Aiming to Make People's Every Day to be Fulfilling and in Good Health Supporting Distributors Utilizing Information and Planning Abilities
Consumer healthcare MRs handle sales of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, notably those under the Tiovita, Solmack, and Harncare brands, which can be purchased at pharmacies and drugstores. In recent years, the super-aging of society and population decline have become great concerns in Japan. The control of surging medical costs associated with these trends remains a major challenge for the future. The Japanese government’ sapproach of “self-medication,” defined as "being responsible for your own health and treating mild complaints by yourself," will be further expanded in the future. As a national policy to support this, the self-medication taxation system took effect in January 2017. With those items recognized to have significant cost reduction effects on healthcare included in the eligible items, the timeframe for the system has been extended until 2026. Raising awareness of and promoting the use of OTC medicines will become a key role for pharmaceutical companies to play.
Taiho Pharmaceutical has expanded its lineup of OTC medicines to help people cope with a variety of symptoms. We have launched various promotional campaigns to better market them to customers.
In order to further increase market presence, the consumer healthcare MRs, which deal most closely with people, actively support the creation of highly attractive sales environments and imaginative POP displays and proposals for customer events, etc., tailored for each region.
Currently, accurate information is not being sufficiently provided concerning comparatively common concerns such as mild urinary incontinence, frequent urination, liver dysfunction, and obesity, etc., despite the high demand. Our consumer healthcare MRs are therefore focusing on awareness-raising activities for these diseases, such as holding study sessions for pharmacists and registered pharmacies.
We are ramping up promotion of designated quasi-medicines under the Tiovita and Solmack brands in convenience stores and supermarkets. Our consumer healthcare MRs not only make the Taiho presence better known to people, but also help to promote consumer health with detailed product proposals that emphasize local characteristics.
Creating Brands that Continue to be Chosen by People
The consumer healthcare marketing team at Taiho Pharmaceutical gathers and analyzes information on external environments in the Japanese market as well as markets outside Japan, primarily in ASEAN and East Asian countries. Notably, the speed of technological innovation has been remarkable recently, and solutions to health challenges faced by consumers have been expanding in a wide variety of ways, including the emergence of digital services. Moreover, in a world where diverse values are respected, this is no longer a time where products can be sold simply by appealing to a unified set of values as was the case during Japan’s period of high economic growth. Even in this era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, we must make efforts to have people encounter, experience, and choose our Taiho brand out of the millions of products and services available. To achieve this, it is imperative to explore people’s insights, and we believe that if we can practice marketing that provides them with core benefits that satisfies these insights, we can create brands that continue to be chosen by people. These insights are influenced by culture and historical backgrounds, so what succeeded in Japan may not apply in other countries and regions, and strategies that worked ten years ago may no longer be effective. Therefore, we believe it is necessary to always think about and practice marketing with a consumer-centric approach.
Tiovita Drink, a flagship brand of Taiho Pharmaceutical, has won the support of many people and will celebrate its 60th anniversary in February 2024. We hope to continue giving such brands to the world. Aiming to build brands that are continually chosen by people, we will keep conducting marketing activities focused on people and aim for sustainable growth of Taiho Pharmaceutical.