Unilever's CVS 'Skin' Program Emphasizes Health and Beauty

Englewood Cliffs, N.J. – In an effort to inspire CVS/pharmacy shoppers to elevate their skincare regimen, Unilever partnered with CVS Health on a comprehensive “Love Your Skin” program that is the manufacturer’s largest such effort to date with the retailer.Positioning CVS as the authority on health and beauty while spotlighting the manufacturer’s Dove, Vaseline and Simple brands, the effort kicked off earlier this year with permanent endcaps in CVS stores, a variety of circular, magazine, digital billboard and taxi-topper ads, a dedicated page on CVS.com and various in-store executions.Additionally, the partners leveraged digital programs during the summer including a live social media outreach and a Twitter party with Dr. Mona Gohara, a dermatologist. The fall and winter will see more circular ads, direct mail pieces, email blasts and digital efforts, as well as the permanent endcaps in stores and a beauty advisor event in November.Cory Fraehsdorf, shopper marketing manager at Unilever, says the partnership was born out of the retailer’s increased focus on its health-driven initiatives. “We set out to really leverage the two and unite health and beauty,” she says, noting that its powerhouse Dove brand was an obvious choice to be part of the program since it’s positioned around beauty but grounded in dermatologist-recommended claims.With the help of Team Unilever Shopper, a group within London-based WPP, the partners used CVS ExtraCare loyalty program data to understand “at great length” what the CVS beauty shopper looks like, says Fraehsdorf. The strongest insights were connecting health and beauty and that there is an unkempt need around skin health in general, she says.The partners also leveraged data to help determine how to reach the target shopper, and learn how she’s consuming and interacting with different marketing tactics. “Really taking the time to do that and building a program around this information is such a better way of doing it,” Fraehsdorf says. “We kept the framework within what would drive volume at the end of the day.”Once the demographic was carved out for that target shopper – nicknamed “Alison,” she is a Generation X, urban, well-off girl next door who is a “beauty junkie” – the teams worked to understand how she’s shopping. “We know how she’s consuming data and how she’s consuming different marketing elements, and the thinking was to build the platform around this consumer journey,” says Fraehsdorf. “So if you think of Alison, we wanted to determine how we could interact with her in all those different phases of her day.”Fraehsdorf says the first year of programming is based on Alison’s needs, which change throughout the seasons. “We created these pulse-points based on the seasonality of how her mindset is changing,” she says. “So while we’re an ‘always on’ platform, obviously we need to have some serious relevance at key periods.”While Unilever declined to share the specifics in terms of investments for this program, Fraehsdorf says that the internal brands at Unilever provided “a significant level of marketing investments” to support “Love Your Skin” beyond shopper marketing funds. “This is a huge deal for us. It’s been a big win internally, and has created a lot of excitement.”Fraehsdorf says launching this program was like launching a brand in a microcosmic way. “We wanted to launch ‘Love Your Skin,’ establish it and then, midyear, really start driving skin health credentials – because skin health is an area in general that a lot of consumers don’t think about.”Both Unilever and CVS wanted to broaden the concept around skin health and own an area that isn’t talked about a lot but that has significant value for consumers because their skin provides a window to their health. The heavy support the program is getting shows the level of commitment both the manufacturer and retailer have given it. “Even when we’re not doing an ExtraBucks or loyalty offer, we’re still continuing that conversation in some way with consumers,” Fraehsdorf says, adding that “all of the CVS leadership is in lockstep with us in terms of collaboration. Within Unilever, this has been a best-in-class example of customer collaboration.”“‘Love Your Skin’ is the manifestation of true partnership,” says CVS’s Maly Bernstein, divisional merchandise manager, beauty. “CVS Health and Unilever combined our strengths to create the campaign in order to help millions of customers take care of their largest organ – their skin – from head to toe.”A comprehensive analysis/evaluating program, scorecarding and pre-/post-shopper surveys will measure the program’s effectiveness of driving category growth through the three Unilever brands within CVS. “There’s an extensive amount of scorecarding and research that’s going into this to see if we’re successful,” notes Fraehsdorf. “From first blush, we know we’ve had really good results.”

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