Marketing Supplements is Different

Marketing supplements is different than marketing other CPG brands. It comes with a unique set of challenges that other products do not have to contend with.

We are going to assume most people reading this article understand the supplement industry and the nuances of what you can and can not say when marketing your products. 

Taking a supplement is different than eating a snack or drinking a beverage. With those CPG brands, you can immediately determine by taste if you like the product. With supplements, the desired outcomes have to be judged over a long period of time while weighing in other factors to assess the desired effect.

Due to FDA regulations, the benefits supplement brands can proclaim are all the same. Every fish oil brand talks about being an excellent source of omega three and every vitamin D brand talks about supporting a healthy immune system.

Since, in fact, not all supplements are the same, teaching customers how to read ingredient labels is essential. We recommend brands outsource this through influencer marketing (more to come on this in a future post) or just provide your community with third-party resources so they can educate themselves. Doing this will give you more time to hone your brand personality and consumer demographics.

Consumer demographics – Who are you talking to when selling your supplement? It’s less about separating your demographic into gender and age and more about lifestyle and pre-existing knowledge. 

Think less about men in their thirties and more about men who eat a particular diet and adhere to a specific workout routine.

Because the benefits of taking supplements can’t be immediately noticed, we tend to focus on features you do notice, like: 

• Where is the product made
• Who is manufacturing the product 
• What else does the company do
• What is the product sold in (glass or plastic)
• Certifications 
  • For many CPG brands, certifications can be overdone for supplements; customers need reassurance that your products are safe and efficacious, so determining the partner to certify your brand is critical.

Supplement brands must have a complementary utility. Since you can not directly speak to the benefits of supplements, you need to have other engaging content to entice the consumer.

The leading utility of a supplement brand is, for example, it can reduce your cholesterol level (remember, you can’t exactly say that). The complementary utility could be:

• How it is supporting the environment. Take our client Wiley’s Finest for example. We are assisting them in a “Sustainability Beyond The Shoreline” campaign where we speak to the brands’ environmental efforts.
• The brand True Grace (not a client) does a great job of embracing its complementary utility, which is regenerative agriculture.

If you’re a supplement brand looking to improve your marketing, our agency has almost ten years of experience working with such brands, and we’d be glad to learn more about your business.