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New York Times, December 22, 2003
TECHNOLOGY; The Trouble With Marvels: If It Sounds That Good, Will the Skeptical Buy It?
By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH (NYT) 1525 words
Late Edition - Final , Section C , Page 4 , Column 1
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Robert
Klein, an inventor of Holofiber, with an array of products
incorporating the fiber. It is said to promote stamina and
blood circulation, among other attributes. (Photo by Monica
Almeida/The New York Times) |
It sounds almost too good to be true: relieve aches and pains with
a simple sock or glove.
That is the claim that the partners of a new company, Hologenix, are
making for clothing made from their proprietary Holofiber. They cite
research and anecdotal evidence showing that people who wear the garments,
be they professional athletes, weekend athletes or even diabetics
plagued with poor circulation, recover more quickly from strenuous
activities, keep warmer in cold climates, have increased stamina and
in general, just feel good.
So why are Holofiber-laden items, some of which have been available
for a couple of years, not flying off the shelves -- especially during
the holiday shopping season? ''We know what we have is incredible,
but the marketing is our challenge,'' said Robert Klein, an inventor
of Holofiber and the chairman of Holofiber Enterprises, which owns
75 percent of Hologenix.
A challenge, indeed. For one thing, Holofiber is expensive. Hologenix
executives refused to disclose Holofiber's price, but Anthony Mazzenga,
the chairman of Wickers America, an underwear maker and one of the
dozen or so manufacturers offering Holofiber items, said its cost
was 10 times that of more conventional polyesters. Thus, Holofiber
can drive the cost of a glove liner to $30 or a T-shirt to $75.
Neither Hologenix nor its manufacturing customers are forthcoming
about sales. But no one claims the items are best sellers. And therein
lies a cautionary tale for anyone trying to market a ''scientific
breakthrough'' item in an age when claims of ''all new'' or ''revolutionary''
fall on increasingly jaded ears.
''They need to do for Holofiber what Intel did for its chips, explain
to people why a product with 'Holofiber inside' is by definition better,''
said Evan H. Wert, vice president for marketing at Superfeet Worldwide,
which has added a line of custom-fit Holofiber items to its stable
of orthotic inserts for shoes, called footbeds.
That may be no easy task, other customers concede. ''Hologenix hasn't
figured out a really good way to market it, and truthfully, we haven't
come up with a whole lot of ideas for marketing it either,'' said
James T. Gorman, an executive vice president of Callaway Golf Footwear,
which is including Holofiber in some of its more expensive shoes.
It is not that the product is too new to be noticed. Holofiber has
been available for nearly three years through Holofiber Enterprises,
which last January formed Hologenix as a venture with the textile
giant Wellman to step up production and marketing.
Wellman, which owns 25 percent of Hologenix, has spent more than $400,000
on marketing. It has advertised in some textile trade publications,
taken booths at trade shows for outdoor retailers, and handed out
sample products at the recent American Diabetes Association show in
New York. It has hired Michellie Jones, the Australian Olympic triathlete,
to endorse Holofiber, and it is helping some customers develop hangtags
and promotional material for athletic braces, bandages and other items
containing Holofiber.
While such steps might have been enough to promote, say, a new toothpaste,
the people at Hologenix are finding themselves facing far bigger challenges.
For one thing, the technology behind Holofiber does not lend itself
easily to sound bites. The fiber, which has a patent pending, is made
from a blend of polyester and finely ground minerals and gemstones
-- Mr. Klein declines to say which ones. It supposedly works by channeling
both ambient light and the energy a body generates in a way that increases
the oxygen level of the blood flowing to the body parts it covers.
Mr. Klein speaks of separating frequencies of light and activating
the mitochondria in cells, but no one seems able to explain how socks,
say, can receive light through shoes.
''You need a medical degree to figure it out,'' said Mr. Gorman of
Callaway. A medical degree may not help -- Dr. Lawrence Lavery, a
podiatrist who is a professor at Texas A&M University, conducted
studies indicating that diabetics could increase the oxygen levels
in their blood as much as 12 percent by wearing Holofiber items. Yet
even he is uncertain how the products work.
''They can't put it in layman's terms,'' he said.
The advertising could stress Holofiber's potential to treat pains,
of course. But the marketers are being careful not to go overboard
in their claims, lest they run afoul of federal rules governing the
promoting of medical devices. Yet, if they err on the side of caution,
Holofiber can sound simply like Gortex or another breathable fiber.
''Every day we hear from a thousand people who think their 'promising'
product can do something wonderful for diabetics,'' said Dr. Nathaniel
G. Clark, national vice president for clinical affairs at the American
Diabetes Association, which by policy does not endorse specific products.
Dr. Lavery's research helps somewhat. But Wellman paid Dr. Lavery
to conduct the tests and he has not published his results in any peer
reviewed medical journal. ''This is just pilot data,'' he said. ''There
are still holes in the evidence, and we need a lot more before we
can really say it works.''
Even the Hologenix executives concede that without any ringing endorsement
from doctors or nonprofit organizations that specialize in their disease,
diabetics may be leery of any claims made about the efficacy of an
off-the-shelf item.
Skiers, runners and other people with no appreciable medical problems
might be more easily persuaded to try Holofiber items without any
clear medical data. And, in fact, Hologenix has commissioned tests
to quantify the impact of Holofiber garments on athletic performance
and recovery time, and on the ability of wearers to withstand supercold
weather. But if the product becomes too closely associated with weekend
athletes, diabetics -- who would probably be offered a much more intensive,
and thus more expensive, form of Holofiber fabrics -- are even less
likely to take it seriously.
''They don't want diabetics to say, 'this is just for athletes,' or
athletes to say, 'this is for sick people,''' said Barry L. Bayus,
a professor of marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the
University of North Carolina. ''But when it comes to credibility of
claims, there's no question that it's easier to go from the medical
market to the sports market than the other way around.''
For now, Hologenix is directing most of its marketing at its own customers,
the manufacturers who would use Holofiber in their products, and letting
them figure out how to reach their customers. ''As we become more
profitable, we will do more about getting the Holofiber name out into
the general marketplace,'' said James P. Ciccone, a Wellman marketing
executive who serves as director for marketing at Hologenix.
But the manufacturers say that while they will experiment with Holofiber
in their most expensive lines, they are unlikely to step up their
Holofiber purchases until Hologenix mounts the kind of consumer-oriented
advertising and marketing blitz they need.''It doesn't add that much
to the cost of shoes that are already selling for $275, but we're
not going to put it in our $50 or $60 shoes until we get better marketing
support,'' said Mr. Gorman of Callaway Golf. Similarly, Superfeet
Worldwide offers Holofiber in custom-fit footbeds and in a line it
sells to podiatrists, but is holding off on less expensive retail
items.
''They want us to expand to other products, and we've said, 'Great,
we'd love to, but we need your help in justifying that extra cost
to out customers,''' said Mr. Wert of Superfeet Worldwide. ''It's
not my job to help build the Holofiber brand.''
Fortunately for Hologenix, at least some manufacturers see things
differently. Wickers, the underwear company, has taken out a few ads
for Holofiber glove liners, T-shirts and such in newspapers, and Mr.
Mazzenga said the Wickers Web site was beginning to receive orders.
But he concedes that price may still curb sales: Wickers sells most
of its T-shirts for $18; it sells Holofiber T-shirts for $75.
Still, the Hologenix executives seem unfazed. ''Hologenix is in the
early stages,'' Mr. Ciccone said. ''We've learned to crawl. We will
soon walk.''
Mr. Klein is equally optimistic. A former acupuncturist, he notes
how shocked he was when his own failing vision was cured by acupuncture
treatments in his hands. ''It wasn't easy to persuade people that
sticking a needle into their hands could improve the vision in their
eyes, either,'' he said. ''Eventually, acupuncture was accepted, and
we will be, too.''
Copyright © 2003 The New York Times Company.
Reprinted with permission
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