Mucinex: How Branding Alters the Market for Over-the-Counter Medication
Mucinex is much like any other over-the-counter decongestant used to treat the symptoms of a common cold. However, the medication has built its brand around funny, engaging advertising campaigns aimed to differentiate Mucinex from its many fierce competitors. Branding medicine is difficult because no one truly wants to buy it, so companies must be creative with how they encourage sales. Ultimately, consumers want medicine that helps their symptoms, and with many brands containing essentially the same ingredients, differentiation must be achieved in other ways. Mucinex has accomplished this goal by creating a strong, positive brand association for a medication that most consumers would associate with something negative.
Branding With a Mascot
One powerful branding tactic that Mucinex has taken advantage of is the use of a mascot. This character serves to represent a brand to consumers and give a mundane product, like medicine, a friendlier face. Mucinex created a character that is, essentially, a glob of mucus with a face on it. The character walks and talks in the company’s commercial advertisements and has made its way to the brand’s social media pages since the dawn of our digital age. “Mucus Maximus” makes jokes that highlight the medication’s ability to relieve customers’ mucus and cold symptoms. The character is so distinct, and, frankly, disturbing that the creature sticks in customer’s minds. This becomes a strong brand association for consumers which distinguishes Mucinex from other brands and gives the medicine name recognition. This credibility allows Mucinex to capture increased sales and brand loyalty, which is vital in the over-the-counter medicine industry.
Influence on Tik Tok
While the newly sensational social media app Tik Tok may not be the most obvious platform for Mucinex to market its brand, the company has earned over 105 million views on the app from its challenge to Tik Tok creators. The challenge encouraged Tik Tok creators to show their “too sick to be sick” transformation. These videos involved participants showcasing themselves looking groggy and tired (literally sick) and transforming into put together, Halloween ready outfits that were metaphorically “sick.” While the challenge relied on some larger creators to get it going, the beauty of the campaign was that anyone could be involved, no matter how small their account. While Mucinex purchased the #TooSickToBeSick hashtag for the campaign, they did not buy a traditional ad package from Tik Tok, and most of the views and engagement the brand garnered from this campaign were organic. Mucinex plans to invest in further marketing campaigns on Tik Tok as the company believes the relationships it can build with creators will result in significant customer reach in the long-term, particularly as the effectiveness of television advertising continues to wane.
Brand Name Medication
Branding medicine is a tricky business as most medicines that claim to provide the same benefits have similar ingredients and are often almost identical. So why do we choose Mucinex over generic decongestant or Advil over generic ibuprofen? The power of branding enables companies to offer more to their consumers than just medicine. The added benefits that come with branding allow firms to not only capture more customers than generic versions of the same medication but also charge a slightly higher price for essentially the same product. When consumers purchase more expensive brand-name medications over generics, they are paying a price premium for the trust they have in the brand and the knowledge that they know “exactly” what they are getting. Brands like Mucinex make strategic use of mascots and social campaigns to promote brand recall. Their goal is to have customers associate the product with both the medical benefits and the positive emotions that branding provides.