Case Study: Reinventing Tanning

Top 100 Pharmaceutical Company – OTC & Prescription Products

Manufacturer had purchased a retired, high-end tanning brand and was planning to re-introduce it to the market with enhanced ingredients. Consumer behavior and product strategies had evolved since retirement of the brand and current market focus was on SPF protection.

Reposition the refreshed brand in order to successfully relaunch it in the sun care category:

• Understand the motivations behind SPF choices
• Understand consumer tanning behavior

• Phase I: Consumer Research: Quantitative & Qualitative
  • Focus Groups: 24 focus groups were conducted in 5 areas of the country: NE, NW, SW, SE and Midwest, interviewing women aged 25-45
  • Review of Nielsen category sales data
  • Blog and bulletin board scrape and analysis
• Phase II: Analysis
  • Analysis of input
  • Matrix and spider-graph illustration of data

• A primary breakthrough concept was revealed: despite the shift to use of heavy sunscreens, women still wanted to tan, but wanted to do it safely. In addition, a luxury brand was missing from the commoditized sunscreen mass market.
• Repositioning the product as a ”safe” way to tan with a luxurious product, paved the way for the brand to exceed year 1 projections and achieve double digit CAGR in year 2.