainstream. In its use of Hartman Group strategic insights, Boiron acknowledges that unlocking the power of the cultural margins requires both the subtle investigations of ethnographic and anthropological methods coupled with quantitative insights.

Comment »

Brand Innovation Lies in Understanding Changes in the Cultural Margins

Hartman Group sees Boiron as a truly innovative brand because the company understands that to be an active cultural change agent requires researching the cultural margins of the present, but not for crystal ball visions of the future.

The cultural margins, where a majority of Boiron’s customers formerly resided, are where lesser-known things (consumers, products, services, ideas) are challenging cultural conventions and producing the raw material of broader cultural change. As demand for Boiron’s products has become mainstream we find that:

There is continued strong desire to minimize usage of OTC medications. As with the 2010 study, the 2011 benchmark study conducted for Boiron by Hartman Group shows the vast majority of women limit their overall usage of traditional and conventional OTC medications.
Six out of 10 (59%) shoppers are now familiar with homeopathy – a jump from 50% last year
Today, 79% of women agree with the statement, “I use OTC medications, but I try to minimize the amount I use.”
64% of women cite purity or lack of chemicals/irritants in a product as the most important purchase factor for an OTC after price and effectiveness — up from 58% in the 2010 study.
Nearly half of all women have used a natural product successfully in the past, and there is a strong desire to minimize usage of traditional/conventional OTC products because of safety and purity concerns.
More women are trying to prevent getting ill – and believe that homeopathic medicines can be used at the first sign of illness.

CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO »