How to Position Prevacid 24HR
It was reported in the Wall Street Journal (11/11/09) that Novartis this week will launch Prevacid 24HR into the already crowded OTC market for heartburn drugs.
The launch will be supported by the largest ever OTC ad campaign reported to be $200 million.
The aim is to build OTC sales in the face of Prevacid’s impending loss of patent protection and the inevitable onslaught of cheap generics.
Despite the huge ad blitz, some analysts believe it will be tough going for Prevacid 24 given that:
1) Prevacid 24HR is essentially a parity product, that “works in a similar fashion” to P&G’s Prilosec OTC, which dominates the market. There are also “numerous private label knockoffs of Prilosec OTC.
2) Prevacid 24HR will be priced at least 10% higher than Prolosec OTC, and considerable more than generic copies.
We would add another watch-out to the analysts list.
Namely, that Prevacid 24HR is not optimally positioned relative to competition. The advertising tagline, usually a good indication of how a brand is positioned, is reported to be: Prevacid 24HR: When you’ve had it with heartburn. Pretty generic .
Clearly, Prevacid 24HR is banking on its awareness and reputation as a pharmaceutical brand to carry over into the OTC market. As a spokesperson for Novartis says: Consumers can now “use a very effective and trusted compound that has been a prescription agent for the last 15 years. And now it’s available in a much more convenient and accessible format. This is a huge benefit for the consumer. Physicians have learned to use and trust it, patients have learned to use and trust it.”
But is that positioning really enough to effectively challenge and displace already well-entrenched competition in the frequent heartburn sufferer segment of the category? Especially, when the main competitor, Prilosec, “The Round the Clock Heartburn Blocker,” is the brand that wrote the book on ethical to OTC conversion.
