Allergan Medical
Making purple the new black
Launching a new premium priced proposition into the physician dispensed facial aesthetics market required a disruptive approach to brand positioning and visual identity. The brand we created is now a $350m global franchise.
Client
- Allergan Medical
Project
- New brand creation
Program
- Research
- Positioning
- Architecture
- Brand idnetity
- Visual identity
- Naming
- Packaging design
- Structural design
- Trade communication
- Consumer communication
- Collateral & campaigns
The brief
Allergan’s acquisition of the Corneal and Innamed businesses in France created the opportunity to combine and exploit the newly conjoined brand and formulation assets to launch a new hyralonic acid filler proposition to facial aesthetic practitioners, initially within the EMEA region.
The market at this time was generally very fragmented with only one brand, Restylane from Q-Med having by far the largest share. Our challenge was to first understand and then disrupt the category norms to create a new cut through brand and proposition.
What we did
Our initial competitive audit showed the category to be almost exclusively dominated by traditional, medical problem-solution language and imagery. Research we conducted amongst current consumer users and considerers revealed a desire to feel more positive and pampered than current brands in the category promised, with a more natural outcome than other facial aesthetic treatments. Further research amongst practitioners and healthcare professionals revealed a relatively undifferentiated range of products and brands.
Our positioning work promised ‘beauty reborn’ focusing both on the functional benefit of improved patient comfort and a more natural yet aspirational, glamorous aesthetic outcome.
The results
Research confirmed our hypothesis that the rich purples and silvers would clearly convey a luxurious, prestige brand. Bold hero photography shot underwater in a submersion tank further added a feeling of glamour and modernity in a category dominated by medical whites, blues and greens.
Supported by our detailing and trade marketing support the brand rapidly achieved wide distribution and 15% market share within one year from launch in EMEA. Other regions were soon able to adopt the brand to create a major new global franchise now worth in excess of $350m YOY and winning a design effectiveness gold award along the way.
