In this Issue

A twenty-something consumer walks into a drug store and heads to the oral care aisle, where she begins looking at the toothpaste selection. She quickly picks up and puts down boxes containing offerings from a few mainstream brands, but when she sees the hello products package, she not only grabs it, she spends several minutes reading the copy. Smiling and laughing to herself, she places the box into her basket.

Though VoicePort’s best-known offering is its PharmaPhonetics platform — which provides multichannel, automated and personalized communications to help pharmacies engage with patients — the Rochester, N.Y.-based company has expanded its offerings as the pharmacist’s role has expanded beyond filling prescriptions to helping patients lead healthy lives.

With its broad portfolio spanning shaving, skin, sun, infant and feminine care in the personal care segment, Edgewell tees up its message to the New General Market to match the audience.

“There is a danger in bifurcating the customer base into these nice names: boomers and millennials. As a proud member of Generation X, what ever happened to my generation? I think about it in terms of how do we understand customers as individuals.”

That’s what CVS VP marketing George Coleman had to say in December, at the annual Drug Store News Industry Issues Summit. I have been thinking about that a lot in the last couple months, as we worked on the New General Market report that appears in this issue.

Blair Fowler, YouTube beauty influencer

Kao USA is a prime example of a company plugged into the New General Market, but also inclusive of all of its consumers’ needs. With its finger on the pulse of changing consumer trends, Kao USA has rebooted classics to introduce them to the millennial market, while not losing its loyal base. A component of its success has been teeing up with the right social influencers to convey authentic brand messages.

You could say that “breaking down walls” to the New General Market has been a central part of the Sundial Brands mission — certainly long before the early April debut of the company’s innovative new social call-to-action/media campaign #BreakTheWalls.

Inspired by the art and culture of Milan, Italy, Milani Cosmetics embodies the style and essence of the city’s fashion and design heritage, with a high level of detail going into the formulation, packaging and shade of each individual product. But that’s only the beginning of the story.

Emmet Dennis of Sundial Brands, Paulette Heller of Conair and Jonathan Rhyan of Edgewell