Baywood International, Inc
The Challenge
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Baywood International, Inc. develops, markets and distributes unique lines of dietary supplements. The Baywood/Media Relations partnership began in January 1999 with the marketing of Dr. Harris' Original Snore Formula. This product is a unique formulation of 100% natural enzymes and herbs that reduce the tissue swelling and congestion considered to be common causes of snoring.
Campaign Strategy
When we began this campaign, Dr. Harris' Snore Formula had been on the market for two years. Until the project start-up, sales success had been generated through direct marketing, and distribution through GNC in a few markets.
Although provided with an excellent product and spokesperson, one of MRI's unique challenges was the few existing assets on which to build the campaign. Dr. Dennis Harris, the formulator and spokesperson, had limited general practice experience. The product was not unique to the market, and there was no science to back its claims. Lacking many of the things that work to create media interest in a topic, MRI built this campaign using fundamental media relations skills.
MRI's most successful tactic was to create media tours for Dr. Harris in targeted markets based on the product's limited distribution. The media tours created an urgency for media contacts to interview Dr. Harris, and generated an average of two in-studio TV interviews and three radio interviews for each market he visited.
Campaign Results
The success of the publicity in the first few markets literally emptied the shelves of product in local market GNC stores. With this achievement, GNC added more markets. There are now more than 40 markets in which our publicity efforts help generate pull-through for key retailers.
Now we are at a point in our campaign that distribution has reached a significant level (top 50 markets by population with 30 percent saturation among health food stores) that national media is justified in our efforts. One tactic in generating national media response is to identify those media celebrities who suffer with daily snoring (i.e. Regis Philbin and Rosie O'Donnell), and target them with individualized gift baskets which include some novelty snoring cures (ear protection), and an information packet and sample of Dr. Harris' Original Snore Formula.
