A few terms come to mind for a consumer considering a dietary supplement: side effect-free, natural and safe, just to name a few. So it’s no surprise that the pharmaceutical industry, with its pages of sometimes alarming side effects and chemical-laden ingredient lists, is often painted as a competitor of the dietary supplement industry.
But when it comes to heart health, supplement manufacturers are finding ways to bridge differences, work together with pharmaceuticals and even benefit from their success.
“We need to assert here that retailers should not cross the line to deliver an ‘either natural or pharmaceutical’ message,” encouraged Sunil Kohli, chief operating officer of Health Plus Inc. (Chino, CA). “In many cases, people need the pharmaceuticals to do the job in the beginning, and then they may be able to slowly wean down or off, depending on how committed they are to changing their dietary habits and the regularity of having their cholesterol levels checked to see any trend.”
For Paula Hanek, brand manager at Enzymatic Therapy (Green Bay, WI), supplements might be the starting point of treatment. “The primary target for our HeartMatters line is the consumer that has been told by their healthcare professional that they are in the ‘pre’ stages for a certain condition,” she said. “They are experiencing cholesterol or blood pressure levels that are becoming a concern. They have not reached a level where prescription medication is needed, but need to do something to ward off the need in the future.”
But Eileen Sheets, managing director of Bioforce USA (Ghent, NY), stressed that perhaps the most healthy balance can be attained by using pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements together. “We are proponents of integrated health solutions and that includes proper medications as prescribed by doctors. Lipitor is a great example of a pharmaceutical that does the job it is intended for: lowering cholesterol levels,” she explained. “We suggest that dietary supplements can ‘buddy up’ with pharmaceutical therapy and that responsible retailers advise their heart-health consumers to let their doctors know about which supplements they take.”
Additionally, as Kohli pointed out, pharmaceuticals such as Lipitor that have such a wide media reach can yield heightened mass awareness that cholesterol is not only controlled by food consumption, but that it varies and can be inherent in the individual depending on one’s own production of cholesterol. “They also send the strong message: you can control your cholesterol and you should,” he said.
“The prevalence of advertising for these cholesterol-lowering drugs underscores the simple yet compelling message: take care of your heart,” agreed Sheets. “Plus, examining the long list of possible side effects drives home the benefit of supporting your heart health before a pharmaceutical becomes necessary.”
First Step: Awareness
But it’s not just pharmaceutical advertisements that have contributed to the widespread awareness of heart health.
“Smoke-free laws and campaigns from the American Heart Association like Go Red for Women and the Red Dress/The Heart Truth® [of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, an organization of the United States Department of Health and Human Services] have sparked a global trend in supporting and becoming aware of heart disease, especially in women,” explained Trisha Sugarek, national educator and research and development specialist at Bluebonnet Nutrition Corporation (Sugar Land, TX).
Wear Red Day is February 5, intended to build awareness that heart disease is the No. 1 fatal disease in women, but retailers can take advantage of the entire month of February—National Heart Health Month—to raise awareness for Go Red for Women, a program of the American Heart Association. Go Red for Women not only raises awareness and provides tips for women looking to improve heart health, but supports legislation such as The HEART for Women Act, which seeks improved screening and treatment of heart disease in women, and the Women’s Health Insurance Fairness Act, which would prevent individual insurance plans from charging women higher premiums than men because of their gender.
Developed in March 2001, The Heart Truth is a national awareness campaign for women and also is a prime supporter and promoter of Wear Red Day. The Heart Truth campaign warns women about heart disease and provides tools to help them take action against its risk factors. It is primarily targeted to women aged 40-60, the ages at which a woman’s risk of heart disease begins to increase. Most people recognize the Red Dress as a prominent heart disease symbol because of The Heart Truth’s efforts since 2002 to deliver a wake-up call to American women.
What’s more, according to Sheets, is that heart health supplement ingredients are now featured in more foods and beverages than ever before, opening up the category to those who might not have been supplement buyers otherwise. Perhaps because of these developments, Sugarek explained, consumers are more knowledgeable than ever about the risk factors that are associated with heart disease: age, gender, diet, exercise level, smoking, alcohol consumption, weight, abdominal obesity, blood lipid levels (cholesterol, triglycerides and phospholipids), lipoprotein profiles (VLDL, LDL, IDL, HDL and chylomicrons), blood pressure, homocysteine levels and genetic factors.
While Atlanta, GA-based Return to Eden does not currently utilize heart health campaigns in store to promote products, General Manager Martin Karon noted that “a lot of the customers are aware of it, see things on television and come in asking about heart health.” In this way, a store doesn’t even need to promote Heart Health Month to reap the benefits of it.
“Heart health supplements always enjoy high awareness,” Sheets said. “It is hard to pick up a magazine today without reading an article on the importance of taking care of your heart. The challenge is to turn that awareness into self-activism, meaning to motivate exploration, trial and loyalty to the heart health dietary supplement category.”
February is National Heart Health Month!
Nothing can encourage this exploration of supplements more than an engaging merchandising plan, and lucky for retailers, February is the best time to promote heart health products.
First, Sugarek suggested that retailers cross merchandise heart health supplements with heart healthy foods on an end cap, and even incorporate a “heart healthy pyramid” featuring the supplements and foods, and how they can work together to achieve optimum heart health. Retailers need not sell these foods in the store—just showing the connection might be enough for some shoppers to associate their eating habits with the supplements that can help them the most.
If the store does happen to feature grocery in addition to supplements, placing the foods with the supplements can drive this point home a little more explicitly. Or, as Sheets suggested, retailers can place little cards in the produce section by those foods that are heart healthy. “Make placards near whole grains or fish that say ‘Part of a Heart Healthy Diet!’ or place the cards on shelves with the heart health supplements,” she said. “This sends a clear and consistent message, and serves as a reminder for shoppers, which may ultimately result in a larger checkout.”
“Additionally, you could provide a basket of fresh fruit and veggies, addressing the requirement that Americans get five to nine servings of fresh produce everyday for healthy living,” Sugarek added.
Sugarek also recommended, since heart health is such an expansive category, to divide the product section into easy-to-understand categories like blood pressure health (which can feature cocoa extract, grape seed extract or vitamin C), healthy cholesterol (which can feature red yeast rice or plant sterols), healthy triglyceride levels (featuring omega-3s), antioxidant support (featuring CoQ10, vitamin D or flax oil), low homocysteine levels (displaying vitamins B6 and B12, and folic acid) or maintaining a healthy weight (drawing attention to weight loss or satiety supplements).
Indeed, this can become overwhelming, even for the most informed shopper. “Focus on one particular heart health subcategory or pick three popular items across the heart health categories for an overall heart health approach,” Sugarek suggested to alleviate some of the burden.
But February isn’t the only time to merchandise these products, as Kohli pointed out, as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and New Year’s (appealing to resolutions) can make for interesting displays. “When it comes to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, retailers can create wellness gift baskets that include some heart healthy supplements, some natural body care products, teas and books,” he said.
Supplement Decisions
Especially in recent years, multivitamins have been boasting heart health properties in additional to general wellness support. And while this might be a trend, manufacturers and retailers are convinced that condition-specific products for heart health are the better bet at retail—whether that means a singular ingredient or a combined formulation for the heart.
Karon’s customers, for example, aren’t looking for a multivitamin with added heart benefits. “That’s something that they can get at a supermarket,” he said. “When our customer comes in, they’re looking for more than that. They’ll look for a solid multivitamin and then they’ll look for a heart health supplement to add to it.”
Similarly, Doris McNamee, owner of Shelbyville, TN-based Nature’s Health rarely meets customers looking for an added-benefit multivitamin. “A multivitamin should be a nutritional baseline,” she said. “Our customer will choose a multivitamin and then look for a different product specific to heart health to add to their regimen.”
“Multivitamins are the perennial foundations and often the introduction to other targeted supplements,” agreed Kohli. “But the beauty of condition specific is that people can build and customize their supplemental nutritional input based on their particular needs.”
Carilyn Anderson, sales and marketing executive at J.R. Carlson Laboratories, Inc. (Arlington Heights, IL), noticed that while the company’s single vitamin and fish oil products have had success, the heart health formulations are most popular because they have been specially formulated with multifaceted cardiovascular health in mind, and customers respond to that.
“I believe single ingredients like Bluebonnet’s Natural Omega-3 Heart Functional Fish Oil work effectively and sell very well for triglyceride health because omega-3 naturally inhibits triglyceride synthesis in the liver,” said Sugarek, noting on the success of supplements boasting one heart health ingredient. “However, when it comes to cholesterol concerns, Bluebonnet’s combination formula CholesteRice™ Red Yeast Complex [which combines red yeast rice, plant sterols, pantethine, CoQ10 and sugar cane wax derived policosanol] is the best choice and is a top seller nationally.”
Still, for Hanek, combination products can be intimidating to new customers. “Consumers are much more aware and readily accepting of the basics such as fish oil and CoQ10,” she said. “The same can be said about healthcare professionals—not all are aware that specialized formulas are available to their patients.”
Indeed, Karon’s customers are most often requesting single ingredient products like fish oil or flax seeds because of something they’ve read or seen on television—but it’s not always what they go home with. “They’ll ask for that specifically but we try to take a step back and see why they’re looking for fish oil or flax seeds and then see if there’s something better out there to help them,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a single ingredient and sometimes it’s a formulation.”
“The majority of people are coming in because their doctors are sending them in for a fish oil or something like that. People will ask for a fish oil by name,” agreed McNamee. “Our customer is informed about what to ask for, but sometimes a combination product is what they end up with.”
Ultimately, though, Sugarek concluded with what is perhaps the most obvious solution to the formulation versus single ingredient conundrum: “Overall, it depends on your customers’ needs which products are promoted for their health and benefit.”
