HILLSBORO, Wis. --
At first glance Wisconsin's Best Ginseng seems to be an improbable name for a competitor in the most popular herbal supplement category in the United States.
Those in the know, however, are aware that the state produces 97% of the nation's ginseng crop - 1.6 million pounds in 1996.
The vast majority of it is exported to Asia, where, according to Wisconsin's Best Ginseng president Cindy Kurtzweil, it is widely considered superior to locally grown ginseng . "The
best ginseng is Wisconsin ginseng ," she says.
As a consumer, Kurtzweil found it curious that Wisconsin exported so much ginseng to Asia while most of the ginseng sold here is grown either in Korea or Siberia.
"We started investigating why Wisconsin ginseng is preferred by the Chinese," she notes. "Why are we exporting our product to them and importing theirs? We thought, why hasn't someone in this country produced a product with Wisconsin ginseng ? So
in 1995 we introduced Wisconsin's Best Ginseng ."
The Kurtzweil family has been growing ginseng in north central Wisconsin for almost 80 years. The crop has been cultivated in the area for more than 110 years, according to Kurtzweil. "My husband is a third-generation grower. Ginseng is harvested here every fall."
In recent years Chinese buyers who knew their market was the only established one for ginseng grown in Wisconsin got tougher when it came to negotiating prices.
"We went through a couple years of that and finally decided to develop our own product," Kurtzweil says. "We looked at store shelves and found that hardly anybody carried a ginseng line made in America. It was all Korean or Siberian ginseng ."
Kurtzweil and her mother-in-law, Shirley Kurtzweil, the company's vice president, decided to go into business.
Starting out selling at craft shows and farmers' markets, the Kurtzweils got their ginseng into local convenience stores and then began selling to individual Walgreen Co. and ShopKo Innc. outllets in Wisconsin.
"We approached Walgreens' executives and said, 'Eighty percent of your stores in Wisconsin are selling this product successfully,' comments Kurtzweil. "It took us about two years
to convince them we were going to stay in business."
Once the product was in Walgreens and ShopKo on a chainwide basis, the supplier signed a national sales rep and began executing the strategy that has brought it to its first
National Association of Chain Drug Stores Marketplace Conference. "Our No. 1 goal is to offer higher quality 100% pure ginseng products," Kurtzweil says.
An independent study conducted by Hauser Laboratory Services in 1997 showed Wisconsin's Best Ginseng contains seven times more ginsenosides - the active ingredient in ginseng - per
milligram than the market leader, which is made of Korean ginseng packaged in Switzerland, according to Kurtzweil.
"We use no fillers, oils or additives," she notes. "Retailers are looking for higher-quality products because that's what their customers are looking for. We have to communicate to the consumer that there is a difference between Korean ginseng , Siberian ginseng and Wisconsin ginseng . Each one provides its own health benefits, but the ginseng of choice, at 2 million pounds a year for the Chinese, is from Wisconsin."
To that end the company has hired the advertising and public relations firm Shandwick and earmarked $1.2 million in advertising to support its business at Walgreens. The campaign
got under way this month.
At Marketplace Wisconsin's Best Ginseng is introducing four products to go along with its 500-mg. pure ginseng root powder. They are Ginseng with Multi-Vitamin, Ginseng with
Ginko Biloba, alcoholfree Ginseng Extract and Ginseng with Echinacea.
"We know of one or two companies that have a ginseng and a multivitamin, but not the other combinations," remarks Kurtzweil, adding that the new products make sense for
consumers using more than one heerbal supplement. "We surveyed 43,000 households and 70% of the people had used six or more products in the last six months."
Wisconsin's Best Ginseng Corp.
2451 West State Highway 153
Mosinee, Wis. 54455
Key contact: Cindy Kurtzweil
President
Phone: (608) 489-2677 Fax: (608) 489-2957
- SOURCE: Chain Drug Review1998.06.29
|
Newsdesk