Specialty bath creates bridge between cosmetics and HBC

Drug Store News, August 18, 1997 by Faye Brookman

Specialty bath is emerging in the mass retail marketplace as a fast-growing hybrid category that is part fragrance, part bath preps, part body lotions, part after-bath--and an interesting and profitable way for chain drug store retailers to attract customers used to shopping specialty stores, such as Bath and Body Works, Victoria's Secret and The Body Shop.

Among the specialty lines gaining either expanded distribution or more upscale merchandising presentations as this new category segment emerges are: Sarah Michaels, currently introducing its first line of fragrances, a collection of after-bath body sprays; Del Labs Naturistics, which has fragrances, body sprays and a full line of bath and body products targeted to the youth market; Minnetonka, which has a Caboodles collection of body sprays and bath and body products targeted to young consumers; Coty's Calgon division with its new collection of fragranced Calgon Body Mist sprays; Parfums De Coeur with its growing line of Body Fantasies Bath and Body products and sprays; Delagar with bath and body gift sets and fragrance collections; San Francisco Soap, with its new fragranced bath and body gift collection; Revlon's Jean Nate, one of the original mass market fragranced specialty bath and body collections; Kneippe, a collection of fragranced aromatherapeutic bath and body products; Coty's new holistic line of scented fragrances and bath and body accessories, The Healing Garden; and a new specialty bath line, Parasido's Tuscavi.

Beth Kaplan, executive vice president of marketing for Rite Aid Corp., said she expects specialty bath to serve as the bridge between cosmetics and health and beauty care.

"We're finding, especially in our Manhattan stores, that shoppers are willing to experiment with bath items for self use and gifts," she said. She added that Rite Aid, which already has a boutique specialty bath care presentation as part of its new beauty care planogram, definitely plans to develop the specialty bath care category more extensively as the chain continues to refine, its merchandising presentations for beauty care. Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS and Tampa, Fla.-based Eckerd Drug are exploring similar opportunities.

Generally, retailers are making space for specialty bath merchandising presentations by cutting space allocations for fragrances, and sometimes by dropping slower-moving cosmetics lines from the color wall.

Often, the premium-priced fragranced specialty bath lines are being merchandised in, or as close to, the fragrance department as possible. If the chain has enough space, sometimes the premium lines will also be cross merchandised with the mass brands in the traditional HBA bath planogram. Full lines, such as Sarah Michaels, Naturistics and Coty's new Healing Garden, are usually given boutique family merchandising presentations in 3- or 4-foot fixtures that typically go on endcaps or floor stands, in or near cosmetics, or, sometimes, right on the color wall.

"What's happened is that retailers are emphasizing three areas," said Kenneth Kaplan, vice president of sales for Stoughton, Mass.-based Sarah Michaels. "People are carrying one or two premium lines, such as Sarah Michaels, and then a few commodity lines and a private-label line. They are often merchandising the premium line in two locations, bath care and fragrances."

The issue of the declining mass fragrance business has been a "wake-up call for drug stores," said William McMenemy, executive vice president of marketing for Farmingdale, N.Y.-based Del Laboratories. "It is opening up their thinking to tie fragrance in with bath and body," he said.

As merchandising strategies change, buying responsibilities for specialty bath lines are also shifting, with more specialty bath lines now being handled by cosmetics buyers instead of HBA buyers.

Many chains rushed into large bath departments in the early part of the '90s, when specialty chains such as Bath and Body Works and The Body Shop first started to popularize the category. But, those early departments failed to find distinctive ways to present the category in a mass environment, and they were frequently a merchandising hodgepodge, mixing commodity body washes and shower gels with specialty/premium-priced brands.

When sales didn't bubble up to expectations, retailers started scrutinizing their product mix. "They started to be more selective and discriminating, and they are just now starting to devote more space to it again," said Larry Wilhelm, president of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Minnetonka.

Youngstown, Ohio-based Phar-Mor is currently fine-tuning its bath assortment. Instead of going in several different directions, said Scott Gorley, senior director of health and beauty aids and cosmetics, the chain has pared down bath to concentrate on core specialty bath lines such as Sarah Michaels, Vitabath and Naturistics. The Phar-Mor specialty bath section is an aisle away from commodity bath.

Powell, Ohio-based Drug Emporium, which has been looking for new and different items to add to its planogram, has added Tuscavi, a novel bath and soap collection from Paradiso.