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Allergan: Refresh Tears (OTC)
Strategy
There are an estimated 59 million Americans who knowingly suffer from dry eye symptoms, and many other sufferers who don’t know about dry eye. Allergan’s Refresh Brand products are already the Number One U.S. selling and Number One doctor-recommended brand of artificial tears, but a bigger market share was to be had. The challenge for RLM was to educate consumers about the prevalence of dry eye, and that they don’t have to live with the irritation. We needed to position Refresh Brand as the choice among consumers and the medical community to treat this condition. In addition, Allergan requested that RLM launch the newest addition to the already popular product family, Refresh Endura.
Tactics
Though it lacks sex appeal, RLM found a way to make dry eye relevant to all consumers by tailoring pitches and information to targeted potential users’ cherished pastimes and the publications that detail them, including senior lifestyle, outdoor and specialty sporting, business travel and airline in-flight magazines. The launch of Endura in the fall made the topic timely because of allergy season, which causes dry eye.
In addition, RLM understood the importance of generating positive coverage about the brand, especially the launch of Endura in the ocular trade publications. With this in mind, RLM aggressively placed the product manager, Allergan executives and Allergan-approved doctors in front of top trade editors and mainstream editors to position Refresh Brand as the leading choice among doctors.
Results
RLM’s hard work paid off; it garnered repeat interviews and ink in top ocular trade publications such as Ocular Surgery News, Ophthalmology Times, EyeWorld and a variety of consumer publications including Parade, NY Daily News, Bike Midwest and Fitness Magazine.
With positive reviews for RLM, Allergan continues to enlist the strategic capabilities of RLM for the remainder of 2003 and we have a full PR plan intact for next year, including more third-party involvement and more specific consumer pitching.
RLM also worked on marketing initiatives for the Refresh brand. An example: RLM worked with producers for the movie Insomnia and created messaging and gave out samples of Refresh Tears for displays at college screenings across the U.S. This tied into our messaging of “dry eye” with “insomnia.” This was a cost-effective way to reach a major demographic and garner more brand recognition.