Mentholatum takes targeted approach.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Mentholatum Co. is a worldwide manufacturer and marketer of niche over-the-counter drug products primarily in the topical health care arena.

Doing business domestically and abroad for more than a century, the company is a major supplier to drug chains, supermarkets, discount stores and, increasingly, convenience stores.

Executives say Mentholatum takes a very targeted approach to marketing, although not always in the conventional sense. In external analgesics, for example, it has divided the category into three segments. Rather than segmenting by ingredient type, however, the company groups its products based on consumer. perceptions of different types of pain - in this case, backache, muscle pain and arthritis.

"Consumers view each one differently," says Mentholatum marketing manager Jim Dickson, noting that different demographic groups suffer different types of pain. The arthritis pain sufferer is most likely to be female and in the 55-plus age bracket, he says, while backache sufferers tend to be both men and women age 35-plus, with a skew toward the female segment, and muscle pain is most often a complaint of 35-plus males.

"Approaching the external analgesic category in the traditional manner - from an ingredient perspective - does not adequately address the market," Dickson says. "Mentholatum is the only company with a marketing strategy that addresses all three of those groups."

For the arthritis pain sufferer, Mentholatum has recently introduced Menthacin, a product containing capsaicin plus menthol

"The menthol provides immediate pain relief that consumers do not get with straight capsaicin," Dickson explains. "That's coupled with the long-term benefits of capsaicin, which works over time by depleting the body of the neurotransmitter substance P.