Kimberly Woelke-Case Study: Tylenol

by Kimberly Woelke

In 1996 sales of Tylenol began to dwindle and continued to do so until 2004. In fact, between the years of 2002 and 2003 Tylenol watched their sales drop 10.5 percent as Advil’s grow 1.9 percent. In 2004 the Tylenol account was removed from the hands of Saatchi & Saatchi, who had handled the account for 30 years, and awarded to Duetsch Inc. Tylenol had been in an eight year decline when Deutsch took over and the planners knew they needed to find a unique and innovative way to present Tylenol to its consumers. Prior to this change of agencies, Tylenols competitors, Advil, Aleve and Excedrin, were spending $2.40 to every $1.00 spent on Tylenol’s advertising. The ads being produced by the competitors made direct claims against Tylenol and this had a major impact on the brand’s equity.

The planners at Deutsch Inc. had to find a way to gain their target audiences trust back and use Tylenol’s long standing equity to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Instead of taking a traditional approach to solving this problem, the planners took a different route and decided to put more focus on the product itself instead of focusing primarily on the consumers.

When they began their search for a solution, planners spoke with doctors, researchers, scientists and executives from Tylenol. Through these conversations, they learned that Tylenol had some unique features. Tylenol is truly a safer pain reliever than its competitors because it utilized a different method of action. They also found groups of individuals that should be exclusive Tylenol users; pregnant women, people on prescriptions and asthmatics are just a few. Through the product-insights they realized Tylenol’s existing product claims failed to capitalize on its unique qualities as a “Safer” drug. There was a need to transform boring health messages into startling facts.

The planners learned, through consumer-insight research, that today’s consumers were terribly uninformed and frustrated over conflicting messages they found in the clutter of pain reliever advertising. They decided providing straight to the point and accurate information would help Tylenol regain some of its market share back. Through brand-insights the planners discovered that Tylenol, since it was introduced in 1961 as an over the counter pain reliever, had built tremendous brand equity and trust, but it was now out dated. People needed something more than “It’s the brand doctors recommend most.” Tylenol needed to show its consumers that it was looking out for their best interest by informing them and speaking up for them.

The product-insights led the planners to their big idea: “Stop. Think. Tylenol.” Their plan was to tell a simple truth that would challenge people to reconsider the methods they used to relieve their pain. It would address people’s mental and physical needs and honestly inform, educate and treat them.





As a result of this straight forward approach to Tylenol, people’s perception began to change and an eight-year decline was stopped dead in its tracks. The new campaign actually reversed the downward momentum of the brand and business grew within the first year the ads were run. Sales increased and most importantly this new position Tylenol had taken became a corporate strategy.

Despite the success of this campaign, Tylenol is now using a warmer more friendly approach, “Feel Better, Tylenol.”