The third brand to enter the market, outspent by Nicorette and with low umbrella brand awareness, Glaxo SmithKline?s new NiQuitin CQ Lozenge had to work hard to get a foothold in the market.
Anyone who is struggling to quit smoking tends to seek out any information that can help them. They are also particularly vulnerable to cravings at certain times (e.g. as they awake). Because these consumers are naturally drawn to relevant messages from a variety of sources, a multi-media solution can give the impression that the brand is there whenever help is needed. Our ?Quitting Is My Life? strategy was a multi-media strategy that would truly surround quitters.
A number of key insights helped shape our strategy. Among them was the belief that most attempts to quit start on Monday. In order to prove this, we used an e-mail survey, focus groups of pharmacists and GPs, and analaysed sales data.
MediaCom responded by focusing all Patch TV messages into Sunday and Monday, thereby allowing us more weeks on air. Nicotine withdrawal in the body means that most quitters suffer from morning cravings, and this is a time when many feel at their most vulnerable. Radio allowed us to focus communication first thing in the morning, with unique 60 radio advertorials that followed a ?real life? quit attempt every morning. Buying 6-sheets close to pharmacies also enabled us to communicate close to the point of purchase.
Brand awareness more than doubled. Category sales grew by 20% year on year. Total NiQuitin CQ share grew by 70%, and there was no cannibalisation (NiQuitin CQ Patch sales remained stable). The MediaCom communication strategy has now been used as a blueprint for the launch of the CQ Lozenge throughout the world.
"It is impressive to see the effect that an impactful media strategy can have on a brand. MediaCom convinced us that we could be much smarter in the way we advertised, using an impactful multi-media approach rather than TV only. The results speak for themselves."
