Page 23 - Retail Pharmacy Assistants - November 2020

needs and these needs either haven’t changed or have actually increased. People with eczema still have eczema, and sadly some cases have worsened due to stress, making our range even more relevant. Throughout 2020 we’ve launched new SKUs and extended our ranges. Because people already trust our brands, they’ve been quick to buy into new product lines. So yes, we’ve noticed an increase in the uptake of skin care products in 2020. We’re well known for delivering real results fast, and this trust factor continues to grow among consumers, medical practitioners, pharmacists and pharmacy assistants. We’ve had increasing demand for our products as consumers seek out products that deliver effective results. Dry hands/hand dermatitis has increased due to an increase in handwashing and the use of sanitising gels, which means that consumers need effective skin care to soothe and repair their skin. With many people tightening their purse strings, affordable, unisex, family-friendly products that can be used and shared by all members of the family are more relevant than ever. Australian products have also been placed in the spotlight, with many consumers actively seeking out products made here by Australian owned companies. As an Australian-owned company, we make the vast majority of our products in Australia. What have the trends been within skin care in 2020 and how have you responded to them? Many companies jumped on the sanitiser bandwagon, but we’ve innovated with our Sanitising Hand Cream. It would have been much easier to launch another traditional hand sanitiser, but we always tend to do things differently, which often involves a longer, harder road to market. As mentioned above, in all consumer products, there’s a growing trend towards Australian made and owned. We’re building on the trust factor that our consumers have for our brand by expanding our local offerings. We’re also expanding our lip care range. Dermal Therapy Lip Balm is the number one selling lip balm in Australian pharmacy. With the use of face masks and associated lip conditions, it made perfect sense to build on this success and we’ve recently launched Dermal Therapy Mint and Dermal Therapy Berry Lip Balm. Along with dry, cracked and sometimes bleeding hands, extreme dry skin in general has come to the attention of consumers, allowing us to expand our offering in the very-dry-skin space where we recently launched a Very Dry Skin Wash to complement our cream and lotion. We’ve also recently launched Very Rough Hands, following on from the demand for our hand balm. What’s involved with product formulation and development? How do you come up with new products? We live and breathe new product development, but due to our focus on innovation and efficacy, we do things quite differently to other companies. We don’t develop a new product unless we feel we can add value to the lives of our customers. This is often a lengthy journey as we ensure we bring the best solution possible to market – that is, providing products of the highest standard that are efficacious as well as affordable. It’s often a hard road, but worth it in the end, especially when we start to get testimonial letters and calls from customers thanking us for providing a real solution they haven’t had before. It’s great to read that they often try a second product of ours, based on the success they’ve had with the first. That brand trust and loyalty is wonderful to see. We’re constantly looking for new ideas and product concepts. As a company, we encourage collaboration from our staff and are always open to ideas they bring to the table. Quite often, it’s our consumers, pharmacy staff or medical practitioners who are looking for a product and can’t find it, that then becomes the start of a concept, which develops into a new product. You’ve mentioned a couple new product developments, can you talk us through any other developments within the Dermal Therapy brand? Aside from the ones I’ve mentioned, including two new lip balm flavours and our revolutionary Sanitising Hand Cream, our new Psoriasis Cream is also just hitting the shelves. The concept for this product actually came from some dermatologists. They were creating their own psoriasis solutions by mixing various ingredients into our Very Dry Skin Cream, a 10 per cent urea-based product with a high concentration of moisturising and emollient ingredients. We investigated and found that almost all other products on the market were coal tar or pine tar based. We’ve managed to avoid those ingredients in formulating our product, which makes it quite unique – pleasant to use, yet still highly efficacious. The same can be said for our scalp treatment range, which was launched this year. It includes a unique leave-on serum (most products are rinse-off, so have limited time on the scalp), and a shampoo and conditioner, making it a complete scalp treatment regimen. According to your website, LaCorium Health is committed to a “proactive approach in building strong, mutually productive relationships and business partners”. How do you ensure this and how can pharmacy assistants ensure they build strong and mutually productive relationships with their customers, community, brands and the pharmacists with whom they work? We use Pharmabroker as our external sales team, and they are, in our opinion, the best in the business. They share a great passion for our products and our belief that we can really make a difference. The best way to build strong relationships is to build TO PAGE 22 6 MINUTES WITH ... 21 “It would have been much easier to launch another traditional hand sanitiser, but we always tend to do things differently, which often involves a longer, harder road to market.” RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • NOV 2020