BioBalance

By Paola Joana F. Paz

The Consumer Health Market

The growing health awareness of consumers is greatly influenced by their desire to

feel and look good. This occurrence resulted in a gradual shift in demand to preventive
healthcare such as vitamins and dietary supplements. This also translates to 6% value
growth in 2015, reaching Ps22.2 billion1 and helped stabilize sales for vitamins and
supplements.

In addition, the economy of the country has continuously been rising giving more
consumers the ability to reach high living standards through healthy lifestyles and
preferences 2. They generate better incomes due to the increasing number of high paying
but more stressful jobs. To cope with stress at work, many young professionals and adults
engage in sports-related activities then complement it with consumption of vitamins and
dietary supplements. These factors offered better opportunities for the consumer health
market to progress further.

As reported by Euromonitor International, product positioning for multivitamins and

supplements is significantly low with 66% categorized as “general” or “others” and does not
cater to a specific target consumer. The majority of multivitamins and supplements do not
target a specific consumer type mainly to widen their scope in marketing of the product. 3

Company Background

BioBalance is a health service institute that offers nutrient testing in order to deliver
the right combination of nutrients that are unique for every individual. They test for the
levels of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, etc., and then based on the test
results, they would carefully craft a personalized supplementation for the client. However,
these supplements that they include in the customized supplement protocol are also
offered in retail. 92% of the company’s income is generated from the nutrient testing and
personalized supplementation. However, the supplements offered in bottles comprise the
remaining 8% only. BioBalance is currently exploring opportunities of maximizing the
retailing of its supplements.

BioBalance was co-founded by the owners of United Laboratories Inc., one of the
leading pharmaceutical companies in the Philippines. However, it functions as a separate
entity from Unilab. The vitamins and dietary supplements market was led by Unilab with a
value share of 26% in 2015 through its active promotion and top grossing popular brands
like Ceelin and Enercon-C4.
Product

BioBalance carries a wide range of vitamins, minerals and supplements that are bio-
identical, bioavailable and bioactive.

Bio-identical
BioBalance products offer exactly the same nutrients that are in the same
form as absorbed by the body. As an example, instead of providing Vitamin B12 as
cyanocobalamin – a product that is commercially available, BioBalance provides B12
as methylcobalamin, which is exactly identical or bio-identical to the one used by the
body to absorb the nutrient in its fullest. The substance does not need to be further
broken down which makes it more beneficial for the body.

Bioavailable
BioBalance products use mechanisms for proper absorption of the nutrients
in the body. For example, Omega 3 fish oils should be enteric-coated to prevent the
oils from being dissolved in the stomach because of the acidic environment.
BioBalance provides enteric-coated Omega 3 and delivers the oils for proper
absorption and is, therefore, bioavailable in the intestines, rather in the stomach.

Bioactive
BioBalance products are in their active form and are ready to be used by the
body. To illustrate, instead of providing Vitamin B9 as folic acid, which still needs to
undergo multiple changes before it can be used by the body, BioBalance provides B9
as 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF). 5-MTHF is already bioactive and therefore
does not require any other changes or conversion before it can be fully utilized.

BioBalance products utilized proprietary technology to enclose the nutrients in

vegetarian and hypoallergenic capsules to ensure the maximum delivery of the nutrients
throughout the intestinal tract.

The supplements are available in two means:

1. Personalized – Based on the nutrient test results, BioBalance is now able to identify
the nutrient deficiencies of the client. In reference to the test results, they will
produce a personalized supplementation protocol specifically addressing the
deficiencies of the client. They will repack the vitamins and supplements in such a
way that each pack will contain the right combination of vitamins of what is exactly
needed by the individual. Figure 1 illustrates the repacked vitamins and
supplements.
 Figure 1. BioBalance vitamins and supplements repacked as morning, noon and evening.

2. Retail – Because customization entails a premium fee, the clients can opt to
purchase the products on a per bottle basis, but not per piece or “tingi”. This is
therefore not limited to clients who underwent the tests because these supplements
can be bought over-the-counter similar to the commercially available vitamins.

Figure 2. BioBalance Multivitamins, Multiminerals and Amino Acid Complete are just 3 of the 54 SKUs carried by BioBalance.
Price

BioBalance imports their products from the United States to be able to provide their
clients the optimal nutrient balance that they need. Despite being imported and unique in
formulation, the products are at par with those that are commercially available in the
market. Shown in Table 1 are the price list and product line of BioBalance.
 *cost per piece is restricted for customized repackaging of supplements, not available for retail

Table 1. BioBalance Product Price List

However, despite the extraordinary product offering and average pricing strategy,
BioBalance supplements still failed to grab a significant share in the consumer health
market.

Promotion

BioBalance relies heavily on word-of-mouth (WOM) for promoting the product.

Through this WOM campaign, they target key influencers of potential clients from field
experts. The objective is to educate and get potential clients talking about how effective the
BioBalance solution is. They scout for ambassadors who are mostly well known people in
the health conscious market segment. These ambassadors are not monetarily compensated,
though they were given complimentary services such as nutrient testing and personalized
supplementation. However, most of them don’t seem to appreciate free services and would
promote the products in very minimal efforts. One of them is Dyan Castillejo, a sports
reporter and interviewer for ABS-CBN sports, known for interviewing Manny Pacquiao and
his opponents. For more than a year that she has been provided with the said courtesy
services, she plugged BioBalance just twice in the entire period of affiliation with her. Figure
3 shows screenshots from her Instagram account when she endorsed the products.
 Figure 3. Screenshots from IG account of Dyan Castillejo

Ambassadors are provided with customized supplementations based on their

individual nutrient test results. To illustrate, Dyan is getting just the vitamins that she’s
deficient of and not the entire multivitamins and multiminerals panel. Her supplementation
protocol was tailor-fitted to the specific needs of her body. Her deficiencies were identified
through the nutrient testing she underwent through, which BioBalance also provided for
free.

BioBalance WOM campaign is also comprised of activities targeting the medical

community. BioBalance has designed the MD Referral Program which allowed them to
partner with doctors in the metro. All referring physicians are entitled to a 10% referral fee
for every client that they’d be able to send to BioBalance for testing.

Place

The wellness clinic of BioBalance is located at Soho Central Building, Greenfield

District, Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City. It was launched last November 2014, but was
already open for operations since 2013.

The supplements are available at the wellness center and can be purchased over the
counter. Some of their partner doctors dispense BioBalance supplements in their respective
clinics at a higher price to incorporate their profit margin. The doctors will purchase from
BioBalance at a discounted rate, another privilege entitled to partner doctors.
SWOT

Strengths

BioBalance has a unique product offering that offers a wide range of bio-identical,
bioavailable and bioactive products. It is the sole distributor of these supplements in the
Philippines. In terms of quality, BioBalance supplements are manufactured in the US that
strictly observes Good Manufacturing Practices. Moreover, only few companies that import
their products adhere to Good Transportation Practices. BioBalance religiously executes
both. For example, heat can rapidly destroy various vitamins and minerals. The supplements
should be shipped overseas in temperature-controlled containers to guarantee that the
vitamins have been transported properly and with maintained quality.

BioBalance is affiliated with United Laboratories that has a very wide distribution
network from which BioBalance could benefit from.

Weaknesses

BioBalance currently has only one wellness clinic, located within a condominium. It
has very low visibility and therefore creates low awareness of its existence. Even if it is the
sole distributor of BioBalance products in the Philippines, it could barely accommodate the
demands in the metro due to lack of key distribution channels. However, some of the
partner doctors purchase supplements from BioBalance and dispense those at their
respective clinics, which marginally expands its distribution network.

Opportunities

Euromonitor International cited an article published by Manila Times last June 2014.
Based on the report, taking food supplements can reduce hospital stays that would translate
to cost savings.5 Because of this, a growing number of Filipinos turn to health supplements
to prevent illnesses.

Figure 4. Health of the Nation 2000 – 2020, Euromonitor International

 On the other hand, there’s an increasing number of Filipinos that rely on social
media recommendations ranging from which restaurants to visit to what products to buy.
Indeed, according to the Wave7 survey, 69% of consumers using social media in the
Philippines have joined brand communities, with 85% saying they share their appreciation of
products with others via social media. 6 BioBalance greatly depends on word-of-mouth
marketing, and does not have an official Facebook page, a social media website most
utilized by internet users.

Another opportunity that BioBalance can take advantage of is the fact that Filipinos
are becoming more comfortable with online payments. With the rise of e-commerce and
online banking in the Philippines7, more Filipinos are now relying on online payment
platforms.

Threats

The trend in Filipinos’ purchasing behavior is moving towards preventive healthcare,

largely influenced by increasing health awareness and access to information. This
opportunity can be translated to a threat because although the target consumer base of
these preventive products are those from middle-high income consumers, the proliferation
of generics will cater to the demands of lower income consumers.8 This will result to slow
growth for consumer health over the forecast period as reported by Euromonitor
International.

The massive propagation of the multi-level marketing industry also poses threat to
BioBalance, with almost four million Filipinos involved9. The values and culture of Filipino
consumers correlate with MLM, bringing more success to global companies as well as
consumer health as a whole. Strong connections with friends and families helped Filipino
members of globally renowned MLM companies to succeed in their businesses, making the
country a significant contributor in the global earnings of the industry.

The increasing trend of internet users mentioned as on opportunity earlier, can also
be considered as a threat. This means that these internet users are transformed to more
informed consumers. The internet provided access to global information, trends, issues,
news, innovations and awareness that directly affected consumer health in a positive stance
in 2015.10 This allowed consumers to be more accepting and confident towards self-care or
self-medication. Therefore, without proper communication of its value proposition, the
market will never be educated as to what BioBalance products have to offer.