Beiersdorf, Edgewell Provide Grooming Solution

Wilton, Conn. — During a joint business planning meeting with Beiersdorf in September 2014, Walgreens’ divisional merchandise manager of personal care, Rudy Kucera, expressed a desire for a complete men’s grooming solution. “He recognized the value of the Nivea Men face care brand to the male shopper at Walgreens and believed if the brand could partner with a razor brand, we could deliver a complete men’s grooming shopper solution,” says Laura Cammarota, senior shopper marketing manager for Beiersdorf.

Fast forward 11 months, and the result was an exclusive promotional partnership that paired Nivea men’s and women’s shave care products from Beiersdorf with Schick, Skintimate and Edge razor products from Edgewell Personal Care. Dubbed “Fall for a Fresh Routine,” the program ran in 2,042 locations last August with a dedicated endcap. Post-program measurement showed an increase in cross-purchase of the participating brands by 25% vs. pre-period, prompting plans for a second run during the same period this year.

Although the initial target was men’s grooming, as the teams started to build the program out, women’s products were added to the mix. “This was an opportunity for us to have an incremental secondary location for all of these products,” Cammarota says.

Walgreens data provided the overarching insights that drove the program, and each of the manufacturers shared its brand demographics, she says. “We looked at men’s grooming shopper profiles to understand demos and lifestyle and then overlaid that with Walgreens’ customer insights market basket data to help us create the right mix for the endcap.” The teams determined the sweet spot was the 35-45 age group. “We saw a tight synergy with guys who were buying Schick Hydro razors and Nivea face care for men. We knew this was a great opportunity to cross categories.”

It was a strong collaborative effort between the three organizations, says Beth St. Raymond, director of shopper marketing at Edgewell. “This was a nice triangle of the data we all have about our users, shoppers and baskets, and what kind of solution can we co-create together as a triumvirate. We’re always trying to create different ways to talk to consumers and users, and give them solutions.”

“The idea of two challenger companies focused on building out a robust regimen that fits the needs of that user is very important to us, and is extremely important to Walgreens.”
— Beth St. Raymond

Creating the idea of a regimen and talking to consumers about what they do to get ready for their day or to go out proved very important, St. Raymond says. “Walgreens helped us take a close look at their path and usage profile, not only what they have in their basket, but how they’re using it. The idea of two challenger companies focused on building out a robust regimen that fits the needs of that user is very important to us, and is extremely important to Walgreens. It’s not just about a one-off. It’s about the basket, how they’re using what’s in the basket, and how we as consumer products companies can help our user make their day a little better and easier.”

While the thematics of the program spoke to the back-to-school time period, Cammarota says it was important to provide a shopper solution that extended beyond. “This really is a larger story of the shopper at Walgreens, which is this idea of getting a fresh routine and, for us, curating an assortment of product that can enable that.”

The endcap served as the in-store experience for the program. Communication boxes on each of the shelves highlighted men’s shave, men’s face care, women’s shave and women’s skin care and spoke to each product experience. Both manufacturers collaborated to produce the PDQ trays for their own products, which were shipped from their respective vendors and labeled so store managers knew to assemble all together in one endcap. “We provided a roadmap so both companies could follow their own internal procedure and then ship to Walgreens, where the retailer’s procedure could then happen in-store,” Cammarota says. “That took quite a bit of navigation.” The header and wings surrounding the façade of the endcap were co-funded by the two companies.

The same creative carried through to different touchpoints along the path to purchase. Out-of-store elements included circular ads as well as News America Marketing’s Price Feature Plus ads that ran adjacent to both manufacturers’ FSIs in August. Cammarota says the timing was opportunistic since the brands shared the same FSI vendor and both already had plans to highlight their respective significant driver brands in ads on Aug. 16. Email blasts also went out to 10 million households in mid-August.

The program leveraged Walgreens’ Balance Rewards loyalty program to incent purchase across categories and brands. When consumers bought $20 in eligible product, they received 5,000 reward points. “We stayed focused on loyalty, which we know is a key driver for the Walgreens shopper, and we wanted to reward her to drive market basket up and get cross-category purchases going,” says Cammarota. “We used that as the anchor or attraction point for shoppers, to reward them for participating in purchasing across these multiple brands.”

Both Kucera and Carolina Howski, Walgreens’ personal care category manager, were highly engaged in the architecture of the program. “It is always good when you start with what the shopper wants and then everyone wins – the customer, supplier and retailer,” says Kucera.

At the onset of the program, the companies set out to hit a combined sales goal for the participating brands on the endcap, and they effectively superseded it by 46%.

Norwalk, Connecticut-based IN Marketing Services, Edgewell’s shopper agency, provided the creative. Menasha, Neenah, Wisconsin, manufactured Beiersdorf’s PDQ trays, while Pratt Industries, Totowa, New Jersey, handled Edgewell’s trays.

While neither would divulge the marketing budget for the program, Cammarota says a testament to its success is the fact that the partnership will continue for a second year. “We’re taking the lessons learned and breaking down to little nuggets to understand the winners, where can we improve, and where can we optimize our strategies. We’re coming back together with deeper lessons learned.”