Rite Aid unveils big changes to weekly circular

CAMP HILL, Pa. – Incorporating learnings from recent consumer research, Rite Aid on Sunday gave its circular a makeover – making the circular easier to navigate and more digital friendly. “We’re really excited about this,” John Learish, SVP marketing, Rite Aid, told Drug Store News. “It’s going to be a very noticeable change and hopefully well received.”

The new, more feature-oriented circular is more streamlined, with products featured more prominently on each page. And each section is highlighted by a header that’s color coordinated with the décor in Rite Aid’s Genuine Wellbeing stores to help customers make the connection between the circular and the store.

And for digital users, Rite Aid is testing personalized offers – using loyalty card shopper data to identify the most relevant deals and pushing that content by email, for example.

The size of Rite Aid’s circular typically fluctuates between 12 and 16 pages depending on the season, and continues to be printed on high-quality stock, as it is a primary messaging vehicle Rite Aid uses to communicate the many values customers can realize by shopping at their local Rite Aid stores.

“We had a real opportunity to be more feature-oriented on the pages,” Learish said. “What the customers really want are well-organized pages with appealing product images shown in context. Through a detailed and disciplined use of stylization and photography   we are able to make a big difference in the visual appeal of the merchandise.”

In addition to optimizing space to allow promoted products to figure more prominently with the consumer, Rite Aid’s circular now includes category headers to make it easier to navigate and fixed features that readers can look for every week. “By [better] rationalizing  the space we were able to create fixed positions where we can communicate some of the benefits and services that are important to our customers, whether it be the pharmacy or a philanthropic [initiative] like our round-up program, KidCents,” Learish said.

The changes to the circular should also resonate positively across the supplier community. “We are doing a much better job featuring the products of our supplier partners,” Learish said. The products are the hero and they’re not overshadowed by iconography or big, bold pricepoints, he added. “The merchandise that we do have on a page is prominently displayed [and] it’s going to drive greater focus to what we are promoting.”

In addition, the reconfigured ad platform gives Rite Aid the opportunity to accentuate the wellness+ half of its loyalty card offering. “Wellness+ gives customers huge benefits,” Learish said. “[With this change] we had a real opportunity to promote all the different [benefits] wellness+ with Plenti brings. We packaged it under this new umbrella we call ‘Four Ways to Save.’”

Members can earn wellness+ points toward a 20% savings everyday on most purchases in the store, in addition to earning Plenti points that generate immediate savings not only at Rite Aid, but also across the many other Plenti coalition partners. A third way to save is Rite Aid’s “Load2Card” experience, where Rite Aid cardholders can load ecoupons onto their loyalty card for redemption at checkout. And finally, Rite Aid delivers every-day value through its weekly sales prices.