How To Make Wealth From Health - CEO Interviews - Ron Fugate, CEO of Emergen-C, Lenny Krayzelburg, 4-Time Olympic Gold Medalist - April 18, 2010 - Segment Three

How To Make Wealth From Health – Caller Lenny Krayzelburg, 4-time Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer, shares his experiences with running a “learn to swim” academy called the Lenny Krayzelburg Swim Academy. Their demographic is kids ages 1-9 and the primary focus of the program is water safety.  Lenny promotes to parents that learning how to swim is more than just a three month summer activity; not only should kids be taught year round to build their confidence, but swimming is also a weekly activity that’s good for improving their health. Currently, they have a very large year-round program, including 1,300 kids at their Westside JCC location and 300 more at their West Hills JCC location. Visit their website at www.lennykswim.com for all the information about their locations, or call them at 323-525-0323.

Interview with Ron Fugate, CEO of Emergen-C

Betsey and Renee speak with Ron about the significant expansion Emergen-C has enjoyed over the years. In 2000, they sold 60 million vitamin C drink mix packets; in the last 12 months alone, they’ve sold 500 million packets. Ron came to the company in October 2005, initially drawn by the heritage of the brand, and wanted to be a part of growing the company into a more broad distribution operation. According to Ron, among the biggest reasons for their recent expansion is their growth in retail distribution, putting them into more places for consumers to find the brand; a lot of consumer market research to understand who the passionate current users of the brand are and then working to find more of those people via advertising and promotion; distributing about 10 million samples a year to drive awareness of the brand; and substantial changes to their social media work and website to push the brand identity to a place it had not been before.

Ron also mentions another major area that has contributed to their recent success is their involvement with cause-marketing opportunities, another example of “Doing Well By Doing Good.” The company was one of the first to step up and support a group called Operation Gratitude, who send care packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. At this point, they’ve given 1.2 million drink mix packets in addition to donating money to the cause. Additionally, they have Emergen-C Pink, with 20 cents per box going to benefit Keep Abreast, a breast cancer awareness group that focuses primarily on younger women, who are among the core users of the brand; and since you can’t make Emergen-C without water, they also have Emergen-C Blue, with proceeds going towards working with the Surf Rider Foundation on clean water causes.

Ron explains the biggest difference between working for an over-the-counter (OTC) product versus a natural supplement is OTCs as a business category tend to be low-growth and the companies in the market are just trading market share as they fight each other on television ad spending. Supplements, conversely, are a rapidly growing business, marked by the discovery of new ingredients and new science. The key opportunity for improvement for Emergen-C, has been making it taste great. They have 10 different flavors and overall about 25 different versions of the product, including a new product coming out soon called Vitamin Z + Calcium, with 1,000 IUs (international units) of vitamin Z and 500 mg of calcium in a very tasty mixed berry flavor. The key for Emergen-C, Ron maintains, is to make sure the product tastes great, with a scoop of good science behind the great taste.

2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.