A three-platform innovation strategy that rebuilt the base business, opened adjacent spaces, and carried a trusted name to the next generation of digestive health consumers.
When Sanofi Consumer Healthcare (Sanofi HC), a global leader in self-care, acquired the ROLAIDS brand from Johnson & Johnson — following a 3-year market hiatus — it inherited a brand with decades of equity but no vision for the future. With limited consumer understanding and an underdeveloped innovation pipeline, Sanofi turned to THRIVE to build a five-year innovation roadmap and a reimagined product portfolio.
To understand digestive health consumers beyond symptom relief, we conducted ethnographic research — establishing foundational insights and surfacing digestive health needs the category had never reached. We co-developed a five-year product roadmap, three innovation platforms, and multiple new offerings to strengthen the base business and expand to adjacent spaces for the next generation of consumers.
THRIVE’s Digestive Health Innovation Strategy helped propel Rolaids from $0 to $48MM in annual retail sales within 2.5 years, capturing 8% category share and the #1 brand rank in the Convenience Store channel with new liquid, gummy, and chew formats. Reframing Rolaids as a modern, consumer-centric contender in a crowded OTC category and setting the pace for where digestive health innovation goes next.
