5.4 Dr. Paul's Turbo Vitapills for Women
Customized vitamin pills and supplements are offered with two associated transformation programs: (1) permanent power and (2) exhilerating energy.
Program One: Transform your body to turbocharged power over the long term.
Program Two: Find sparkling new energy and enjoy the exhileration.
Concept
One provides custom vitamin pills over the Internet and through select retail outlets. These include upscale gyms and perhaps health food stores as well. Premium branding is a must. Naturally there would be a counterpart offering: Dr. Paul's Turbo Vitapills for Men.
Not too many people in developed countries nowadays are diagnosed with some kind of avitaminosis, such as rickets (lack of vitamin D and calcium) or scurvy (lack of vitamin C). In fact overdosing on those vitamins that accumulate in the body is more likely to be a health issue than any deficiency. Eating a decent amount of fruits and vegetables provides all that is needed for most people. Nevertheless, there is a large vitamin market. Capturing one’s share of it depends on packaging and selling a dream, i.e. on branding.
A similar business, in fact in the U.S. an entire industry, is built around the no-brainer of losing weight. The short solution is: “Eat less. Exercise more.” There it is, four words; all the advice you will ever need. Now, as Nike says, just do it.
The long version is: “Put the fork down. Walk around a few of hours every day. At the end of a month, you will weigh less.” Twenty-one words, quintuple the short version, who could possibly need more advice than that? Yet all kinds of diet books and programs sell like hot cakes, with yet another bestseller being an annual event.
Creating the Product
With vitamins there are two major pieces of information: 1) are you pregnant, 2) what is your body mass. One can finetune the result by getting a blood test, a procedure which is a necessity for premium branding. In the U.S. laboratories that provide this service include:
- Metametrix
- Doctor's Data
- Genova Diagnostics
- Quest Diagnostics
- Spectracell.
A company like Metabolic Maintenance like will custom make your vitamins for you based on the results.
A second possibility is to go to a company such as Nutrition Manufacturer in the U.S. It offers Private Label runs for as little as 60 bottles. The capsules can contain a mixture of ingredients you select from a list of about 315. They range from ACA1 Berrry Zinc Gluconate. Nutrition Manufacturer is actively seeking (June, 2011) joint venture partners to develop internationally.
A third is to look into offshoring the custom made pills, perhaps with an herbal component, in China.
Marketing
Market share will be a function of branding. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Xing and the like) may well be key business drivers. Naturally customers should be offered a content rich website with exercise and nutritional information. Customizing one’s order, from the duration of the time release capsule, its color and flavoring (if any) to the color and type of packaging should all be easy to navigate, very user friendly.
One could also consider developing a vending machine that mixes and packages your vitamins right on the spot as part of the products the vending machine carries.