McNeil Loads Up $80M Warchest for Benecol - Brief Article

In what will be the first major effort by a drug marketer to enter the functional food arena, Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Products is launching two varieties of cholesterol-lowering Benecol margarine this January and a line of four Benecol salad dressings next March, all to be backed by some $80 million in 1999 support that includes national TV, print, radio and FSIs, plus efforts to educate doctors and pharmacists.

McNeil acquired the North American rights to stanol ester, a pine oil based dietary ingredient said to inhibit the absorption of cholesterol, in July of last year from the Raisio Group of Finland, which successfully launched its own Benecol margarine there in February 1996. Despite continuing efforts by Unilever and Monsanto to develop similar nutrition-enhancing products in the margarine arena, McNeil will hit the U.S. first, Jan. 7, with boxes of 21 individually wrapped servings of light and regular margarine.

Both the Benecol margarine and salad dressings--8 oz. bottles of Ranch, Thousand Island, French and Creamy Italian--will retail for $5.99, significantly higher than comparable products in both categories. Per the green color code generally used in better-for-you products, Benecol packaging will feature a background of lush, rolling hills, with product usage shots superimposed over them.

Saatchi & Saatchi, N.Y., will handle an extensive ad push, and McNeil will recommend three servings of Benecol margarine per day to lower cholesterol. McNeil is dropping an FSI in February on the margarine and in April on both lines. It will also send information and samples of Benecol to 90% of cardiovascular doctors and general practitioners, and offer pamphlets for display in pharmacies.

Unaccustomed to distribution to grocery buyers, McNeil is using retail brokers to sell in the Benecol products to supermarkets, a source said.

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