Bandage Makers Rolling Out Specialty Products
Bandage makers, stuck in a marketing rut for decades, are taking the wraps off new advertising campaigns to let consumers know the adhesive strips are now offering high-tech solutions for all kinds of assorted hurts.
Until recently, nothing much had changed in the business since the advent of the Band-Aid in 1921--apart from the competition to see who could plaster the most cartoon characters and wild designs on their products.
But bandages are getting serious, with a new wave of technologically enhanced products vying to awaken this sleepy category of medicine cabinet staples.
All three of the major bandage players--Band-Aid maker Johnson & Johnson, Curad maker Futuro Inc. and 3M--plan major introductions in an effort to create a premium-priced bandage segment with products that bring hospital technology into the home.
They will pump an estimated $20 million in new advertising into a category that spent less than $1 million last year. Ad spending is expected to grow even more in future years as these marketers endeavor to educate consumers about new wound care techniques.
“What you’ll see in five or six years is that people will be treating wounds radically differently,” said Tom Hall, marketing category director for personal health care at Futuro, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based company leading the charge for home use of hospital healing technology.
This month, Futuro was scheduled to introduce a four-product line of bandages backed by an ad budget of $4 million to $6 million, and another $6 million in promotion and sampling dollars. New Futuro agency TBWA Chiat/Day, New York, will handle the effort, with print ads and attached samples scheduled to break in May.
“We’re real excited about this,” Hall said. “It’s a marketer’s dream to be able to bring new value to a category.”
Futuro is drawing from the technological strength of its new parent, Beiersdorf AG of Hamburg, Germany, which acquired the company, then known as Kendall-Futuro, from Tyco International Ltd. some 14 months ago.
The Advanced Curad bandage line-up consists of Sof-Gel, Blister-Care and Cool Wrap for burns, which use the same water-based gel technology that hospitals use; and Aqua-Protect, which uses a waterproof film that keeps water and germs out, while letting air in. The Advanced Curad line is priced at a premium, ranging from $3.70 to $4.49, nearly twice the retail price of generic bandages.
Futuro’s new products fly in the face of conventional wisdom about wound care: Keep it dry and let it scab. The bandages create a moist healing environment that prevents the buildup of scar tissue and allows the wound to heal faster, Hall said. Getting this message to consumers won’t be easy, and it will take several years, he said.
Promoting itself as the family brand, Curad has a 15.6% share of the $404-million bandage category, according to Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. In the kid-popular arena of licensed character bandages, Curad leads the pack, with a 35% share, Hall said.
Futuro, however, hopes its Advanced line will capture a 25% share of the $100-million premium segment, which last year grew by 8%.
However, Band-Aid owner Johnson & Johnson, which still dominates the bandage category with a market share of 53%, according to researcher Information Resources, intends to meet this competitive threat head-on, introducing three new products with a budget of $9 million and its first TV advertising in six years.
“Band-Aid is [Johnson & Johnson’s] exclusive domain. Curad is kind of an interloper. They’re not going to let anybody get an advantage on them,” said Paul Kelly, president of Silvermine Consulting Group, a Westport, Conn., marketing consulting company.
Johnson & Johnson’s new Band-Aid offerings include Band-Aid Antibiotic, with a double-antibiotic embedded in the pad; Band-Aid Water Block Plus, a waterproof bandage; and Band-Aid Sensitive Skin.
Johnson & Johnson initially announced the launch of its antibiotic bandage last year, but it was delayed for internal reasons, a spokeswoman said.
“We’ll be sampling the products pretty broadly through a number of vehicles,” said Rodney Williams, group products director at J&J; Consumer Products.
TV and print ads from McCann-Erickson, New York, break this spring and run though September. It has new products hitting shelves this month that will be priced between $2.29 and $2.99, compared with the $1.89 to $1.99 price for Band-Aid’s base products.
Meanwhile, 3M, which entered this market in 1994, isn’t sitting still. It also plans a product introduction, Clean Seals, a waterproof bandage. In addition, 3M plans to back its Active Strips and Comfort Strips with TV advertising, 3M’s first ever for the brand, from Martin Williams Advertising, Minneapolis. Ads will run in the peak bandage season, April through September.
Whether consumers will accept these new higher-priced products is still uncertain, said Kelly of Silvermine Consulting. “It will all come down to marketing,” he said.
