The Homa Files

TakeAway:  The first children’s Tylenol products are returning to drugstore shelves after a long safety recall, and maker Johnson & Johnson now faces the tricky task of persuading parents to buy the pain reliever again. 

The company has taken a low-key approach and must walk a messaging tightrope, providing reassurance that it has fixed its problems without calling so much attention to them that safety concerns resurface.

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Excerpted from WSJ, “Tylenol for Kids Returns to Shelves” By Jonathan Rockoff, November 18, 2010

Bottles of the grape-flavored version of children’s Tylenol have begun reappearing in pharmacies across the country half a year after several J&J over-the-counter children’s medicines were pulled because of manufacturing problems.

The recalls have cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales and prompted a shake-up of manufacturing and management.  The quality problems included floating metal particles in the medicines and the potential for excessive concentrations of an active ingredient.

To get parents to return to Tylenol, J&J must combat not just the hit to its reputation but also the encroachment of rival brands, which have been taking over shelf space in drugstores. Cheaper private-label brands are also gaining amid the tough economy as sales of branded medicines drop.  Loyalty to Tylenol’s pain pills, a strong indication that customers will buy the product, dropped 7% in the past year, according to an annual survey in August of 35,000 Americans.  Among over-the-counter pain medicines, Tylenol ranked behind rivals Advil, Aleve and Excedrin in terms of customer loyalty after trailing only Advil in 2009.

“You don’t want to always be apologizing, because that cues the wrong response. You want to be cuing the core emotional benefits that Tylenol delivers,” said the chief executive of a company that consulted for J&J.  There are no signs in stores calling attention to the return, and packaging appears similar to the box before the recall.

Tylenol is a signature brand for J&J, which also sells prescription drugs and medical devices. The company’s swift withdrawal of the medicine during a fatal tampering episode in 1982 endeared J&J and Tylenol to generations of consumers.  Some of that goodwill persists, even after the most recent recalls.

Edit by AMW

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Full Article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703688704575620851371476806.html

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This entry was posted on November 22, 2010 at 6:25 am and is filed under Mktg - Product Recalls, Mktg - Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.