Eat Right
‘Good marketing plans helped business grow’
A Cebu-based food supplement distributor continues to thrive in the health and wellness business despite stiff competition and the economic crisis.
Jonathan Guardo, president and chief executive officer of Uniherb Corp., said good marketing strategies and the assurance of product quality have been important tools in staying on top of the competition.
“It's all a matter of marketing,” said Guardo in a press conference held yesterday.
Uniherb, which was launched in 2006, has five food supplement products - Arthro, Heartbeat, Kidney Care, Diabet and Atan which is for vertigo – sold in the market.
Guardo said Uniherb is now the second most favored food supplement product distributor in the Philippine market next to Herbs and Nature which is the producer of Fitrum, Liveraid and Four G.
Food supplements sell because these are cheap, made from natural ingredients and promises no side effects, he said.
Guardo said their Arthro product got an 80 percent market share when it was first introduced into the food supplement market in 2007.
They had an Arthro user, old man who was walking backwards, for a product endorser.
Arthro now gets a 40 percent share of the market because of the entry of other similar products.
But Guardo was confident that marketing strategies and the use of former president Joseph Estrada as a product endorser would improve the product's market rating to 50 to 60 percent.
Guardo said they will launch next week their new Arthro commercial featuring Estrada.
Their Heartbeat and Kidney Care are also gaining fame and are now considered as among their top selling food supplements, he said.
“In the Philippine market, we follow the trend in the US. There is boom in natural medicine in the US in the 1970s until now because people are becoming health conscious,” he said.
He said that the vitamin and food supplement industry in the US is a multi-trillion dollar industry.
Uniherb products like Arthro are imported from the US and packaged for distribution here.
Guardo said that the food supplement industry was also affected by the economic crisis but they continue to thrive.
Since they are health conscious, people continue to patronize food supplements and vitamins, he said.
“People (especially the senior citizens) cannot skip medicines and vitamins. This continue to be a priority,” said Guardo.
Guardo said that while they have introduced five products in the market since 2006, they intend to introduce 12 more in the next three years.
This include I-berry which is a food supplement for clear vision and Slima, a slimming capsule.
Guardo said he wants to get Sen. Chiz Escudero as I-berry endorser and sexy starlet Christine Reyes as Slima endorser.
Also they intend to introduce to the market a male potency supplement called Hardman and get the controversial doctor, Hayden Kho, as endorser.
They will also be coming up with a cure all product, some liquid supplements and a beauty and whitening product, he said.
“We always make sure that our products are from the US para top notch gyud. Those coming from China and India are often of low quality,” he said.
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