pop culture strategy fuels band-aid brand

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2015 SECTION B

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Cyber Monday

Source Rubicon Project survey of 1,003 consumersJAE YANG AND VERONICA BRAVO, USA TODAY

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It’s a brand name so synony-mous with a product that fewpeople call it by anything else.

Just a few years ago, though,Band-Aids had lost their sticki-ness in the U.S. adhesive ban-dages market, which had beenflooded by alternative options.

But thanks to a strategic cam-paign to rehabilitate the achingBand-Aid brand — with a littlehelp from Elsa, Anna and Yoda —Johnson & Johnson has stabi-lized sales and increased marketshare.

The 95-year-old Band-Aidbrand first got decorative optionsin 1956 — the patriotic Stars &Strips — and has had many varia-tions over the years.

But Johnson & Johnson’s deci-sion to expand decorativeo�erings this year has fueled re-newed interest.

The reversal of fortunes for theBand-Aid brand correlates direct-ly with a big bet in 2015 on deco-rative adhesive strips, featuringcharacters from the Disney ani-mated movie Frozen and the StarWars franchise.

The company does not revealrevenue data for the Band-Aidbrand, but Johnson & Johnsonworldwide group chairman SandiPeterson told investors in Julythat Band-Aid sales rose 6.3% inthe first six months of 2015 andgained 2 percentage points inmarket share, compared to thesame period in 2014. That cameafter the introduction of Frozenaround Halloween 2014 and StarWars in February 2015.

Although some Band-Aid box-

es still boast about “superiorbreathability,” “flexibility andcomfort” or “one-step infectionprotection,” the decorative boxesfeature the Band-Aid brand nameand little else but a splashy imageof a fictional character, such asC-3PO, Dora the Explorer or Dis-ney princesses.

Michael Marquis, general man-ager for J&J’s oral care, woundcare and health essentials brandsin the United States, said decora-tive Band-Aids now account for20% to 30% of sales.

“As opposed to talking to con-sumers about the specific meritsof our stickiness, our fabric or thedi�erent features of the product,a lot of what we’ve been realign-ing our message around is, howdo we connect with peoplearound their passion points?”Marquis said in an interview.“That’s how people live their livesis around the things they’re pas-sionate about.”

J&J’s market share in thebroader category — defined asfirst aid, tape, bandage, gauze andcotton — was 44.8% in the 52weeks ending Nov. 1, with reve-nue of $377 million during thatperiod, according to research firmIQI.

That’s 10.2% higher than salesduring the calendar-year 2013,

when market-share hit a low of43% market share, according toIQI. That category also includesJ&J’s Neosporin brand and otherproducts.

Marquis emphasized that thebrand has also had success withother strategies, including a“tough strip” variation and mar-keting e�orts on cooking showsand magazines, under the prem-ise that amateur chefs are proneto cuts in the kitchen.

The Frozen Band-Aids havebeen a particularly big hit,prompting countless social-media photos of people showingo� their fingers wrapped in ban-dages featuring the lovable Olafor the spunky Anna.

Greg Marcotte, a high-schoolmath teacher in Worcester, Mass.,said his 8-year-old daughter likesthe Frozen Band-Aids, while his10-year-old daughter prefers thesuperhero option.

“I almost feel like they’re afashion accessory,” Marcotte said,adding, only half jokingly, that hiskids “enjoy getting hurt a little bitmore.”

Johnson & Johnson boostedits marketing budget to fortifyBand-Aid brand’s appeal to whatMarquis calls the “chief care o�-cer” in the home.

The company increased its ad-vertising spending on the Band-Aid brand by 9% to $8 millionduring the first six months of2015, compared to the same peri-od in 2014, according to KantarMedia.

Millennial parents, one ofJ&J’s targets for the Band-Aidbrand, are seeking “not only theperformance attributes but theyalso want the emotional quali-ties” in a brand, Marquis said.

That emotional connectionhad frayed in recent years. John-son & Johnson had been losingsales to private-label competitorsas customers perceived parity inchoice for adhesive bandages.

NEILSON BARNARD, GETTY IMAGES FOR NYCWFF

The Band-Aid brand has had some success with its Tough Strips variation and now it’s expanding its other bandage options.

Company sees howdecoratives help it stick to success

Nathan Bomey@NathanBomeyUSA TODAY

TIM LOEHRKE, USA TODAY

Band-Aid started o�ering “Star Wars” bandages in February.The decorative adhesives account for 20%-30% of sales.

POP CULTURESTRATEGYFUELSBAND-AIDBRAND

The first aid, tape, bandages, gauze and cotton market had $841 million in sales through Nov. 1 of 2015. Market share of the top 4 brands:

BANDAGE MARKET

Source IQIKRIS KINKADE, USA TODAY

Johnson & Johnson (Band-Aid brand, Neosporin, etc.) 44.8%Private-label brands 34.2%3M Corp. (Nexcare, etc.) 9.2%Medline Industries (Curad, etc.) 4.9%

“That’s how people livetheir lives is around thethings they’repassionate about.”Michael Marquis, Johnson & Johnson

Many shoppers said “no,thanks” to wild crowds over theholiday weekend as more peopleopted to shop online than instores, initial data show.

As retailers seamlessly transi-tioned from Black Friday deals toCyber Monday deals as early asSaturday, they were riding thetailwind of a shopping weekendthat found more than 103 millionpeople say they had or planned toshop online Thursday throughSunday, according to the NationalRetail Federation’s consumersentiment survey of 4,281 peopleout Sunday. That’s compared tonearly 102 million people whoshopped in stores during thefour-day period.

NRF changed its survey meth-

odology this year to account forshifts in online and mobile shop-per behavior and most of the re-sults are not comparable toprevious years.

The preference for online dealsis an encouraging sign for retail-ers as they roll out another roundof online-specific sales headinginto December. Although as theshopping season becomes moreprolonged, fewer people are ex-pected to shop online Monday it-self compared with last year, 121.3million vs. 126.9 million in 2014,NRF says.

The data show a marked shiftfrom the days when paper circu-lars and “doorbusters” enticedconsumers into stores.

Online shopping was likelydriven by convenience, growingconsumer comfort levels and adesire to avoid overflowing storesduring the busiest shoppingweekend of the year, says TraciGregorski, vice president of mar-keting for MarketTrack, a re-

Online still entices moreshoppers over weekend

v STORY CONTINUES ON 2B

In-store deals fail to get consumersto go out-and-aboutHadley MalcolmUSA TODAY

KIDS DEVICE MAKER VTECHSAYS DATABASE HACKEDElectronics maker VTech hasconfirmed that its the customerdatabase of its Learning Lodgeapp store for children’s e-learn-ing devices was hacked Nov. 14.The Hong Kong-headquarteredcompany noted that the data-base does not contain creditcard information, Social Securitynumbers or driver’s license num-bers. However, experts consultedby tech news site Motherboard,which reported the incident, saidthat the concerns about what isthe fourth-largest consumerdata breach to date involves thepotential for the first names,genders and birthdays of morethan 200,000 kids to be matchedwith parents’ data to exposekids’ identities and where theylive. VTech said its investigation iscontinuing and the company isimplementing measures to de-fend against future attacks.

NEIMAN MARCUS EXTENDSSALES AFTER SITE OUTAGERetailer Neiman Marcus extend-ed Black Friday sales into Sundayafter its website went down forparts of Friday and Saturday. TheDallas-based department storechain had been offering a 33%discount for Black Friday andextended that sale into Saturdayafter the site crashed Friday. Butthe retailer’s site crashed againon Saturday afternoon. That ledto an extension until noon CTSunday. “Our site has experi-enced site outages causing aninconsistent shopping experi-ence,” the retailer said in a state-ment. To make it up tocustomers, Neiman Marcusextended the deals and said it“would like to thank our custom-ers for their patience.” Walmart.com also had issues with heavytraffic demands Thursday morn-ing for early Black Friday deals.

AMAZON UNVEILS ITS DELIVERY DRONES Amazon has unveiled the latestprototype of the drones it will usefor its Prime Air service to deliverpackages in under 30 minutes.The new drones weigh 55pounds and can carry packagesup to 5 pounds. The drones flyunder 400 feet and use “senseand deploy” technology tododge potential obstacles enroute to its delivery destination,according to details releasedSunday by the retailing giant.

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