Rising prices and looming tariffs are pushing consumer loyalty to waiver as many shoppers opt for the brands and products that offer the best deal, not necessarily the most recognizable name.
Within the consumer healthcare space, look at any big-box or pharmacy store display of toothpastes, antacids, or pain relievers, and you’ll quite often find private label equivalents next to brand names like Tums and Advil. But Haleon, the maker of those brands and many others, has a few strategies to keep consumers picking up its products instead, its US CMO Katie Williams told Retail Brew.
Haleon was created in 2022, spun off as an independent consumer health company from pharmaceutical giant GSK’s Consumer Healthcare business, which itself was formed through a joint venture with Pfizer’s consumer healthcare business in 2019. Its portfolio also includes brands like Sensodyne, Centrum, and Emergen-C.
The company reported strong Q1 earnings earlier this month, with 1% organic revenue growth in North America, where the “consumer and customer environment is cautious and uncertain,” Haleon’s CFO Dawn Allen noted.
“Particularly when we’re in an environment where there’s so much economic concern or volatility, you definitely see that consumers are being really choiceful about what they’re buying, where they’re buying it, how much they’re buying, and how much they trust it,” Williams said. Williams, a CPG vet who spent 20+ years at Kraft Foods and eventually Mondelez before joining GSK in 2020, shared the recent efforts Haleon has made to be a leader in the consumer health space and keep customers loyal.
Brand new: Many of Haleon’s core products are prone to low-priced private label dupes. A 160-count of Ultra Strength Tums are priced around $9.99, while counterparts from Target’s Up & Up and Walmart’s Equate are $4.99, for example. At Walgreens, a 100-count of Advil is $12.49, while the Walgreens private label equivalent sells for $8.99.
Investing in its brands through innovation has been crucial to maintain brand loyalty, Williams said. One measurement of success Haleon uses is the brand power metric—which measures a brand’s meaningfulness, difference, and salience—and that innovation has often been its point of difference, she said.
While there are many private label options within ibuprofen, Williams said Advil prides itself on “leading the category” with new solutions, like its recently released Advil Dual Action, which combines acetaminophen and ibuprofen and took several years of research and regulatory work. Other new innovations include Sensodyne Clinical White toothpaste, offering a less abrasive whitening toothpaste. The latter has helped “attract a younger demographic to the brand and has amongst the strongest repeat rates in the sector,” Allen said this month.
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Developing claims for its products through clinical studies, particularly in its oral health and pain relief businesses, is also key, giving consumers confidence the products deliver a “meaningful benefit,” Williams said. And while relationships with health experts—like dentists—are still a huge driver of new buyers to Haleon’s brands, the company is also turning more and more to creator-led content, partnering with, say, a creator that’s also a dentist.
“We really focus on being where consumers are and being relevant to them in the spaces where they want to find their healthcare information, but ensuring that we’re providing that from trusted and relevant sources,” she said.
All in: Williams said another core focus of the company is “health inclusivity,” which the company says is “the process of removing the personal, social, cultural, and political barriers that prevent individuals and communities from experiencing good physical, mental, and social health and a life fully realized,” per a definition from Economist Impact.
These include the Theraflu Rest & Recover Fund, now in its fourth year, which offers microgrants for those who don’t have access to paid sick leave. Williams noted Haleon has also increased work with state governments to push for paid sick leave policies. And this year, Sensodyne partnered with Vox Media to release a documentary called “Sensory Overload” centered around individuals who are neurodiverse or have sensory issues in dental offices, and is collaborating with the American Dental Association to create a dental student class centered around making dental offices more sensory inclusive.
“We want to make healthcare more accessible, more inclusive, and more affordable and so we really look to not only build our brands, but connect with consumers on shared values in the healthcare space,” Williams said. “That definitely has shown to, over time, improve our brand equity [and] improve the affinity and connection that consumers have with our brands.”