Ethnic advertising being fine-tuned to individual stores

Drug Store News, Sept 30, 1991 by Elizabeth Parks

Ethnic advertising being fine-tuned to individual stores

As the ethnic product category matures, retailers are trying to maximize sales opportunities by updating planograms more frequently and by tailoring their mix to individual neigborhood stores.

Geri Duncan Jones, executive director of the American Health and Beauty Aid Institute (AHBAI), says that she's seeing more and more chains "continuing to reach out to black consumers through promotions designed to capture their attention and show sensitivity to black consumers.

"The more it's done," Jones says, "The more retailers want to participate." She cites the success of programs like Walgreen's black history promotion earlier this year that benefited the United Negro College Fund with a $50,000 grant and Perry Drug's Do It Up community service promotion that rewards accomplished art students in Detroit high schools with $1,000 grants.

At press time, Eckerd Drug, which has sponsored regional community service promotional campaigns for black consumers, was exploring the idea of doing a national promotion, possibly themed to Black History month next February.

At Harco Drug, buyer Charles Monk says they've been working hard to make store cosmeticians familiar with their ethnic programs.

As a buyer, he sits down with his distributor, North American Beauty Supply, once a quarter. "We go one on one with all the manufacturers and then we plan schools, so our cosmeticians will know what's going in the market." In Michigan, Scott Gorley, Perry's ethnic HBA buyer, says value-added programs, especially sweepstakes promotions, are becoming very popular with his consumers.

Perry is swinging into its third year with its popular Do It Up program. "The market is really out there now for value added programs," says Gorley, "and we're going after it more than ever before."

The chain has partnered with LustraSilk to sponsor a "Helps You Make The Grade" sweepstake with an Apple computer as the grand prize. They've teamed up with Soft Sheen for an "Education Is Essential" sweepstakes with an IBM computer as the grand prize, and they're giving away 20 $1,000 Perry Shopping Spree certificates in conjunction with Dark & Lovely.

Kent Humphreys, president of Jack's Service Station in Oklahoma City, says many of his retail customers are now "analyzing each store by neighborhood zip codes, and they are creating a product mix designed to reach different neighborhoods."

In addition to adding space to make their departments more prominent in high traffic stores, or cutting back on space in low traffic stores, more retailers are doing detailed analysis of their data to determine the appropriate space allocations and mix for ethnic HBA departments.

"There's more of an attempt to target customers," says Humphreys. "Chain drug stores are doing zip code mailings and they are also tailoring the mix to the customers in their neighborhoods. Retailers have also learned they cannot take a black customer and say, OK, I'll make a 40 percent gross instead of a 20 percent on you. You can still make more money with ethnic items than you can with general market items, but it's far more competitive now."