Mala McAlpin Allergan has just launched a fresh new consumer campaign for their market leading anti-wrinkle solution BOTOX®.
The video ad campaign, which has a clear target of Millennial men and women (a first for the company) lets users know that they can still look like themselves, harness natural results and retain a range of facial movements while using the product. There are several videos as part of the campaign, to be used across digital and social platforms.
“We’ve shifted the positioning to not only appeal to our core client — women that are in their 40s and older — but to also be squarely targeted at Millennials. That’s where we see the growth is for the brand,” says Allergan’s Senior Vice President of U.S. Medical Aesthetics, Carrie Strom.
The main reason preventing potential customers from using Botox, says Strom, is fear of looking unnatural. “The ‘Own Your Look’ campaign addresses this head-on, by showcasing real BOTOX® Cosmetic users in their 20s, 30s, and 40s and their authentic facial expressions in response to all sorts of life events. Our goal is to let consumers know that BOTOX® Cosmetic delivers subtle results – so they can look like themselves, just with fewer lines.”
This new campaign comes in line with Allergan’s recently announcement that it would be doubling its investment in consumer-direct advertising spending and significantly bolstering its botulinum sales force this year in an effort to combat new anti-wrinkle competitors coming to market. This new campaign comes just in time for a new market competitor on the scene, with Evolus being FDA approved for its new anti-wrinkle solution Jeuveau. Jeuveau is expected to be offered at up to 20-30% less than the cost of Allergan’s BOTOX®.
When questioned regarding the new competitor’s lower pricing, Saunders said during the Q4 Conference Call “If you looked kind of anecdotally at what happened during the Christmas season with discounting from the already existing competitors on the marketplace, it was fairly significant versus the price of Botox. And so we have been competing against very steep discounted products for years, and Botox has done very well despite that. So I don’t — I can’t speculate what they’ll do, but I don’t think there’s a lot of room to be successful with just a pure discounting strategy.”
Meury added “We don’t view it as a market share battle at this point. I don’t think toxins are interchangeable. They are definitely similar, but in the hands of very large injectors. There are differences. And even if they’re subtle, they’re important. I think there are two market segments here. There’s the branded segment, which is essentially Botox, and then there’s a non-differentiated segment. Over time, I don’t think it’s going to support more than three products. It’s not going to support four, five or six. I don’t see why an aesthetic specialist would buy inventory and inject so many different toxins. And Botox has been a practice builder for these physicians. It’s the only toxin that is requested.”
“Our focus is on maintaining it. And it’s supported by the largest sales force in aesthetics, the largest training program in aesthetics and the only — really, the only loyalty program in aesthetics. And so I think the outlook for this business over ’19 and beyond is still very good.”
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