Building and evolving brands

Hi, I'm John, Chief Creative Officer at Herman-Scheer, a strategic and creative brand consultancy. We believe the businesses that prioritize connection over transaction are the ones that succeed. 

Since 2010, Herman-Scheer has helped change the way businesses make people feel. We have big heart and daring instincts. A sunny disposition and assertive gait. 

I consider myself a people-people kind of person, enamored by how brands connect to people and how people connect to brands. I love working with businesses that—put simply—keep people healthy and happy.

My career journey has been about embracing the idea that friction makes fire. 

I believe in mixing the intuitive and familiar with the audacious and novel, creating a healthy tension to captivate and engage. This friction, this interplay of ideas, is where I believe brands find their true voice and distinctive edge.

Alongside Chapin, (The Herman to my Scheer), we’ve built an agency with a strong POV: great health and self-care brands create narratives and identities aimed at changing behaviors—experiences so compelling that customers stick with a product or service even before they see the tangible benefits.

If you're in the wellness industry looking to evolve your brand toward lasting impact, let’s talk shop.

Feel free to reach out here or email me at john@herman-scheer.com.

John Scheer

Roughly 3 years ago, Chapin Herman and I were on a road trip -- he turned down whatever podcast we were listening to and said something along the lines of...

"John, I think we should go all in on this health & wellness space. It aligns with our own values, the work we've been doing already, and I am really bullish on where the industry is headed..."

The potential of closing off the door to the amazing variety of work I assumed we would miss out on kinda bummed me out at first...

After a wee bit of rumination, I realized this was the opportunity to help build and transform the brands that keep people healthy and happy.

Purpose!

And personally, I had just had my kids, my folks were getting older and battling disease, middle age breathing down my wife and I's neck...

I was in.

Fast forward to today. 

Our business has never been healthier, nor have I! 

The companies that work with us are no longer comparing and contrasting us to a bunch of other great agencies with amazing-looking portfolios. 

Instead, they're making a decision to start on third base. 

A choice to work with people who have completely immersed themselves in the world of healthcare, self-care, and well-being.

Who deeply understand the psychographic profiles of early adopters of preventative health modalities, to the mother of 3, juggling life through the aisles of mass market retail.

We’ve now helped dozens of businesses at all different inflection points navigate and grow within this growingly competitve and complex space.

And dare I say we’ve had some fun doing it...

If you’re ready to pull the future of health care, self-care and wellbeing forward…give us a shout and stay tuned with my posts :)

Building and transforming the brands that make generations healthier.

If you've had your finger on the pulse of D2C marketing at all in the last ten years or so, you've no doubt heard of my friend, Nik Sharma...

After years of reading his trusted weekly newsletter, shared clients and fun event run-ins -- I finally got the chance to chop it up with him and talk shop on his podcast Limited Supply. 

Nik asked me about my POV on branding, what it really means - specifically at Herman-Scheer.

If you don't have the time to listen, I've asked Chat to TLDR(L) our convo; 

📌Branding isn’t your logo. It’s your clarity.

In the latest Limited Supply episode, Nik Sharma and John Scheer break down what branding actually means — and it’s not just colors and fonts.

✅ Branding is strategic, not cosmetic
✅ It’s about clarity: who you are, who you serve, and why you matter
✅ Great branding starts before design or marketing
✅ Your brand strategy should align with your business goals
✅ Skip this, and you’ll pay for it later in confusion, wasted spend, and weak positioning

Your brand is the foundation, not the finishing touch. Build it with intention...

Open article: S15 E3: How to Actually Think about Branding by open.spotify.com

S15 E3: How to Actually Think about Branding

My sophomore year of high school, I had a history teacher who would make us all read Newsweek and write a current affairs report. 

If he's still teaching 22 years later ( 🤮 )...perhaps his students will include my quotes from this week's article on Efficacy and transparency being essential for health brands to succeed in today's market. 

Thanks for a great conversation with reporter Lauren Giella - we got a chance to talk about the trends we're seeing with our clients here at Herman-Scheer

Open article: Efficacy and transparency are essential for these trusted health brands by newsweek.com

These Health Brands Lead in Trust—Transparency and Efficacy Are Why - Newsweek featured image

Efficacy and transparency are essential for these trusted health brands

Managing Director at WP | Amazon Accelerator for OTC Pharma, Healthcare & Beauty Brands | Helping companies Deliver, Protect and Grow their brands on Amazon

Amazon Healthcare & Beauty Strategist | Global Brand Protection & Growth

I help healthcare and beauty brands win on Amazon without compromising consumer safety, compliance, or brand integrity.

As Managing Director of WP, I work at the intersection of healthcare regulation, supply chain excellence, and digital commerce growth. We partner with challenger brands and global leaders alike to build scalable, compliant Amazon businesses across OTC healthcare and beauty.

My work focuses on a simple belief: Amazon growth only matters if it is sustainable, compliant, and trusted by consumers.

Over the last decade, I have supported brands ranging from fast-growing innovators to multinational healthcare companies, helping generate over $100M in partner revenue across 16+ Amazon marketplaces globally, including the UK, EU, North America, and Asia Pacific.

I help brands move beyond the false choice of 1P vs 3P, unlocking hybrid Amazon models that protect consumers while accelerating global growth.

My expertise spans:
	•	Healthcare-grade Amazon supply chains with full traceability and quality control
	•	Regulatory and compliance strategy across OTC, cosmetics, and medical categories
	•	Brand protection and marketplace governance in complex global environments
	•	Category-led growth through advanced Amazon advertising and brand strategy

At WP, we operate beyond the traditional agency model, investing directly in the success and protection of every brand we work with. Our partners include Unilever Int, Thea Pharma, Perrigo, and other leading healthcare and beauty organisations.

I regularly speak with founders, executives, and commercial teams about:
	•	The future of healthcare on Amazon
	•	Consumer safety in digital marketplaces
	•	Scaling regulated brands globally without risk
	•	Why brand protection is now a growth lever

If you are building, protecting, or scaling a healthcare brand on Amazon, or looking for insight on where the marketplace is heading next, let’s connect.

🌐 wpglobalgroup.com

Ash Shah

In 2025 Q1, Amazon removed 3.2m counterfeit listings… 99% of these were done proactively.

That sounds like a problem. However, for legitimate healthcare brands, it's a huge opportunity.

Amazon's AI systems now block more than 99% of suspected infringing listings before brands ever have to report them.

Since 2020, they've pursued more than 24,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals.

We can say for sure that the platform is getting super serious about authenticity.

Counterfeits in OTC aren't just a commercial problem, they're a safety problem.

When consumers can't trust what's in the order, the entire category suffers.

This is why protection became central to how we operate at WP.

When we built our model around "Deliver, Protect and Grow," the protect piece wasn't an afterthought - it’s often the first part to get right.

Enrol in Brand Registry and Transparency, item-level codes mean only authenticated units can be sold under your ASINs. 

Make authentication visible to consumers.

In a category where trust is scarce, being verifiably legitimate becomes a selling point.

Amazon is raising the bar, and it’s the right time.

Brands meeting that bar can stand out.

Brands that aren't enrolled in protection programmes are leaving themselves exposed.

The counterfeit problem isn't going away, and the tools to differentiate on trust are there for brands willing to use them.

The Leading Amazon Partner in Healthcare | Driving Global Growth & Brand Protection for Healthcare & OTC Pharma on Global Amazon and Ecom | Speaker | Managing Director at WP

5 common, yet highly unexpected and tough to predict, causes of rapid category expansion 👇

Rapid category expansion in OTC healthcare rarely comes from better customer acquisition.

It comes from recognising five external forces that create entirely new demand, often before competitors notice.

1. Pharmaceutical side-effect adjacency

When a blockbuster drug creates demand for products that offset its downsides.

GLP-1 drugs grew into a $62 billion market, but side effects are creating demand for adjacent OTC products. 

Anti-nausea medications, digestive aids, and hair growth treatments are seeing significant growth from this one pharmaceutical category.

The pattern: pharmaceuticals with broad adoption create predictable health needs. OTC products that address those needs inherit momentum.

2. Lifestyle behaviour spillover

When a wellness practice creates demand beyond its original purpose.
Intermittent fasting surged 195% in search interest over five years. 

That behaviour shift created demand for electrolyte products, digestive support, and hydration solutions beyond the athletic market.

The demographic shifted from "marathon runners" to "anyone who learned about insulin balance on TikTok."

3. Cultural moment virality

When social platforms accelerate niche products into mainstream awareness overnight.

Magnesium glycinate became the "sleep" ingredient on wellness TikTok. Sleep aids containing specific forms of magnesium saw searches surge.

That's driving demand for specific OTC products that didn't have mass awareness two years ago.

4. Use case migration

When a product's fastest-growing buyers aren't using it for its original purpose.
Pain relief products marketed for post-workout recovery are increasingly being bought for desk work and sedentary lifestyle discomfort. 

The use case shifted, but many brands haven't updated positioning.

5. Demographic inversion

When newest buyers are the opposite of the original target demographic.
Products marketed to older adults for age-related issues are being bought by younger demographics for prevention. 

Conversely, products positioned for young adults are seeing unexpected growth in older segments.

Joint support products initially marketed to 55+ are now being bought by 30-somethings. Brain health products marketed for memory are being bought by young professionals for focus.

→ The underlying pattern

Consumer knowledge is increasing faster than brand positioning adapts.

The opportunity is in recognising demand that already exists and positioning for it explicitly.

Where is consumer behaviour outpacing your brand messaging?

Tracking these five patterns tells you where OTC categories are expanding before they get crowded. Brands spotting these shifts early don't just grow faster, they often define the category.

The choice is whether you're optimising customer acquisition in a saturated category or positioning for an emerging one that's being shaped by forces outside your control.

3 Big Shifts will continue to transform healthcare in 2026 👇

These three forces are converging to create what's probably the most patient-driven healthcare market we've seen.

Patient behaviour has already transformed wildly since covid:

→ One in five consumers increased supplement use
→ 64% of Gen Z TikTok as a health search engine
→ Direct-to-consumer is now 29% of supplement sales, up from 16% in 2020

There are 3 Big Shifts moving the industry.

1. The strong and steady rise of Self-Care.

Consumers are taking control of their health.

They're researching, experimenting, and optimising on their own timeline.

The frame has moved from "treating illness" to "optimising wellness."

When people feel they can't control external circumstances, they tend to focus on what they can control.

Health is one of those things, and increasingly, they're doing it on their own terms.

This changes how brands probably need to show up. Educational content, clinical credibility, and transparent ingredient information seem to matter more than aspirational messaging used to.

Which leads to the second shift:

2. The proliferation of expert (and non-expert) healthcare info
Information is everywhere. 

On top of this, previously stigmatised conditions are now open to discuss.
Searches for health topics that were historically stigmatised or hard to navigate are surging. Terms such as PCOS and Anxiety are up on TikTok.

Consumers now have access to clinical research, peer experiences, product reviews at scale, and ingredient-level education. The information gap that defined healthcare for decades is shrinking fast.

Nearly 40% of Americans have used TikTok as a search engine for health information.

When that many people, especially younger consumers, use social platforms to research health, the landscape has changed.

Brands that assume they're the primary source of product education might already be behind.

The consumer often arrives informed, sometimes more informed than the marketing copy assumes they are.

3. Ecom infrastructure has become robust.

More and more, consumers can find OTC treatments they need online and purchase them without the need for a doctor or pharmacist.

The infrastructure exists for consumers to discover products through social content, research through reviews, purchase with next-day delivery, and subscribe for replenishment.

One consequence of this is that the entire discovery-to-purchase journey is now fragmented. Brands likely need presence across all potential channels in order to outgrow competitors.

These three shifts will accelerate through 2026 and are likely to be present globally.

This calls for a unified brand strategy.

Treating e-commerce like its own silo won’t outgrow category growth this year.
Instead, brands need to combine sales, marketing, finance, supply chain and distribution to really succeed.

The patient’s world has changed, so has their buying behaviour.

How are you set up to capitalise this year?

Healthcare shifts that will transform Ecommerce

Appreciate the feature Acquisition International Magazine, sharing in case it’s useful for founders and product teams thinking about trust in AI.

View company: Acquisition International Magazine

Read this insightful article on how startups should actually build AI that customers trust. It offers practical, real-world guidance for trustworthy AI, great read for founders and product teams navigating ethics, transparency, and governance.

Check it out: 👉 https://aigm.to/nWSv3y 

#AcquisitionInternational #AI #Trust #Startups #EthicalAI

Open article: How Startups Should Actually Build AI That Customers Trust - Acquisition International by acquisition-international.com

How Startups Should Actually Build AI That Customers Trust - Acquisition International

Amazon Transparency is more than just stopping counterfeits. It is about maximising customer safety.

It's proactively protecting customers.

For healthcare brands, it ensures the product advertised is exactly the product the customer receives.

Item-level authentication verifies every unit, protecting the integrity of the supply chain from manufacture to doorstep.

In OTC, safety and trust go hand in hand.

Transparency makes that trust visible and protects consumers at the point it matters most.

Learn more at: wpglobalgroup.com

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}John Scheer's LinkedIn Performance

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