Known as the world’s first "FDA registered" Capsaicin nasal spray, "Sinus Buster" is well on its’ way to becoming a household name. Recent data from Information Resources Incorporated, (IRI) shows Sinus Buster outselling the closest competing national brand by more than (3 to 1) in Price Chopper Supermarkets, an east coast chain of 110 upscale stores.
Considering Sinus Buster retails for two times the price of the next largest selling competitor, you might expect a bigger dollar sales figure, but Sinus Buster also outsold the next closest national competitor by (24% in unit sales) using less than 1% of their closest competitor’s advertising budget.
The feature that makes this product so unique is the active ingredient, Capsaicin. This natural chemical is extracted from hot peppers acting as the component that dictates a pepper’s heat. Of course there is much more to Sinus Buster than meets the eye. This product also has an incredible story behind it.
In 1995, the inventor, Wayne Perry accidentally discovered what he calls, "The power of the pepper". Perry was a nationally known self-defense instructor infamous for his street survival workshops teaching women how to destroy attackers. Part of Perry’s workshops included live demonstrations using police style pepper spray.
Perry was also a consultant for the biggest pepper spray manufacturers in the world, and was involved in legalizing self-defense sprays in New York and California. Furthermore, Perry has been sprayed with police pepper spray more than 50 times for live audiences.
Thanks to his wild reputation as an innovative self-defense instructor, Perry appeared on numerous national talk shows including Oprah Winfrey. After one of his Oprah appearances, Perry was deluged with requests to perform live pepper spray demonstrations around the country. Then in 1996, fate turned Perry into an inventor as he discovered the power of the pepper.
Perry had suffered from chronic Cluster headaches and Sinusitis most of his life. He tried everything modern medicine had to offer, but could never get his chronic headaches under control. Then one fateful day, he discovered the cure had been under his nose the entire time – literally.
"I was doing a pepper spray demo for a FOX News station in New York. Even though I’d been traveling around the country doing this same thing for a couple years, I never had a headache attack during any of my demonstrations. And just before I was about to get sprayed with pepper spray in front of news cameras, I started to get a bad cluster attack literally minutes before I was supposed to be on camera. I knew the show had to go on so I let the reporter spray me. When the pepper hit my face and went up my nose, it felt as bad as it always had, but I suddenly realized my headache was gone. Completely gone! To me it was a miracle because nothing else had ever stopped my headaches that fast and that complete," Perry explains.
Wayne then spent the next year experimenting with natural hot pepper extracts before hitting on the original Sinus Buster formula in 1997.
"I knew I found a formula that worked every time, and I never had another full blown headache attack again, but this stuff also solved my chronic sinus infections and expanded my sense of smell. So I let a few family members and friends try my formula, and they went crazy over it. I mean it just seemed to work for everyone no matter what kind of headache, sinus or allergy problem they had. And it also helps wake you up. Everybody who tried it just loved it," Perry says.
In 2002, after finding himself without a job and desperate for new income, Perry took a chance and started manufacturing Sinus Buster homeopathically by hand. He named the company, "SiCap Industries," which stands for the "Science of Capsaicin".
After first marketing the product on eBay, Perry found sales to be brisk from the start, and as the testimonials poured in from satisfied customers, he decided to create a website (www.sinusbuster.com), and started selling on his own. After some initial media exposure, Sinus Buster was well on its’ way to stardom. Perry’s product was even featured in the Wall Street Journal during the company’s twelve months of operations.
Today, Sinus Buster is manufactured under FDA guidelines in a 3,000 square foot lab with an additional 8,000 square feet of warehouse and office space. The company recently broke through an adjacent space expanding SiCap’s headquarters several times over. Earlier this year, Sinus Buster received the "first ever" official FDA over the counter registration for a Homeopathic Capsaicin nasal spray. Sinus Buster is now sold in more than 3,000 stores internationally with new retailers signing on everyday. While not yet in the biggest chains, Sinus Buster has proven to be a "top seller" across the country.
"It’s just a matter of time for the behemoth chains. We’re in chain stores that number in the hundreds already, and Sinus Buster is the big dog of nasal sprays in every single one. We’ve just begun to enter the large retail arena this year. Our corporation is only three years old and we’ve already beat the biggest contenders on their own ground. We have hundreds of retailers who can’t even keep this stuff in stock. Sinus Buster is a huge winner," says Scott Latella, National Sales Mgr. for Sinus Buster.
Today Sinus Buster is a brand that features an entire line of "all natural" Capsaicin nasal sprays designed to conquer a variety of chronic health conditions. While the original "Classic Sinus & Headache" formula is still their biggest seller, spokespersons for SiCap Industries say their entire lineup is an overwhelming success.
"While the bigger companies don’t seem to understand the importance of the web, SiCap embraces it as a corporate tool. When we introduce a new product, we rely on the web for our market testing, and we also rely on the web for building brand awareness. When we see successful sales on the web, and return customers, we know that product is ready for the brick and mortar retail market. It’s a winning situation for retailers and consumers," adds Latella.
SiCap’s founder and CEO, Wayne Perry adds that the internet also allows his company to build a unique relationship with consumers.
"When we introduce a new product on our website, we’re able get direct feedback from customers -- both in terms of salability and effectiveness. We’ve adjusted certain aspects of several products based on the feedback of actual customers, and that kind of honest feedback is hugely important to any corporation".
According to Rob Sasso, Director of Operations for SiCap, the company’s growth has more to do with innovation than anything else.
"Our research and development team is so intent on finding every possible medicinal use for Capsaicin, and they’re bringing many new products to market as we speak. But we also have a top notch marketing department with real vision. Every week, either our company or our products are being featured in the news. And of course the most important part of our business is the quality and effectiveness of our products. We’re innovators even in the way we price and distribute our products".
Sasso is referring to SiCap’s maverick philosophy for bringing American products to market quickly and efficiently. While most manufacturers of retail products use middlemen such as brokers and distributors, SiCap has chosen a different route.
"We supply retailers directly which allows us to bring ultra high quality natural products to market quickly and inexpensively. This helps the retailer and the consumer. It’s very hard to make natural products correctly, and our standards are higher than most. Many manufacturers misrepresent their products as natural when the truth is just the opposite. At SiCap we’ve automated our production, but we’ve also kept that homeopathic control over quality and naturalness. By eliminating the middlemen, we can bring natural products that really work into the mainstream marketplace without bankrupting the consumer or the retailer," adds Perry.
SiCap Industries is debuting their entire "Sinus Buster" lineup this week at the Natural Products Expo in Baltimore. It’s the first time the company has ever actively approached national retailers since 99% of their retailers initially solicit SiCap directly.
"We’ve never had to hard sell Sinus Buster to any store big or small. Most of them have always come to us thanks to our marketing and the effectiveness of our products. The proof is in the IRI data. If we can more than triple the sales of the nest closest national competitor in mid size chain stores, then we can do the same in CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreen’s, Kroger’s, Target, Walmart or any of the super chains," says Latella.
SiCap Industries will be debuting their complete Sinus Buster product line-up at booth (#146) during the Natural Products Expo East being held at the Baltimore Convention Center this week (October 4th thru October 7th). The show is hosted by New Hope Natural Media, and is one of the largest events of its’ kind.
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