ZzzQuil awakens a sleeping giant

The sale of sleeping remedies continues to be a caffeinated business, especially across the liquids segment. The category as a whole grew by 5.9% for the 52 weeks ended April 19 with total sales of $439.6 million across total U.S. multi-outlets, according to IRI. The liquid segment, which reached $122.8 million on 14.4% growth, continues to be led by Procter & Gamble’s ZzzQuil brand, which commanded a 62.4% dollar share of the category.



The slightly larger tablet sleep aid market also continues to perform well, with $316.8 million in sales on 2.9% growth. Private-label offerings dominate the tablet end of the business, though P&G’s ZzzQuil brand possesses a 13.1% dollar share here, followed by Chattem’s Unisom SleepGels with a 9.6% dollar share.



Last year, ZzzQuil was identified as the 2013 top-selling launch in non-food health and beauty for the year by IRI’s 2013 New Product Pacesetters report, and that innovation continued to produce dividends through 2014. “Innovation in general is very, very key,” Bob Sanders, EVP of IRI told Drug Store News. “If you look at past performances, innovation drove, or was a major contributor to,  the nutritional growth we had realized over the past three years, [for example],” he said. “ZzzQuil was a great example of taking the cookbook and developing a product to [address] an unmet consumer need, while at the same time leveraging your [brand] equity in [NyQuil].”



P&G is likewise leveraging its brand equity in allergy with the launch of QlearQuil. “ZzzQuil and QlearQuil are great examples of how we can offer new benefits to consumers from a brand they already trust,” said David Taylor, P&G group president, global health and grooming.