CVS Cares, Prepares for Allergy Season

CVS/pharmacy enlisted several key manufacturers this spring to conduct an extensive campaign for allergy season.The drugstore retailer has been using a "Care & Prepare for Your Allergies" theme since early March to promote deals on Johnson & Johnson’s Zyrtec, Merck & Co.’s Claritin, Sanofi-Aventis’s Allegra and a variety of other relevant products. Periodic circular features present ExtraCare loyalty cardholders with ExtraBucks offers on SKUs from the allergy-relief brands as well as J&J’s Visine, Pfizer Inc.'s Advil, Reckitt Benckiser's Mucinex, Nephon Pharmaceuticals Co.’s Asthmanefrin, the retailer's eponymous private label and others.The biggest splash came on April 21, when a circular wrap plugged ExtraCare deals on J&J’s Benadryl, GlaxoSmithKline’s Breathe Right, SiCap Industries’ Sinus Buster, Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co.’s Nasal Ease, KingBio’s AllergyCare and AsthmaCare, Oasis Consumer Healthcare’s Halo, and Homeolab USA’s Real Relief in addition to some of the aforementioned brands.In stores, dedicated endcaps carrying the “Care & Prepare” slogan or a similar “Allergies are Here. Are You Prepared?” message stock allergy-relief SKUs from Allegra, Claritin, Zyrtec, Benadryl and the CVS brand, along with private label Total Home tissues; dump bins merchandising Allegra, Claritin and private-label SKUs are adorned with pole toppers warning, “Because allergies happen anytime, anywhere.”The three national allergy-relief brands all gained a strong presence:Claritin provided a custom endcap communicating an ExtraBucks offer and devoting one side to sister brand Afrin. (See Related Images at right.)Zyrtec used angled SmartSource shelf talkers to stand out in-line, and provided floorstands for secondary placement.Allegra earned exclusive endcap space for a series of custom displays, one of which communicated an ExtraCare offer. Another rolling out later in the season allocated a lower shelf to Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex and employed take-one tearpads to promote myallergenius.com, a website created exclusively for CVS that contains relevant articles and advice, a link to Allegra's text notification service for ZIP code-specific pollen levels, and digital coupons (via the brand's website).SmartSource aisle violators also carried the tearpads, which contained a QR code linking to the site; the sign's other side boasted a tearpad of instantly redeemable coupons delivering $2 off a one-SKU purchase. Some stores also deployed Allegra shippers in the grocery aisle.On cvs.com, the landing page for an “Allergy & Asthma” content area contains:an “Allergy Alert Tool” from Zyrtec that provides daily ZIP code-specific pollen levels.links to numerous articles about allergy causes, symptoms and other information."Shop Now" links to e-commerce pages for Zyrtec, Benadryl, Claritin, Allegra, Asthmanefrin, Kleenex, CVS and Bausch & Lomb's Alaway.display ads for brands such as Zyrtec, Asthmanefrin and Alaway that lead to brand pages elsewhere on the website or, in the case of Alaway, a coupon on the brand's own site. The ads began running in mid-April, according to OASIS (the Institute's tracking service for retail digital media). Triad Retail Media, Tampa, handles advertising on cvs.com.The landing page also has links to product listings grouped in multiple “Sub-Categories” such as "Allergy and Asthma for Children," "Allergy Treatment" and "Nasal Care and Purifiers." Those pages then link to cvs.com's e-commerce area. A home page ad proclaiming “Allergy Answers Live Here” links to the page.Among other activity, email blasts began to carry ads on April 22 that dangled a "buy one, get one 50% off" deal on private-label SKUs.

CVS Cares, Prepares for Allergy Season

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