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The Six Costs of Entry for DTC Supplement Brands

by Samantha Brewster | Published on March 21, 2023
DTC e-commerce sales have tripled in the past six years, and analysts predict sales will reach $150–$200 billion in the next several years. It’s clear the DTC trend has hit critical mass, and everyone wants a piece of the pie—including the supplement industry. Although digitally native brands are still enjoying double-digit growth, the days of their domination of DTC e-commerce may be coming to an end as legacy brands ramp up their presence. What does this mean for supplement brands trying to succeed through the DTC channel?

Article

A Brand Strategy Perspective on the New FTC Guidelines

by Yadim Medore | Published on February 9, 2023
Pure Branding founder and CEO Yadim Medore was recently interviewed by The Wall Street Journal about the refresh of the Federal Trade Commission guidelines for advertising health-related products. This is the first time in 25 years the FTC has updated its guidelines since its 1998 “Dietary Supplements: An Advertising Guide for Industry.”

Article

10 Tips for Supplement Personalization Success

by Samantha Brewster | Published on September 22, 2022
Does this sound familiar? A new product experiences year over year dramatic growth relative to overall supplement market growth. The product is dominated by those who pioneered it at first, but then every supplement company wants in. So is supplement personalization the new CBD?

Article

The Holy Grail of Supplement Brand Loyalty

by Peter Littell | Published on January 12, 2021
Supplement brand loyalty is top of mind with most supplement brands. As in all industries, it typically costs much more to acquire a new dietary supplement consumer than it does to retain one, and thus it behooves brands to invest in customer retention programs in addition to acquisition.

Article

What Legacy Supplement Brands Can Learn from Emerging Digitally-Native Brands

by Yadim Medore | Published on January 10, 2021
Over the last few years, dozens of new supplement brands have launched as digitally-native, direct-to-consumer brands, and they’ve received heightened consumer attention during the pandemic while everyone is working from home and scrolling through their Facebook and Instagram feeds. And because of this ever-increasing proliferation, many of the legacy brands that were for years the backbone behind what is now a $50+ billion dollar industry in the US, began to see cracks emerging in their relevancy and market share. Yet these challenges may currently be masked by the sheer force of pandemic demand.

Article

Unlocking the DSHEA Conundrum with Transparency

by Peter Littell | Published on January 3, 2021
Our research shows that that transparency can be the key to unlocking the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) conundrum: How can you tell consumers about the efficacy of your supplement without stating it explicitly?

Article

Sorry, Your Consumers’ First Go-To Solution When They’re Sick Is NOT Supplements

by Peter Littell | Published on December 7, 2020
Only 14 percent of supplement users turn to herbal and dietary supplements as their first go-to solution when they are not feeling well. It should be a sobering statistic to supplement brands that, when the going gets tough, 86 percent of supplements users’ first reaction is to go elsewhere, with 48 percent heading for the over-the-counter (OTC) shelves.

Article

Is CBD the Gateway to Dietary Supplements?

by Yadim Medore | Published on September 8, 2020
When CBD initially exploded into the market, many in the supplement industry had the perception that it could be the gateway for new consumers into the dietary supplement category. Many of our colleagues hypothesized that consumers did not see CBD as a dietary supplement but rather a miraculous plant substance derived from the heretofore forbidden cannabis plant, and that CBD’s extraordinary sales numbers were due to growth coming from outside the supplement consumer market.

Article

Legacy Supplement Rebranding: 5 Key Steps for Evaluating Brand Health

by Yadim Medore | Published on February 19, 2020
Follow the step-by-step process that a legacy supplement brand can apply to evaluate the need for a strategic rebrand. Complete with practical exercises, the assessment process addresses your legacy brand’s challenges; how differentiated your legacy brand really is within the supplement category; rebrand readiness for your legacy brand; the importance of alignment within the leadership and corporate culture; how to execute a legacy rebrand strategy with certainty and mitigate risk.

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Four Warning Signs of Legacy Supplement Brand Decline

by Yadim Medore | Published on September 3, 2019
It’s not easy being a legacy dietary supplement brand. With the supplement industry reaching revenues of $45 billion, many legacy brands are struggling to maintain their market share in an increasingly crowded and competitive market. From our experience working with legacy supplement brands, we have identified a number of warning signs that are to be ignored at one’s own peril.

Article

Why Successful Supplement Brands Don’t Lead with the Science

by Yadim Medore | Published on May 15, 2019
Science is critically important because it ensures that your products are effective, and you’re using the right ingredient in the right dose. But when everyone is making the same claims, science becomes the cost of entry at best, and just noise to the consumer at worst.

Article

Is “Making a Difference in the World” for Suckers?

by Peter Littell | Published on February 27, 2019
Addressing a major challenge that premium dietary supplement and functional food brands face in today’s marketplace: how do you convince consumers that their purchase of a food or dietary supplement “makes a difference” beyond the functional benefits? It’s a critical question for premium brands, especially those with commodity-like products.

Article

Charitable Donations in the Age of Brand Transparency

Published on December 5, 2018
Charitable giving by brands is one way to demonstrate social responsibility, but how can they do so in a way that engenders customer trust and loyalty? In an exclusive insight from our transparency consumer market research study, we explore how to frame corporate donation campaigns.

Article

Tapping Into Passion

by Peter Littell | Published on November 26, 2018
If you don’t think branding and knowing your customer are critical to your success as a natural products company (whether you’re in the dietary supplement, functional food or personal care industries), then let us draw your attention to a June 2018 Gallup and Knight Foundation survey — Perceived Accuracy and Bias in the News Media.

Article

Do Brands Lie? Most Consumers Think So

Published on November 14, 2018
Pure Branding, a strategic consulting, market research and brand development agency, today released its ROI of Transparency: A Consumer Market Research Study, which distills feedback from more than 1,000 Americans about their attitudes, perceptions and sentiment on corporate transparency, and transparency among the brands they purchase. In today's world, where most consumers think brands lie, this new report confirms that a company's level of transparency directly and positively impacts sales.

Article

Doctors Are Transitioning Faster from Conventional to Integrative Medicine

Published on August 8, 2018
In this exclusive excerpt from the Integrative Physician Market Landscape 2017, we quantify the timing of transitioning from a conventional to integrative medicine practice, and cross-reference it with length of time in practice to understand the relationships older and younger doctors have with integrative transitions.