An article published on NACDS.org about the state of the beauty category is generating ripple-effect coverage in other media outlets. The timing is perfect, with beauty exhibitors and buyers – and their counterparts with responsibility for the entire store – poised to descend on Denver for the 2015 NACDS Total Store Expo. As it turns out, this one article says a lot about NACDS’ drive to serve the membership in an ever-more-complex business, public policy and political environment.
Trends related to millennials are shaping policy, politics and business in profound ways.
The online news source Mic cited NACDS.org in an article on high-end cosmetics. Specifically, the NACDS.org story that caught Mic’s eye was an interview with Nielsen Senior Vice President of Global Consumer Insights James Russo. By the way, Mic is increasingly influential: it has received praise from diverse publications from Forbes to Columbia Journalism Review as a go-to for millennials and as a thought leader amid the changing media landscape.
Mic reported: “’When you think about marketing, a very important consumer group for beauty is the millennials and they respond to strong, relatable story lines,’ James Russo, who headed up a study of millennial shoppers, told the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. ‘The younger millennials – between 18 and 25 – want to know about the efficiency and functionality of the product. For older millennials – 26 to 34 – information on product benefits and the resulting lifestyle changes resonate well.’”
All of this talk about beauty-category coverage may seem out-of-the-ordinary. NACDS members might be more used to reading about hard-fought public policy battles that shape the future of NACDS members’ stores as the face of neighborhood healthcare. Yet, my point is that topics typically considered “healthcare” and “pharmacy” and “front-end” are more intertwined than ever before.
In fact, one of the things I look forward to talking about during the NACDS Total Store Expo business program is the way in which NACDS brings together the public policy, political and business implications of current topics like millennials – the subject that Mic found to be of interest. In fact, trends related to millennials are shaping policy, politics and business in profound ways. We are seeing similar dynamics on issues including beauty and health, and telemedicine, and digital marketing – all of which will be united within the NACDS Total Store Expo … amid much, much more.
All this to say, the most recent citation of NACDS in a Mic article is symbolic of the very reason that NACDS created the Total Store Expo in the first place: issues and products affecting the entire store are increasingly inter-related. I look forward to exploring all of this and more with you at the NACDS Total Store Expo beginning this weekend!
