Page 25 - RPA May 2020

6 MINUTES WITH ... 23
Peter Smith CEO, fisiocrem Australia
With new year resolutions well underway, many people will be out pounding the pavement, hitting personal best times at local parkruns or lifting weights at the gym. But with extra training comes muscle aches and pains
– in places you never knew you had muscles. Enter: fisiocrem. This month, Retail Pharmacy Assistants’ Margaret Mielczarek sits down with fisiocrem CEO Peter Smith to get the lowdown on what he describes as the must-have addition to your gym bag.
Talk us through the product.
What is it and how did it come about? First introduced in Australia in
July, 2009, fisiocrem is a massage cream, developed for the temporary relief of muscular aches and pains.
It has a large following across both active and non-active people, along with a huge following among the elderly. fisiocrem contains natural plant extracts of arnica, calendula and hypericum, which we extract in our purpose-built facility to our exacting standards, ensuring every tube of fisiocrem is always exactly the same. fisiocrem has a pleasant fragrance, which quickly fades away. People like using it because it doesn’t have a strong odour.
Since its introduction to Australia in 2009, fisiocrem has been growing every year since, focusing on the practitioner market for the first five or six years.
We started selling into pharmacy because we had a lot of customers going into pharmacy and asking for
the product. Today, we’re in practically every pharmacy.
What is the target market for
the product?
fisiocrem is designed for everyone with muscular aches and pains. Everyone hurts from time to time, some more than others. At the end of the day, we can all experience muscle aches and pains, so we see fisiocrem as a product everyone should keep in their bathroom cupboard.
We also have a large market of athletes across a wide range of
sports who use the product to help them recover between training and competition. Some experience muscle aches and pains on a daily basis,
and therefore have become part of our bigger target market due to their consistent need for fisiocrem.
You work with athletes and ambassadors. Tell us more about this. How effective is this from a
marketing perspective?
We have a large community of sponsored athletes who use fisiocrem
to help achieve their goals. We sponsor athletes from all walks of life, and from many sports, such as netball with our sponsorship of the Queensland Firebirds, touch rugby with our sponsorship of Queensland Touch Football, hockey players, mountain bikers, cyclists, golfers, bowls players, those training to run their first parkrun or their first marathon, along with those who are training to qualify for the Olympics.
Our sponsored athletes, who are a very passionate community, absolutely love the product and continue to promote it throughout their communities. This strategy continues to widen our reach and has played a large role in the success of fisiocrem.
What makes fisiocrem stand out
from its competitors?
As a product, fisiocrem works.
It’s also made from plant-based active ingredients, which people tell us they like. At the end of the day people are looking for a product that provides them with the relief they’re looking for.
As a brand, fisiocrem cares about the community through our ongoing support of everyday athletes, events, charities and organisations, which come to us seeking help with fundraising.
fisiocrem has been in the Australian market for more than 12 years. What are the keys to the company’s success? Firstly, a successful brand begins with
a quality product. fisiocrem is created with the best possible ingredients, and it works. Once you have a good product,
it’s all about getting people to use your product. As mentioned, we sponsor athletes and sporting events across Australia. Our strategy has been simple: we aim to get the product into people’s hands. We’re so confident in fisiocrem, we know that once people try it, they’ll be hooked.
We also have a great team of employees who all passionately contribute to the success of fisiocrem.
fisiocrem is marketed as a more natural, plant-based, herbal remedy.
Why did you decide to go down the natural route?
The product itself is made from the plant ingredients arnica, calendula
and hypericum, along with tea tree.
I’ve been involved in the manufacture and selling of plant-based products
for more than 20 years. There are
good pharmaceutical products in the market, but we’ve always strived to give people an alternative. This is especially important in today’s society where people are more conscious about the products they use on their body.
What are the core values of the business? How are these reflected and incorporated in day-to-day operations? We care about supporting the community and creating effective products. We get approached with opportunities to help support athletes and charities just about every day and we strive to fulfil these requests to the best of our ability.
What does the future hold for fisiocrem?
Things are only going to get bigger and better for fisiocrem. Our aim is to make fisiocrem a household name, and our brand awareness grows every year.
Our aim is that when you’re experiencing muscle pain, you’ll think of fisiocrem.
RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • MAR 2020