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Opinion

Digital marketing should top the priority list

Digital marketing should top the priority list

Marketing is among those operations undergoing a fundamental change in the digital world. Today’s consumer has materially different expectations about how she wants to buy products and services and about how she expects companies to market them to her.

Health care stakeholders need to talk

Health care stakeholders need to talk

With the heated rhetoric about Obamacare on the presidential campaign trail, congressional hearings focused on drug costs and news reports about these debates, is it possible for all health care stakeholders to work together to develop solutions for containing costs that ensure patient access to car

Technology enables retailers to keep up with customers

Technology enables retailers to keep up with customers

Drug stores are an integral part of daily life for many consumers, who embrace them as a one-stop shop to pick up essentials, grab a snack and refill a prescription on the go. Even as the drug store channel has consolidated in recent years, these retailers have not been slack in coming up with ways

Ten ways CPG makers are shooting themselves in the foot

Ten ways CPG makers are shooting themselves in the foot

Much has been written about the historic sluggishness of the consumer packaged goods industry. Since 2013 CPG industry sales growth has been below 2%, and that growth has been entirely driven by pricing. In response, we see companies merging, brands being sold and jobs being lost.

As baby boomer generation ages, its needs will change

As baby boomer generation ages, its needs will change

It feels like “The boomers are coming! The boomers are coming!” has been a corporate rallying cry for a number of years now as a range of industries have worked to prepare for the aging of the population. But successfully targeting the baby boomer generation has proven elusive for many.

Drug chains need to retool for e-commerce era

Drug chains need to retool for e-commerce era

Digital technologies are reshaping both consumer demand and competitive undercurrents in the U.S. consumer packaged goods marketplace. Digital innovations and the explosion of digital, mobile and social media are restructuring how consumers shop for and purchase CPG products.

Walgreens’ quest for the fill-in shopping trip

Walgreens’ quest for the fill-in shopping trip

defined as helping shoppers get in, get what they need and get out. Kantar Retail assesses trip missions and cross-channel behaviors to examine how the Walgreens shopper may respond to this strategic goal. Recently, Walgreens

Focus on quality of life reshapes retail

Focus on quality of life reshapes retail

I’m sure the last thing you want to read, yet again, is another treatise on the impact of the Great Recession on the U.S. economy. So apologies up front. All I can say is that the effects of the recession have still not gone away. That is clear in our biennial How America Shops MegaTrends

Chain drug industry in period of transition

Chain drug industry in period of transition

One-third of the way into the new year, the chain drug store industry is hardly setting any worlds on fire. Business is good, but noteworthy only in the fact that it’s not better.

NACDS Foundation spurs health care research

NACDS Foundation spurs health care research

Decisions about health care will increasingly be based on evidence that, when applied to the individual circumstances of a patient, supports the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of one course of treatment over another.

Time to strengthen patient-pharmacist bond

Time to strengthen patient-pharmacist bond

According to the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI), up to approximately $290 billion a year is wasted on the improper use of medications. Evidence suggests the most effective way to drive medication adherence is to strengthen the relationship between patients and pharmacists.

On RxImpact Day, Congress gets powerful message

On RxImpact Day, Congress gets powerful message

At a time when the American political system and legislative process are, more often than not, characterized by gridlock, and the ongoing presidential campaign is riddled with examples of what are seemingly new lows in civilized discourse and rational debate, it’s refreshing to see moments when our

Questions abound as NACDS Annual Meeting nears

Questions abound as NACDS Annual Meeting nears

The Annual Meeting of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores is once again upon us, though the calendar year hasn’t yet budged beyond April. The significance of this annual meeting has nothing to do with the calendar, however.

Millennials impose new dynamic in cosmetics

Millennials impose new dynamic in cosmetics

and indeed exceeds — the hype. I am speaking of the vaunted Millennials, the 18- to 34-year-old age group who one would think (based on the all of the articles in the press) accounted for the vast

Battle to build scale is now a global contest

Battle to build scale is now a global contest

  McKesson Corp.’s agreement to acquire Rexall Health from Katz Group is notable in several respects. The transaction alters the balance of power in the Canadian pharmacy market.