Walgreens Debuts Store Brands in National TV Ad Campaign

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February 15, 2011

Walgreens is launching an expansive national television and interactive media campaign to get budget-conscious consumers to think of its store brands first for their health and wellness needs.

This is the drug store chain’s first national advertising campaign for its health and wellness store brands lines, which launched Sunday, according to a report in The New York Times. In the past, the chain has relied mostly on newspaper circulars and in-store media to advertise its stores brands.

The ads -- designed to be warm, friendly and memorable -- feature a Walgreens pharmacist recommending the drug chain’s store brands products. “It’s a pretty heavily informative commercial. We hopefully succeeded in making it likable,” said Jim Schmidt, a creative partner at Downtown Partners agency.

Kim Feil, Walgreens’ CMO, said the campaign is about more than just saving money. “It’s equally important that we elevate the Walgreens brand and product not just on the basis of lower cost,” he said

In January, Walgreens and Opinion Research Corporation polled more than 1,000 U.S. adults and found that 84 percent purchased store brands over-the-counter medications when they were available while 36 percent said they had increased their purchases of store-brand products in the past year.

Walgreens said it also plans to continue its partnership with ParentsAsk.com, the health and parenting web site where Walgreens already provide content and banner ads about how its store brands compare to national brands in terms of ingredients, quality and pricing.

Walgreens’ digital strategy also includes close ties to BlogHer, a female-centric network that reaches the drug chains target -- women between the ages of 25 and 54.

In some cases, the chain provides some sites such as TheFrugalGirl.com and SliceOfLemon.com sample products to review, a tactic the chain plans to continue, targeting female-centric and bargain-hunting sites, according to the report.

SBD Views: Kudos to Walgreens and CMO Kim Feil for this bold strategic move launching a fully integrated consumer marketing campaign to promote store brands. With the development and implementation of a broadbased consumer media campaign utilizing traditional, digital and social media, Walgreens is pioneering new ground in store brands consumer marketing. If this wasn’t enough, Walgreens is leveraging one of its greatest assets --the trust and relationship shoppers have with Walgreens pharmacists -- as the core of their consumer marketing message. We think this campaign will come to be viewed as a historic milestone in store brands consumer marketing history. -- John Failla for Store Brands Decisions

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