Feature
EAC Meets in New York
The In-Store Marketing Institute's Executive Advisory Council (EAC) met Dec. 5 in New York City in conjunction with the Total Retail Experience (TREX). Meeting hosts Laurie Houlihan, vice president of promotional purchasing at L'Oreal, and Terri Oswald, avp, promotional purchasing at Maybelline, led an agenda that included morning store tours of Procter & Gamble's Charmin Restrooms and Kiehl's Pharmacy, followed by presentations and discussion at L'Oreal's Manhattan offices.Tim Collins of the Gigunda Group led council members on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Charmin Restrooms, a temporary, 5,000-square-foot "pop-up store" in Times Square that was created for holiday shoppers and tourists. The store, which closed on New Year's Eve, exceeded expectations in terms of drawing media attention. Kiehl's store manager Richard Jennings then walked the group through his East Village store, a location that dates back to 1851, when it opened as a little "mom and pop" pharmacy. Although acquired by L'Oreal in 2000, it still retains its neighborhood orientation with highly trained employees.
The council re-convened at L'Oreal's Manhattan offices, where Dr. Stephen J. Hoch, professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and an adviser for Proteus Design, discussed "Brand Architecture to Compete Against Private Labels." Noting that private label items now account for one out of every five products sold in U.S. grocery, drug and mass retail stores, Hoch described various approaches CPG brands can take to solidify their market positions. While conceding that private labels can pose a competitive threat to some brands, he also shared research that indicated that as much as 90% of all private label providers are content to position their lines as mere "me too" products, leaving CPGs plenty of room for differentiation through innovation.
A discussion of Institute business followed, with an update on membership enrollments for the fall quarter and the latest developments in the P.R.I.S.M. Project, a discussion of adjustments to the speaker line-ups for the In-Store Marketing Summit, and some preliminary discussion of future Institute business-to-business programming.
The next EAC meeting is scheduled for June 2007.
Published: January 2007
