Walgreens Pharmacists to focus on customers
In a new article at the Arizona Daily Star, they share how Walgreens in the state of Arizona are changing their practices at the pharmacy counters. Instead of filling all prescriptions in stores, they're going to be sending some prescriptions to a center in Tempe to allow pharmacists in stores to focus on their customers. In addition to filling prescriptions, the outsourcing center will also take care of data entry of prescriptions and phone calls.
One concern that arises in these situations is the number of employees that will actually be serving customers in stores. There is also concern as to the safety of the patient when pharmacists in-store are not fulfilling the patient. Read the full story here.
What do you think? Could this potentially turn into a way to better suit the in-store shopper?
Pricing Strategies: How to Price Smarter in Uncertain Times
In the free whitepaper,How to Price Smarter in Uncertain Times, experts in pricing strategies outline what retailers must do in turbulent economic times to not only compete with other retailers but to win customers and achieve profit. From the report, there are five key solutions that pricing decision makers can apply to keep profits growing during economic downturns. All are applicable to consumer-facing businesses; some have relevance for B2B companies as well.
Download a copy of the whitepaper.
If you are interested in learning more about how effective pricing strategies can help your retail organizations, we invite you to join us this July 14 in Chicago at the Pricing Strategies at Retail Event. This is the only event that confronts today's critical pricing and marketing optimization. Meet with brands, retailers and pricing experts to share strategic solutions help grow market share immediately and realize new loyalty for years to come.
In-Store Marketing for Orange Juice
Be on the lookout for a very friendly display that sounds like Tom Selleck, urging you to purchase Florida orange juice. The mustached celebrity's voice is slatted to be on in-store displays for Florida Department of Citrus, as the company shifts from heavy television marketing to in-store presence.
The Ledger reports, "a recorded message in the cooler from OJ spokesman Selleck will remind shoppers "Florida orange juice (is) healthy, pure and simple," Leigh Killeen, deputy executive director for marketing, told the commission. Side panels will reinforce that message.
And when shoppers open the clear plastic lid to get the refrigerated OJ product inside, the cooler will spritz an orange fragrance.
The department will roll out the cooler displays as a pilot program in Florida stores later this year, Executive Director Ken Keck said. If that proves successful, the talking, spritzing coolers will be available nationwide."
Online shoppers going straight for webpages
According to a new study done by Mark Simpson, MD, many online shoppers don't use a search engine when going to make a purchase from their favorite websites.
They also found that:
• 82% of respondents have abandoned their shopping basket in the last year
• 69% of respondents would not go back to a website if the purchasing process had been unsatisfactory
• Marketers and Consumers alike are unable to identify what makes a good website and what makes a bad website
• 63% of respondents now know the web address of their favorite websites, rather than having to use a Search Engine
Read more about the study here.
West Coast Grocer Set To Drop Prices
Albertsons, the West Coast grocer, is set to drastically drop prices on many items throught their stores. These price drops are in response to their dwindling sales and inability to keep up with with discount markets and superstores. The LATimes reports that the initiative is aimed at regaining budget-minded customers both from its rivals and those lost to discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. The report also notes that, Albertsons' move comes at a time when "everyone is fighting for traffic right now. They are all aware that consumers are under a lot of pressure," said Stella Kapur, the supermarket analyst at Standard & Poor's, the New York corporate credit rating company.
Will we see other regional grocers following Albertson's lead?
Tips for Growing Store Brands
Here is Tom Pirovano, Director, Industry Insights, Nielsen tips for helping stores expand their private labels as reported in Brandweek.
• Study the category consumer before going upscale. Consumer understanding is the common thread among top-selling brands. It’s not enough for a retailer to roll out a quality product in premium packaging.
• Disguise your premium store brands. Many consumers still associate private label with cheap knockoffs. There - I said it. But what if they don’t know it’s a store brand? Look to position premium store brands as exclusive products like Choxie at Target and Canopy at Walmart.
• Get your pricing right. The price gap between store brands and national brands varies significantly across categories. The same shopper who chooses private label bottled water for a 3% discount may require at least 20% savings for private label barbecue sauce.
• Offer multiple brands in multiple tiers. Although Costco may be the exception, most retailers are finding growth with multiple store brands. No one brand can stand for value and gourmet and healthy eating.
• Eliminate weak links. One bad product experience can hurt the entire store brand, not to mention the retail banner itself. Product quality needs to be consistent across each store brand. Your brand’s perceived quality is only as good as its weakest SKU.
• Drive trial. If your store brand is really as good as the national brand (or better), let your shoppers try it. Offer a free package with a $50 purchase. Consider a trial size or in-store product demos.
• Promote your store brands. There’s a wide range of feature ad support for private label. Using ECRM’s Marketgate data, we found that private label’s percent of feature ads ranged from 45% at Wegmans to 25% at HEB to only 10% of ads at Publix.
• Don’t be too quick to drive out value brands. Some value brands can drive lower price and higher margins than retailers can achieve through private label. The shampoo category is an excellent example with some well-known brands at very low prices.
• Embrace a cause. Use package labeling to show how your store brand supports local suppliers, promotes health & wellness, saves the environment, or funds local charities. You’ll find that many of these causes attract similar consumers. Regardless of sales performance, taking the high road can help to build a retailer’s image.
• Understand the difference between strong sales vs. strong brand equity. Walmart’s Great Value brand claims to be the #1 food brand across categories, but would shoppers ever choose Great Value over a national brand at the same price point?
What other tips can retailers use to grow their private labels?
Walmart’s Brand Showcases increase user time on website
In a recent article at RetailWire, they look at Walmart has added content and banners to the website to increase brand exposure. This initiative has increased the time spent on the Walmart webpage 68%. Interactive tools such as Kellogg's breakfast calculator and Zyrtec's pollen calculator have proven to be tools that work in these instances. Another part of the Walmart website that has proven to be especially successful is the sampling campaigns. Read the full story on what WalMart is doing here.
US supermarkets successfully changing product mix and enhancing loyalty
“The industry showed its resilience in the most challenging economy in modern history,” FMI President and CEO, Leslie Sarasin, said. “Retailers aggressively discounted products and increased their lines of private brands to help American families lower their grocery bills. At the same time, they continued to control costs by improving efficiency and productivity, a hallmark of this industry.”
What else is the American grocery store doing to enhance the customer experience whilst gaining a profit in these tough economic times. With the increase in private labels, we may see more customer loyalty to specific retailers as customers learn to like specific private labels.
Target Mirrors Wal-Mart, Recession Relief in the Grocery Aisle
According to the Wall Street Journal, Target is set to add more mini-groceries to its stores in an effort to compete with Wal-Mart during the economic downturn. Known for skewing up market, the Minneapolis based retailer now needs to compete with many upwardly mobile shoppers who find themselves heading to Wal-Mart to save money.
According to the article, Target has tried to emphasize food previously. In 1995, it opened the first of 245 SuperTargets, which include a full array of groceries. But it has been reluctant to rapidly add to those 175,000-square-foot stores, unable to find enough profitable locations. Its sales last year of groceries, including pharmacy and beauty products, accounted for 37% of revenue compared with 59% of Wal-Mart's U.S. department-store sales.
The new minigroceries inside existing discount department stores have increased food sales 50% at test stores, and lifted sales of other items as well, Mr. Steinhafel said during a tour of a Target store in Sun Prairie, Wis., late last month. The grocery section there sported signs proclaiming, "Eat Well. Pay Less." in a nod to its "Expect More. Pay Less." marketing slogan.
Will there be an upswing in profits as Target expands their grocery offerings? We'd like to hear your thoughts.
Campbell Soup Company Extends V8 Fusion Line
According to this article in TradingMarkets, Cambell Soup Company’s introduction of two new flavors for their V8 Fusion line will help bridge the “vegetable gap”, which is the difference between what consumers should eat and what they actually do eat. Most Americans do not get their recommended intake of daily vegetables, but with the addition of the two new flavors (Goji Raspberry and Passionfruit Tangerine) which taste like fruit, well it might help moms in getting their kids to eat their veggies!
Phil McGee, director of Insights & Category Management at Campbell Soup Company will be speaking at our upcoming Shopper Insights in Action 2009 conference this July in Chicago. For more information about the conference and about Phil, please visit our Shopper Insights in Action 2009 event page.