Title: Walgreens Take Circular to the Digital Age
Source: RetailingToday.com (392 words)
URL: http://goo.gl/asqhd
Focus Area: Traditional marketing, online marketing, modern marketing strategy
For Whom: Marketing, PR, executive management, analysts
Synopsis: Walgreens, number 32 on the 2011 Fortune 500 list, has taken a marketing staple, the circular which seen by 50 million people, and gone digital. Not completely, though. It is offering special deals through its website and mobile apps. It is not, however, leaving its traditional users out in the cold. It will be marking all of its specials in stores so those who are not as tech savvy can get the same savings and not feel slighted. Walgreens is simply taking what has always worked and is adopting it to a changing marketplace to appease consumers in the both the online and offline worlds.
So what?: Is someone in your organization resistant to online marketing? Is there someone else who is saying that online should replace the offline efforts of the company? At this point in time and for the foreseeable future neither position is completely right. Both have merit. The companies that win in the new world order of marketing are those that find the intersection of effective online and offline efforts that complement and supplement each other.
Ignoring either online or offline marketing efforts at the expense of the other ensures that your company will be an also ran moving forward. Effective marketers will blend what works from multiple channels in the offline and online space to find an economic and efficient balance between two worlds that generate revenue.
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