Store Brand Innovators
Health and beauty care retailers are on the leading edge of innovation in the store brand marketplace.
As we note in this issue:
DR Goes Vogue
Duane Reade’s recent makeover in store merchandise mix, store brand design and store dress, this year caught the eye of Walgreens and prompted it to acquire NYC’s largest drugstore chain.
Under a new management team headed by John Lederer (formerly with Loblaws of Canada) this middle-aged drugstore has transformed itself into a stylish new urban retailer.
As we point out in this issue’s cover story on Duane Reade, the new management team is calling its turnaround strategy “Prescription for Change.”
The new team also adopted the new brand vision and marketing slogan: New York Living Made Easy.
At the heart of Duane Reade’s total brand makeover, is the introduction of new and revitalized store brand merchandise including the new DR Delish food and beverage line.
Under the DR Delish label, urban shoppers can find such healthy food offerings as gluten free trail mix and gluten free gingersnaps, vitamin-enhanced juice blends, and all natural soy crisps. There are also several organic food offerings such as organic salsa and maple leaf crème cookies. The Dr Delish line also includes several fresh, ready-to-eat, and frozen food offerings that can be found in select Duane Reade stores in the city including the new Chelsea neighborhood store. This two-level store is two stores in one. On the street level, customers can find a broad-line grocery store to meet the needs of lunchtime shoppers and urban dwellers. On the second, below-ground level, customers are presented with a full-line drugstore including the new beauty department called Look Boutique. This store within a store concept features an expanded array of beauty, skincare, and fragrance brands including many prestige brands other products exclusive to Duane Reade.
Other new store brand lines include the repositioned Apt 5 brand that now represents household products designed to meet the lifestyle needs of urban dwellers including small products for small apartments. The line also includes the Apt 5 Goes Green sub-brand of eco-friendly products.
Packaging design for the new Duane Reade store brand offerings reinforces the new brand positioning, New York Living Made Easy. It employs New York themed photography and illustrations of NYC landmarks that give the products a fun and edgy new york attitude.
2010 Drug Chain Report
Our Top 20 Drug/HBC Chain Report in this issue contains several examples of other leading-edge drugstore chains that are reinventing themselves as convenient destinations for time-sensitive shoppers. As we point out, food, clothing, housewares and other high-volume consumables are appearing in the store brand programs of such retailers as Walgreens, CVS, and Shoppers Drug Mart.
Walgreens, in particular, is worth noting for the striking similarity of its store brand strategy to that of Duane Reade which explains why the W brand acquired the DR brand earlier this year.
Now we encourage you to read through this issue of Private Label to discover more striking examples of new store brand initiatives in leading chain drugstores as well as in other retail formats.
