Director of consumer healthcare marketing at Sanofi, Marilia Zanoli explains the positioning of the group’s brands
Sanofi has been in Brazil for over 100 years. The company’s consumer unit has six launches planned by the end of the year, the most recent being the rebranding of Targifor, a vitamin brand that expanded its portfolio to position itself as a masterbrand, and the launch of Dorflex Max.
The consumer unit comprises non-prescription medicines and has brands such as: Allegra, Dorflex, Novalgina, Enterogermina, Targifor and Dulcolax.
Although each one has its own particularities, they all carry the concept and narrative of raising awareness of the business unit, which reiterates its commitment to helping people lead a healthy and productive life, with their health in their hands, says Marilia Zanoli, director of consumer healthcare marketing at Sanofi, in the following interview.
What are Sanofi’s leading brands in sales?
First, I would like to contextualize our business unit. Sanofi has four business units (vaccines, medicines for rare diseases, prescription medicines and our business unit, consumption). Consumer Healthcare at Sanofi comprises non-prescription medicines and consumer products, which are one of Sanofi’s main lines of activity in Brazil. We are concerned with the most common problems that affect a large part of the population, such as headaches and muscle pain, allergic rhinitis, the range of vitamins and the gastrointestinal area, and, for this, we have a vast portfolio of brands such as: Allegra, Dorflex (100% Brazilian brand), Novalgina (a century-old brand), Enterogermina, Targifor and Dulcolax, among others. Although each one has its own particularities, they all carry the concept and narrative of raising awareness of the business unit, which reiterates its commitment to helping people lead healthy and productive lives, remembering, more than ever: health is in your hands than our mission.
And what about brand positioning?
Dorflex, the best-selling medicine in Brazil, is the best-selling non-prescription medicine, according to the BrandZ ranking of the 50 most valuable Brazilian brands, surpassing 478 competitors. Exactly 56 Dorflex tablets are sold every second in Brazil. The most recent campaign, Leave it to me, shows real people who used creativity to succeed in their careers, such as the mobile barbershop or the hyper-realistic cake baker. Now Novalgina is a medicine that completed 100 years in 2022, and at this moment it has a look beyond pain, we understand the importance of the person who is in the position of caregiver, playing a central role in our campaigns, after all, who does not have a history with Novalgina? This is a way of going beyond medicine and creating a connection with the public.
Now Allegra Pediatric is the only brand of anti-allergy products without parabens and lactose, the No. 1 brand of anti-allergy products in Brazil, now has a new formula. In addition to not causing drowsiness and not hindering children’s academic development, Allegra Peditrico is free from lactose and parabens. The brand also offers products with action power twice as fast as the loratadine molecule. Communication reinforces Allegra’s superiority and speed on the brand’s main platforms. In addition to digital actions, from October onwards there will also be point-of-sale materials.
What are the planned releases by the end of the year?
The probiotics brand Enterogermina, a leader in probiotics, launched the Ready player mom campaign, to warn about the dangers of the typical gamer diet, and got the mothers of some players in Brazil to invade, with hyper-realistic avatars, the matches of their friends. children during lives, with the Ready player mom campaign. With the help of Druid Gaming, the action created by MRM Spain recruited the mothers of influencers, such as Nobru, Flakes Power, Scorpion and Lipao, who were surprised by their mothers’ avatars within the gameplay. The action won this year’s Cannes Lions. The brand also held for the third consecutive year the Voc comprar & Enterogermina doa action, in continuation of its mission to reduce child mortality caused by acute diarrhea, considered the second biggest cause of child mortality in the world, according to the WHO (World Health Organization). and Unicef (United Nations Fund). This year, the focus was on the Munduruku region. Consistently, we were able to increase the number of customers (pharmacy chains participating in the campaign) with 13 chains currently participating. As for the Dorflex brand, which has been here for 50 years, we learned first hand that we will have the launch of Dorflex Max, a historic moment in Consumer Healthcare at Sanofi, which will revolutionize the analgesics market. Dorflex Max has an exclusive formula with twice as much muscle relaxant and analgesic in a single tablet, a powerhouse against intense body pain.
Was Targifor only aimed at middle-aged people? What led to the expansion of this brand’s portfolio?
Targifor is a vitamin supplement designed to improve the immunity of the general public. And it recently underwent a giant transformation, which was the change in positioning and delivery of a portfolio of innovative solutions focused on immunity for the entire family. We announced a new institutional campaign with journalist Cleber Machado to consolidate our positioning as a masterbrand in the vitamins segment. The campaign communication brought the meme Hoje no? Hoje sim!, by the sports narrator, widely known due to a narration episode of Formula 1. By reframing the phrase, Targifor brings a more positive ending to Hoje sim, after all, With Targifor, every day Hoje, sim!. The campaign full of personality, irreverent tone of voice and lots of humor. The new complete portfolio of solutions consists of: Targifor Cewin, pure vitamin C to support the immune system; Targifor+C, with vitamin C + Arginine, which in addition to strengthening the immune system, guarantees more energy; and Targifor AZ, with vitamins and minerals with various benefits to take care of your health as a whole. The novelty reiterates the commitment to the consumer, seeking innovative science-based solutions that are relevant tools for self-care. In this new moment, the campaign wants to reinforce that, in this world of increasingly unpredictable weather, where four seasons happen on the same day, having prepared immunity is essential to face any situation.
What is Dorflex’s position in sales and what new developments will come to the brand?
As I said, Dorflex is the best-selling prescription-free medicine, according to the BrandZ ranking of the 50 most valuable Brazilian brands, surpassing 478 competitors. The new campaign, Leave it to me, tells real stories of workers from different regions of Brazil, who reinvented themselves to continue progressing. Thus, it highlights the challenges faced in each profession, the concern to keep the consumer at the center and how much Brazilians fight for their goals, not letting anything get in the way of their journey, not even pain, as Dorflex acts on pain so that people continue to progress in health. The brand is 100% Brazilian and has been helping consumers for over 50 years to progress painlessly, so we felt the need to bring them to the center of communications, with the aim of bringing consumers even closer by highlighting real stories and aspects of regionality to generate identification with the public through real characters: the barber and his mobile salon, the performance teacher in the classroom, the surfer with his plastic bottle board and so many other Brazilians with incredible stories. This is certainly a campaign that focuses on connecting with the consumer, as it brings representation to all regions of Brazil. In short: Dorflex, this brand that is over 50 years old, is experiencing three major moments: extraordinary stories campaign, launch of Dorflex Max and CBLOL.
Read the full interview in the October 23 edition
