Drugstore’s new CEO moves quickly to sharpen focus on marketing
Since joining Drugstore.com Inc. last fall as chairman and CEO, Dawn Lepore has sharpened the e-retailer’s focus on a coordinated marketing and merchandising strategy to boost sales of non-prescription goods.
“We need to spend more time on marketing and branding,” she says. “We hear from customers that they love us but don’t know the breadth of products we carry. Others say they don’t come back, not because they’re unhappy, but that they just didn’t think of us.”
But Lepore says she and her new executive team know how to change that. “Our message has to be consistent,” she adds. “The way the web is designed, brand ads, e-mail ads, all need to be consistent with a branding strategy, with who we are and what our value proposition is.
The retailer is planning to launch a multi-faceted advertising campaign later this year with New York-based Acme Inc., and is also looking into developing more personalized and easier-to-read e-mail marketing campaigns. “We’ll have customers tell us what communication they want from us,” Lepore says. “For example, if they like a product that a manufacturer plans to discontinue, we’ll tell customers to let them stock up on it.”
Drugstore is also testing several new site features to make online shopping easier and encourage customers to return more often, Lepore says. One thing under consideration is a simpler version of the site for first-time users. “Our web site can be a little overwhelming for the first-time user, so an easier shopping experience could be very effective,” she says.
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