The first-ever pharmacy within a U.S. airport opened its doors this week in Newark, N.J.--and founder and CEO Ken Corroon, who was at the store's Terminal C location at Newark's Liberty International Airport at the opening, says early indications are auspicious. "Folks were immediately coming up and saying, 'I'm sick,' or 'I have a sore throat,' and we hadn't opened the center yet ... there's a real big demand." Indeed. And what Corroon's company, Harmony Pharmacy & Health Center, is hoping to do as it lays the groundwork for what it plans will be 100 such pharmacies nationwide, is to tap a nascent market for travelers and airport workers, who spend their days in what amounts to an immense, enclosed city with--at least in the U.S.--no pharmacies. As reported in Marketing Daily earlier this week, a number of pharmacies--including CVS/Pharmacy and Walgreen's--are opening clinics in their stores. But none have ventured into an airport. Corroon says the nearly hermetic thoroughfares of an air terminal constitute the perfect ecosystem for his business model, based on a high level of personal service and speed. Harmony's European-styled and service-oriented retail environment will fill most of its prescriptions for airport employees while selling over-the-counter drugs and apothecary fare to travelers. Corroon says the clinic will also operate an in-store clinic staffed by physician's assistants or nurse practitioners, who can order tests, perform diagnostics and prescribe medicines. Corroon says the pharmacy has grabbed a niche because the 24 million-plus travelers passing through the terminal each year will--thanks to post-9/11 security measures--do so without gels, toothpaste and a lot of other cosmetic and hygienic products. Since the pharmacy is on the so-called air side of the terminal, such products are saleable. Also, the pharmacy will deliver prescriptions anywhere in the airport. A former investment banker, Corroon launched the business in 2005 with a Long Island physician. While he conceded that bureaucratic hurdles lengthened the development process, the company expects to open four more pharmacies this year at airports in Texas, Atlanta and New York. The company is also planning stores in venues beyond airports. Harmony Pharmacy is working with financial partner MVC Capital. "There's a real opportunity to provide a diversified product mix," says Corroon. "Most U.S. chain pharmacies are much more value-oriented and less about the shopping experience and customer service. The focus [here] is on service and a differentiated product mix, with high-end products that you just don't see in pharmacies." Continental will promote Harmony in its in-flight magazine, per Corroon--who says he expects comparatively little prescription business from travelers. "There are 25,000 employees at the airport; it's a city in itself, and we are the local pharmacist," he says, adding that Harmony will deliver all prescriptions within the airport. "For employees, people who are busy working, you have to be customer-service oriented. But in order to cater to business travelers, you have to also be focused on moving quickly."
Xerox Corp. is continuing to expand its brand identity beyond standard office copiers with new advertising and marketing campaigns to highlight its consulting services and color copying business, the fastest-growing segments of its business. Xerox CMO Michael C. Mac Donald unveiled the strategy, designed to reinforce and reposition the Xerox brand, at THE Conference on Marketing in Las Vegas this week. "These ads are not aimed at any competitor in particular but more about how we are presenting the Xerox brand and our increasing focus on positioning Xerox as a services company and premiere provider of documents services and as a color printing company and communicate value and affordability of color for all businesses," spokesman Edward Gala told "Marketing Daily." Xerox' services business will be promoted via print and TV ads produced by agency of record Y&R New York. Called "the capabilities campaign," print ads already are running in prominent business magazine publications and Web sites, including Harvard Business Review and FT.com. There are three ads in the series--"We Find Millions," "We Retrieve," and "We Go One to One"--illustrating Xerox Global Services' cost-saving, document storage and retrieval, and personalized customer communications capabilities. Clients benefiting from these services include companies such as Owens Corning, InterContinental Hotels Group, JP Morgan Chase and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. "Xerox is moving to value-added consulting services in addition to technology, which is designed to help customers manage documents. These kinds of consulting services are much more the focus of the company as we look for ways to serve our large enterprise customers," explains Gala. The company also is sharpening its focus on affordable color businesses of all sizes. "Much more document volume is moving to color from black and white, so we see rapid growth in proliferation of color documents in all kinds of work environments, so we're moving our technology there," Gala says. "Color is much more profitable." The color campaign's first print ad shows three colorful owls with the words "Wise Color" in the background. The sub-head asks: "Who makes color affordable with prints for just pennies a page? You know who." Those print and two TV ads will debut in April.
It wasn't an easy winter for many retailers, but a new survey from the National Retail Federation predicts that this year's relatively early Easter--April 8--will result in hopped-up spending. The NRF survey forecasts an 11% gain in Easter spending compared to last year, with sales totaling $14.37 billion, or $135.07 per person. Candy is by far the most popular purchase. While only 79.5% of those polled say they celebrate Easter, 89.6% will purchase candy, spending an average of $18.53 per person. And 86% will purchase other Easter-related foods, spending an average $37.56. Other popular purchases include Easter gifts (65.7%) and greeting cards (58.7%). Some 46.5% say they plan to buy new clothes for the holiday, and 41.9% are planning to buy flowers. The NRF survey also found a continued shift in shopping preferences that began last November. More shoppers are headed to department stores (36.8% versus 30.0% last year). And fewer will be doing their shopping at discount stores (57.2% this year versus 59.6%). Predictably, per-capita spending is highest in shoppers between the ages of 25 and 34, who most likely to have small children. And of course, for kids, candy continues to be the holiday's main appeal. The National Confectioners Association predicts candy sales this Easter will come in at around $1.9 billion. And when NCA polled 9- to-12-year-olds, marshmallow treats, malted milk balls/eggs, and jelly beans all proved popular, but nothing comes close to the appeal of the chocolate rabbit. NCA estimates that 90 million will be sold this year. Most Americans prefer solid rabbits (42%) to hollow ones (14%.) And 76% say they eat the ears first. The NRF says that Easter ranks as the fourth-biggest retail holiday, following the winter holidays (with spending of $457.4 billion), back-to-school ($54.2 billion), and Valentine's Day ($16.9 billion.)
For the sailboat racing enthusiasts who couldn't get to the events, the Honda division is posting highlights of a special broadcast of the races on a number of racing and sailing Web sites and will rebroadcast it in its entirety later this month. It also will be the focus of a direct-mail and magazine campaign during May. It first aired on ESPN2 and features Gary Jobson, former All-American collegiate sailor, ESPN analyst and sailing tactician for Ted Turner. Acura sponsored the Acura Key West Race Week in January and the Acura Miami Grand Prix last week. The programs feature footage shot from helicopters and chase boats, interviews with defending champ Ernesto Bertarelli and others, Acura marketing and other material. They will be direct-mailed to sailing enthusiasts via a 10-minute DVD and will be sewn into the May America's Cup edition--the biggest of the year, in terms of readership--of Sailing World, which has 60,000 subscribers. The DVD contains a brand spot and an ad for the Acura RDX. Greg Smith, senior vice president/account director at Acura's AOR, RPA, Los Angeles, says the brand's association makes sense because cruiser-class racing boats' deserved reputation as marvels of design and technology align with Acura's own "Advance" mantra and brand identity and because racing fans, while not a massive audience, are nonetheless fairly obsessed. "It's very passionate, and that matches very much with Acura," he says, adding that the sport is getting more popular in the U.S. Sailing World and Cruising World are both devoted to racing. "We really are trying to bring the sport to the fans." He says last year was the first that Acura hired Jobson to film the races. The company then bought air time for the two half-hour shows on Outdoor Life Network, targeting a lay audience. "This year, we changed that up--worked a little better arrangement with ESPN so the broadcasts are close to when the races occurred and then made the content much more technical and targeted to race enthusiasts." This year, Acura also ran nightly, two- to-four-minute Web casts on ESPN.com, Acura.com, Premier-racing.com, and Jobsonsailing.com. Smith says the Jobson site received 110,000 unique visitors over four days. The company also broadcast the shows on ESPN2 two Sundays ago for the Key West Races. The broadcast of the Miami race will be on March 30, with two Acura spots running per broadcast. Smith said Acura's presence goes beyond the ads within the shows, since the boats have bow stickers bearing the Acura name and logo and some have the Acura logo on their spinnakers, both visible in broadcast footage. At the races, Acura also had vehicle displays and product specialists. "There's more than enough Acura involvement; we didn't want to hit anyone over the head with Acura, Acura, Acura," he says. The audience encompasses a wide range of ages. "It's an all-over-the-place demographic, from high school and collegiate sailors all the way up to designers and boat owners," he says, adding that it's a primarily male audience, 25 to 54. "Most definitely with a high household income but also a passion for something more." An RPA release describes the target for this effort as: "More likely to be entrepreneurial, forward-thinkers who are early adopters of new technology, have discriminating tastes and actively cultivate knowledge. This new kind of prestige is based on the consumer's passion for being ahead of the curve--likewise among the world's leading competitive sailors and their legions of fans."
The social networking hub MySpace was the brand most searched for in 2006, based on a 52-week average of industry search terms (excluding porn) among all U.S. Web sites, according to competitive intelligence monitoring service Hitwise. Wal-Mart, Target, and Bank of America were the only "real world" brands to crack the list, which Hitwise is now anointing "The Top 10 Searched for Brands" award. Here's the complete list of Top 10 Searched for Brand Terms* (with spellings as reported by Hitwise): 1. myspace 2. ebay 3. yahoo 4. mapquest 5. craigslist 6. walmart 7. google 8. target 9. match.com 10. bank of america *Data is based from sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users.
I find Julie Roehm's concern over the "party" image of marketing a comic hypocrisy. She refers to GoDaddy's ad with disdain, bemoaning the historical reputation of marketing, all while embodying that party-girl image herself. Playing ... with subordinates? Wining and dining with vendors and their sports cars? In her desire to come off as a qualified and professional guru (both jokes themselves), she is essentially saying, "Do as I say, not as I do." Beyond her improprieties, she has very little talent, and should look for work as a Mary Kay consultant. Curt Craighead Managing Partner Best Light Communications I read your article about Julie [Roehm] and Sean [Womack] and their vision of Marketing 2.x and 3.x. One question: I'm curious to know what, in the eyes of the media, is qualification for guru status? I wish our industry would concentrate more on what is truly important -- that is, the talent we need, the diversity we need and the need for more great clients that recognize great work and the value great work brings to a brand. This on-going following of what is a soap opera, at best, has no real meaning anymore within our industry other than the fact that a new term has emerged when it comes to forming relationships with clients (or the lack of the ability to do so). We now have to be wary of the Wal-Mart effect when we market ourselves to clients. Just recently, while congratulating a new CMO on an appointment, I sent off a standard agency creds package that also contained a hat and a t-shirt with our logo and a bottle of something we call "Cliff juice" (Trader Joe's wine)- which was promptly Fed Ex'd back to me at a cost greater than the package I originally sent. Ultimately this business, still, is very much reliant upon relationships and is, at its core, a business of people. And, in most cases, good people do good things. The glass truly is half full. Genuine things and acts of professionalism and friendship are recognized and remembered while building a relationship -- and ultimately trust. Let's get back to talking about the good things people in our industry are doing and clients that are pioneering and pushing us and as a result become worthy of talking about in this great marketing "2.x-3.x" new world of discovery we're fortunate to be a part of. Jeffrey M. McClelland Chief Executive Officer Cliff Freeman & Partners "Marketing Daily" welcomes feedback from our readers. Feel free to send yours either to the reporter who wrote the story or the editor, Nina Lentini, at nina@mediapost.com.