Allergy brand promotion high in pollen season

In the past 12 months ended April 19, Zyrtec (McNeil Consumer Healthcare) continues to dominate the allergy category with total retail sales of $332 million. During the same time, Claritin, Allegra and Nasacort also displayed high retail sales (see Figure 1). Among the five top brands, the average list and retail price is $13.40 and $18.45, respectively. Zyrtec has the highest average retail price of $20.03, while Claritin has the lowest average retail price of $16.79 among the five brands evaluated.

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Nasacort has aggressively promoted since its introduction in February 2014. The average percent of units sold on promotion for Nasacort was 44% for the year, but did reach as high as 68% in April 2015. In comparison, Claritin only sold 31% on promotion during the past 12 months.



Last year, the allergy category saw an average margin increase of 4 percentage points above YAG, now at 28%. The top five brands with the highest average margin percentage were Allegra D (38%), Claritin D (35%), Zyrtec D (32%) and Zyrtec (30%) (see Figure 2).



Allergy brand sales are highly affected by spring season pollen with increased sales and promotions during the months of March and April. CPR data reveals that Chattem’s Nasacort had the highest trade spending (18%) in terms of average off-invoice and bill back allowances, while other brands were lower — Allegra (13%), Flonase (10%), Zyrtec (5%) and private label (10%).



In terms of featured activity for the allergy category, ECRM’s ad count data indicates that private label far surpassed any national brand in terms of the number of featured ads. In the last three months, private label had more than 727 circular ads while Claritin had 464, Allegra 345 and Benadryl 324 (see Figure 3).



Lastly, ECRM data indicated that price reductions are the most common type of promotion among top allergy brands. Percent of price-only promotions were:

• 
  Nasacort: 87%;


• 
  Flonase : 81%;


• 
  Allegra: 83%; and


• 
  Zyrtec: 76%.

On the other hand, Claritin had just 75% in price-only promotions.



This analysis was gathered using CPR and IRI data in terms of growth in retail sales, year-over-year margin growth and promotional spending.



CPR is a leading provider of competitive market intelligence and insights in the health, beauty and wellness industry. Learn more by visiting competitivepromotion.com.