The Challenge

Traditionally, women have purchased feminine hygiene products from large retail stores like Target, Kroger, and Walgreens. In this environment, consumer purchasing behavior is dictated in large part by shelf positioning, flashy packaging, and scent. Massive, decades-old brands like Tampax and Kotex dominate shelf share and distribution networks in these outlets, effectively blocking new market entrants.

The Opportunity

Given modern consumers are increasingly interested in the science and social integrity of the products they use, Fem Patch, an incubator brand with a line of affordable, eco-friendly feminine hygiene products advancing health through science, knew they had a huge opportunity. Sohila Zadran, the company's founder, began applying science to reengineer feminine hygiene products at the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences (QB3). By 2020 she had developed manufacturing relationships to produce prototypes for a full line of menstrual pads, menstrual cups, tampons, postpartum pads and incontinence pads. She was ready for market. Strategic distribution was a priority, but without proven methods of distribution to follow, Fem Patch needed a way to measure and optimize success from Day 1.

The Alysida Health Solution

Fem Patch had a broad array of initial contracts, spanning from direct-to-consumer sales via their website to large government contracts. Using the MyCanna^TM technology, Sohila and her team could easily create a database of the widely variable distribution channels and then classify them by type and sub-type. This would allow them to harness immediate insight to ensure they were focusing their sales efforts and marketing dollars in the most effective place as they began to scale operations. It would also enable them to see exactly where products were in each distribution channel, and measure performance related to product turnover and transit time.

The Future

Because the MyCanna^TM platform enables the addition of new data from decentralized points anywhere in the supply chain at any time, Fem Patch already had a team planning their next use of the technology, which would assist in projecting demand and opportunity based on non-traditional data inputs. For example, by adding population data of female prisoners and female military personnel, they could apply variables to the datasets to predict demand or determine which presented a better opportunity for them to focus their limited resources.

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Sector: Women's Health

Category: Feminine hygiene products

Stakeholder: Consumer Brand or Manufacturer

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Pilot Focus: PERFORMANCE

1. Distribution Channel Intelligence

2. Sales Intelligence