sor7201s [AVivia Plan for Grow | Response Magazine RESPONSE | @erssisinc IWC Relate ares MAGAZINE RESPONSE Spies WEN {A Vivid Pian for Growth Co a2G06 Mark Holland says building on Vivisca's retail success by adding DRTV has re helped Lifes2good's U.S. operation reach new levels. (GJ svssceise 10: Print Magazine Digtal Magazine “We are after an evoltion of brand and direct Newsletter response,” says Mark Holand, Chicago-based CEO, North Amerca, of Lfes2go0d, marketer of leading hai-growth supploment Viviscal. "We came from a branding perspective and have overaid with OR methodology. But, you look at ital asa data-aeiven approach, we've always based our campaigns around return on invesiment (ROI). o, realy, we've abways had that DR mentalty DIGITAL EDITION DIGITAL EDITION DIGITAL ARCHIVES PRINT ARCHIVES Holand came to the U.S. in 2007 to head up North ‘American opsrations for the company, which 's based in Galway, land. Anatve ishman, he'd spent the previous three years ina series of sal and markating roles thal had soon him working in various counts in Europe and the Middle Eas. But whon he joined Lifes2g00d with tho mission of YOUR PREMIER ONLINE AGENCY launching dstibution ofa haircare brand inte U.S. etal, he did't know he'd found a positon that would grow to such sizo and scope. A company that had beon mainly focusod on marketing and dstrbuting products would eventually restructure inthe U.S. to build his brand, Folland and the company found intial success distributing in major national retallors ko Rte, Walgceens and CVS, as well asin professional salons and through medical ofces, But, Holland says, i Viviscal was to become a tre breakthrough brand, “We needed to relinquish our reliance oorstsl ATTA UCT with shat thought, n 2013, Vviseal Began to work on its now successful DRTY campaign that has helped push the product across nine diferent channels of distribution in the U.S. alone. DR WARKET RESEARCH 1nd to America > MEDIA BILLINGS > LONG-FORM DRTV > SHORT-FORM DRTV > DR RADIO > DRMETRIX > JORDAN WHITNEY > NIELSEN From hipshwww sesponsemagazinecor/trec-response-marketingWvvi-plan-growt 8635 4sswrr201s ‘Vivi Pan fo Growth | Response Magarine The beginning ofthis success | » SCIMARK REPORT story atetches back to the 1997 founding o sn Response is, by James H Murphy in Galan Oral a smal dron company with teie-laveh =10]] Ce =p department and warehouse, § | rsh Rosponte was rebranded 28 Liles2go0d in 2002 as its warehouse and callcontor capacity increased to serve the U.K, market Loss than a yoar later, the company launched retal distribution inthe UK. While Lifes2good was expanding, Holland earned a bachelors degree in accounting from the University of Limerick and a postgrad degree in modem management from the Unversity of Usster in Coleraine, Northern rela. “Heft roland because it was alow-growin market atthe time” Holland says. I gt into an international sales and markating role, where, intial, | was based in Belgium. Iworked on many projects, and spent tne in Barut, Essen, Germany, and Lite, France.” In this ole, Helland was tasked wih creating economic journals on these regions, prefing them from an investment and tourism perspective. "But | was looking at geting into brands and the (¢PG (consumer packaged goods) space," he says. “I had some experience, as my family has a retail business in Galway” When he visited his family in reland during the 2008 holiday season, he met wih Murphy about soting up a US. branch of Lifes2g00d, Though Lifes2g0ad did own a couple ofits own brands ‘atthe time, it remained — mainly — a brand buller and distrbutor for Ireland and the U.K market "The idea, atthe time, was to take products that nad been successfulin the US. and elsewnere internationally an bring thom to olan," says Holland. “AL the tim, twas mainly an As Seen (On TV company in ireland, wih some products inthe heath, Beauty and personal cre nos — particularly ono succosstul hair caro brand Holand moved to New York n arly 2007 with the idea of setting up distribution ofthat product into regional U.S, retailers, "Toward the ond ofthat year, we ran Into dtibution Issues with that hair care product,” Holland says, noting that the owner ofthe brand moved the manufacturing of itto China without informing the Lifes2good team, ‘Due fo this elistrbution sue, the company decided to purchase the Viviscal brane in 2008," Folland says. “represented a complate shift inthe scope of Lifes2good and what we were ‘about, We want from being a cstrbution and marketing business and moved inte having manufacturing, supply chain, and regulatory concerns. We had to completely. ‘company to build this brand structure the ‘The Vocal brand, self, nad been around since 1989, when it was developed by a group of scientist in Helsinki, Finland, asa dietary supplement o fght hairloss. “The founders had done lal rials throughout the 18908 on the product, elated to treating alopecia and immu felates har disorders.” Holland says, ‘When we bought the brand, we looked at their customer ‘database and were surprised to find that haf of it was women.” ‘And wien the Lifes2g00d team began talking wit ts customers, thay found thatthe products actually dit work beter for women. "So we repositioned the brand fr females and it axpleded” Holland says. Im early 2008, Holland moved U.S. operations to Chicago, while working on restructuring and repositioning the brand and is alos, marksting, manufacturing and regulatory processes. “twas @ stow building process,” he says. ‘We were historically @ DR frm, so moving into branding was a paradigm shift for the company. We did some pubic relations and print marketing for Viscal between 2008-10, developed our core digital marketing concepts, and spent a lot of time educating consumers while ulsng our regional retail dstrbution base. Consumers needed to understand that this isa drug-free supplement, backed by powerful lial trials, that helps grow theker, ull hae hipshwww sesponsemagazinecor/trec-response-marketingWvvi-plan-growt 8635somos |AVivid Plan or Growth | Response Magazine Holand eays thatthe long-term nature ané cost of Viviseal were also potential roadblocks that hhad to be overcome. "t's a three-month program,” he says. ‘Results arent instantaneous and 1s alfestyle commitment, So our marketing efforts — whether our webste or with our call ‘contr training — had to educate while PR and print crave the brane.” \Viviscats big break in he U.S, came in 2010 when it launched in 5,000 RteAid stores across the ‘country. “twas our frst rational account — and in 2011 and 2012, we grew mare than 300 percent each year,” Hollnd says. 1m 2012, Viiecal added national retail dstibution at CVS ‘and Walgreens — and enjoyed great PR breakthroughs, appearing twice each on popular TV shows °Dr. Oz" and “The View.” Throughout the process, Holland was not only operating the marketing efforts, but abso Keeping ‘a keen eye on Vivisca’s clinical tals and regulatory compliance. “We needed to prove that \Viviscal does what we're saying it does,” Holnd says, “And by having four chal tral in our ‘back pocket, lowed us to build the medica office elstrbution sie ofthe business” ‘All of these lferent facets had come together by the end of 2012 to create a retalland brand behemoth in he haircare space, "We had celebrity suppor, dstrioutn in more tran 22,000 U.S. stores, and a growing professional distribution operation.” Holland says. “But when we looked atte overallbusiness, we saw one way fo lassen ‘our rafance on retail and auilé Vvical info an even larger player” Untangling Direct Success “We decided to move into a long-form DRTV campaign,” Holand says. “Bulling a huge etal presence and then Jumping nto TV, seems a tle Backwards in terms of how traditional DR companies work. But we felt ike it was the perfect fi with a product that needs to got alt of Information across to our target consumer in an emotional ‘category — a lt of women feel ke thay've been burned in the past by quickfix hai growth products” ‘The move into bulding @ DR campaign was yet another sea change for Lifes2good and Viviscal. “In early 2013, we started working fon the production ane operations efforts, setting up continuity programs and the supply chain, nd the Web infrastructure, Holland says. "twas @ complete transition for the U.S, business — from haw we service our customers, to accounting, to business information” In what Holand calls an “al-nands-on- dock’ efor the Lfes2good U.S. unit ‘vansitoned from a sales and marketing effort into ‘an operations unit throughout 2013. The ‘goa? “To keep the premium look and fee! we’ bul online ane for aur reall brand, while providing the education thst only 828.5-minute show could,” Holland says. "We had to share the bbranc's 25-year history, speak about its four clinical tal, ane show how the product works betta for femal Im September 2013, the Viviscal DR campaign hit the alr ors first media test. "The ina est ‘resus showed a 0.3 to a 0.5 media efciency rata (MER) through our eal canter” Holand says, “Evan though we look at DR media asa way to lower costs for both sales and branding, our breakeven on the frnt ond ofthe campaign was a 0.7 MER, so we decided to rotresh the show and change agencies in early 2014." Moving to Tustin, Cal.-based Classitech fora production refresh was stop one. “They redid the ‘creative look and fee, changing some graphical elements, swapping pods, refreshing the caltc- action (CTA), Holland says. By second-quarter 2014, Vivisal was back on air fora second hipshwww sesponsemagazinecor/trec-response-marketingWvvi-plan-growt 8635somos |AVivid Plan or Growth | Response Magazine media test, "But wo just didnt have the buying power through that lest in order to get a true read,” Holand says. that pol, the Lifes2good team turned to Cannella Response ‘Television for its hid media test 1 “in Soptember 2074, Cannella rolled out aur third test ‘and we started to it our breakeven metres,” Holand says, “Afler testing through November, we finally began a a {ullrolout of the campaign earlier his year” own proprietary business information systems that help = while the OR campaign was slow to come together ial, that was by design. “We wore inccediblyrsk averse atthe sar of the campaign,” Holland says. "We really took baby steps, Which helped us be able to make major tweaks as we went along. We didnt ose a lt of money ‘early on. We tested slowly across two years and learned the hard way. Its bearing incredible {tut for us. Now is @ much more effective way for us to get our brand message out there. ‘As the campaign has moved forward, Helland says, the company is now sesing 30 percent ofits sales coming from the DRTV effort (wth a 65-96 splitin phone sales vs. online). We're testing ‘about 15 percent above ur target an the front end currently, ranging between 0.7 and 0.9 MER.” he says “ifs bean incredibly effective go far this year, and we contin to tweak our CTAS and our buying efforts to reach a 1.0 by years end.” Holand also credits TV Squared fr Its efforts In helping hone in on Web attrbution fr the ‘campaign, “They've realy helped us refine our front-end buying to specie networks and ‘channels that dive more Web attribution, he says, "With TV Squared, we're buying more national cable now. We saw a huge gap in certain stations across the broadcast and cable spectrum, but we've really been able to react and tweak our efforts more effectively.” Allof this has only added to ivisea’s brand and power at rela, where it stl resides in 22,000 stores. Vivseal ranks No. 2 in te hair category at Walgreens, wale Amazon ranks It No. 3 among more than $00,000 “beauty” products. Growing It Out Continuing to drive success across all of Viviscal'sdistrbution points — drugstores, mass retail, ‘grocery stores, club stores, home shopping, medical offices, professional beauty salons and spas, DRTY, and ontnelcaalog — is now Holland's key goal “Wo now operate a retail team, a DR tear and a professional team, wih 25 people between our Chicago and Vancouver locations,” Holland says, "The professional team serves salons and the modical sido, But across those three areas, during the past couple years, Ive really focused on ‘he DR side of business. Not only do drect sales have better margins, but also we've found that DR erves everything including retal and professional — wen it works" ‘ut, Holland is clear to note that DR success does not have to come atthe expense of the brand. “We purposely try to create a premium look and feel forthe brand on TV and entne, hipshwww sesponsemagazinecor/trec-response-marketingWvvi-plan-growt 8635somos |AVivid Plan or Growth | Response Magazine Holand says. “Of course, the CTAs are rooted in DR. Bul, to brand effectively while seting 2 ‘remium product at a $120 price pont, we need to bulé s'gnifleant value throughout the DR ‘campaign by maintaining that promium look and feel on TY, radio, print, and anne, Everything ‘acheres to our brand bible while educating the consumer. We have put our money nto the ‘science; we've proved the product works, wih top doctors and sists supporting those claims.” Vivi Jang DR success has als driven Lifes2good to ook at expanding ils product porto in the US. "We're launching a range of oral care and pet care products curing the next six months," Holland ‘528. “One ofthe things we're doing now, a a result of developing the DR side, i looking for brands that have over-indexed in one channel — say. in DR or in drug stores or en Amazon \We'e looking for those that have done wall ina single channel to help push them fo success in ‘other channels.” MARK HOLLAND (0 Nr nats og Mask ‘ABOUT THE AUTHOR: THOMAS HARE > pacts ake Atay Thomas ate Bookmark! diag ulicious iscnonli aang aeabook tuter Add Comment (2015 Queslx LLC. Alright reserved, Rpreduconn whole orn pals protbied, Please send any tchrical comments or questonso our webmaster. Canta Us | Tamms of vse | Sriacy Paley hipshwww sesponsemagazinecom/trec-response-marketing\vvi-plan-growt 8535