Swisse is back stateside, ramps up brand awareness with Wanderlust 108 partnership
The event series dubs itself as the ‘world’s only mindful triathlon,’ where attendees run, meditate, and do yoga in a local park.
Sponsoring and creating brand presence in sporting events is a marketing strategy that Swisse Wellness uses regularly in its native soil Australia, where it is the leading vitamin and supplement brand in terms of sales. It didn’t get to do so stateside during its short stint of reaching the US masses in 2013 before pulling out of the market in 2014 to focus on growth in other markets.
This time around, Swisse Wellness will travel to six of Wanderlust’s events across the country, kicking it off with the Brooklyn event on Sept. 9, followed by Philadelphia, Washington DC, Detroit, Tampa, and Austin.
“The events really touch on our core customer-base, the ‘wellness warriors,’” Kimberly Weld, Head of North America at Swisse Wellness told us. “We will be sampling products, we’ll be educating consumers about the quality of our products—basically introducing a whole new set of customers to Swisse.”
Despite US hiatus, American consumers were ordering anyway
Swisse re-entered the US market last September after a three-year hiatus. Orders from US consumers on the company’s global ecommerce site during this break was validation that there is still demand for the brand’s products.
“The things that makes Swisse really unique are the quality and research,” Weld said. “We’re not just a commodity vitamin company, we’re a complex formulation company.”
In fact, the brand funds clinical trials examining the efficacy of its finished, formulated products that get published in peer-reviewed journals, for example this 2012 study in Physiology and Behavior which found that the Swisse Women’s 50 + Ultivite may boost brain activity in elderly women.
The brand is also boosted by the fact that supplements are regulated as drugs in Australia, which gives Swisse an edge in terms of quality.
So far, in terms of sales, its first year back in the US has been amazing, Weld said, though she didn’t share specific numbers. “I think we have been off to an even bigger success that anyone would’ve expected.”
Swisse: Strong sales performance in Australia, China, in 2018
Sales of Swisse supplement products rose 29.3% in the first half of 2018, due to strong growth momentum in Chinese and Australian markets, according to interim financial results for six months ended 30 June 2018.
In Australia, strong marketing and sponsorships of sports events such as the Winter Olympics and Australian Football League have driven sales.
As for China, H&H continued Swisse’s earlier success in cross border e-commerce (CBEC) by introducing Swisse to more platforms.
Focus on e-commerce, then northward expansion
Swisse tried to tackle the US mass market back in 2013, with distribution deals with bricks-and-mortar Walgreens and Duane Reade stores nationwide.
For its second time stateside, the company is focusing on ecommerce “because we wanted to focus so strongly on education and messaging in a way that conveyed the quality and heritage of the brand,” Weld said, “with an eye towards bricks-and-mortar shortly thereafter.”
In the near future, Swisse will start focusing on expanding its presence in Canada. At the moment, in addition to the online-only presence in the US, Swisse products are available in Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore, the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands.
According to a statement from the company, this year Swisse products ranked first for online vitamin sales in China, while its multivitamins ranked number one in sales in New Zealand and number two in Singapore. It is an overall category leader for vitamins and supplements in its home country Australia.
The company also said it is planning to launch in up to 30 countries in the next five years.
