Walgreens is dropping its longtime advertising slogan, “At the corner of happy and healthy.”
The new tag line — “Trusted since 1901” — will debut Sunday in some of the company’s TV, online and in-store advertising.
The date refers to when Charles R. Walgreen Sr. purchased the Chicago drugstore where he had worked as a pharmacist and started the business.
But there’s far more strategy at work here than paying homage to Walgreens’ legacy. The tag line also comes across as a dig aimed at emerging drugstore rivals including e-commerce pioneer Amazon, which is reportedly eager to enter the pharmacy benefits or drug distribution businesses.
When I asked if that was also part of the new “trust” message, Walgreens’ brass diplomatically avoided the issue.
“It’s a pivotal moment that signals the next phase in our transformation,” said Alex Gourlay , co-chief operating officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the company’s official name since 2014, when Deerfield-based Walgreens merged with European-based Boots.
Introduced in 2012, the company’s “at the corner of happy and healthy” theme highlighted the convenience of its many locations, in-house product sales and various health services, such as flu shots. TV commercials kicked off with the distinctive, opening riff from the Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song, “Down on the Corner” that’s become one of the baby boomer anthems.
The tag line was also used repeatedly in newspaper headlines (like the one above this column) and as a barb when people wrote unhappy online reviews about a Walgreens experience, writing along the lines of “Why I am unhappy at the corner of happy and healthy?”
You get the drift.
Walgreens now wants to highlight the chain’s neighborhood roots, convenient store hours and on-site pharmacists — Walgreens has about 8,100 outlets nationwide and employs a small army of 25,000 pharmacists.
“Customers trust the men and women in the white coats,” Gourlay asserts.
To address the mushrooming demand for consumer product delivery services — a page out of Amazon Prime’s playbook — Walgreens will also be promoting its FedEx package pickup and drop-off services at more than 7,500 Walgreens throughout the country, including the Chicago area. On the tech side, it’s going to accelerate marketing of its mobile app, which recently hit 50 million downloads, according to the company.
While this action is underway, Walgreens will continue refurbishing many stores, hoping to make them easier for customers to navigate while boosting its number of beauty, health and wellness products.
Even with a $73 billion market capitalization , Walgreens is never at a loss for competitors. Each business segment it occupies bumps up against the likes of CVS, Walmart, Target, pharmacy benefits managers and others.
Last summer, CEO Stefano Pessina dismissed the possibility of Amazon joining the fray, saying he doubted Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wants to enter the highly regulated, complex retail drug selling and distribution industry. Since then, however, Amazon has dipped into the pharmaceutical market by getting regulatory approval to distribute drugs wholesale in at least 12 states, not including Illinois.
So, we’ll see if Pessina’s prediction holds up.
Meanwhile, Walgreens is turning the corner of “happy and healthy” and intensely trying to stay ahead of its growing band of competitors.
Twitter @ReedTribBiz
