USA Today - Rubicon Project

SECTION B
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2015
Plane food improves
U.S. airlines upgrade their
in-flight menus, 3B
BEST & WORST
IN 2015 TECH
See what stood out
or were turkeys, 4B
APPLE
MONEYLINE
VTECH
KIDS DEVICE MAKER VTECH
SAYS DATABASE HACKED
Electronics maker VTech has
confirmed that its the customer
database of its Learning Lodge
app store for children’s e-learning devices was hacked Nov. 14.
The Hong Kong-headquartered
company noted that the database does not contain credit
card information, Social Security
numbers or driver’s license numbers. However, experts consulted
by tech news site Motherboard,
which reported the incident, said
that the concerns about what is
the fourth-largest consumer
data breach to date involves the
potential for the first names,
genders and birthdays of more
than 200,000 kids to be matched
with parents’ data to expose
kids’ identities and where they
live. VTech said its investigation is
continuing and the company is
implementing measures to defend against future attacks.
NEIMAN MARCUS EXTENDS
SALES AFTER SITE OUTAGE
Retailer Neiman Marcus extended Black Friday sales into Sunday
after its website went down for
parts of Friday and Saturday. The
Dallas-based department store
chain had been offering a 33%
discount for Black Friday and
extended that sale into Saturday
after the site crashed Friday. But
the retailer’s site crashed again
on Saturday afternoon. That led
to an extension until noon CT
Sunday. “Our site has experienced site outages causing an
inconsistent shopping experience,” the retailer said in a statement. To make it up to
customers, Neiman Marcus
extended the deals and said it
“would like to thank our customers for their patience.” Walmart
.com also had issues with heavy
traffic demands Thursday morning for early Black Friday deals.
AMAZON UNVEILS
ITS DELIVERY DRONES
Amazon has unveiled the latest
prototype of the drones it will use
for its Prime Air service to deliver
packages in under 30 minutes.
The new drones weigh 55
pounds and can carry packages
up to 5 pounds. The drones fly
under 400 feet and use “sense
and deploy” technology to
dodge potential obstacles en
route to its delivery destination,
according to details released
Sunday by the retailing giant.
FRIDAY MARKETS
CLOSE
INDEX
Dow Jones industrials
Dow for the week
Nasdaq composite
S&P 500
T-bond, 30-year yield
T-note, 10-year yield
Gold, oz. Comex
Oil, light sweet crude
Euro (dollars per euro)
Yen per dollar
CHG
17,798.49 y 14.90
y 25.32
5127.52 x 11.38
2090.11 x
1.24
3.00% x
0.01
2.22% y
0.02
$1055.90 y 14.10
$41.77 y
1.27
$1.0591 y 0.0026
122.85 x
0.13
SOURCES USA TODAY RESEARCH, MARKETWATCH.COM
USA SNAPSHOTS©
Cyber Monday
52% 48%
Best deals
Market
gimmick
Source Rubicon Project survey
of 1,003 consumers
JAE YANG AND VERONICA BRAVO, USA TODAY
POP CULTURE
STRATEGY
FUELS
BAND-AID
BRAND
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 how
decoratives help
it stick to success
Nathan Bomey
@NathanBomey
USA TODAY
It’s a brand name so synonymous with a product that few
people call it by anything else.
Just a few years ago, though,
Band-Aids had lost their stickiness in the U.S. adhesive bandages market, which had been
flooded by alternative options.
But thanks to a strategic campaign to rehabilitate the aching
Band-Aid brand — with a little
help from Elsa, Anna and Yoda —
Johnson & Johnson has stabilized sales and increased market
share.
The 95-year-old Band-Aid
brand first got decorative options
in 1956 — the patriotic Stars &
Strips — and has had many variations over the years.
But Johnson & Johnson’s decision to expand decorative
offerings this year has fueled renewed interest.
The reversal of fortunes for the
Band-Aid brand correlates directly with a big bet in 2015 on decorative adhesive strips, featuring
characters from the Disney animated movie Frozen and the Star
Wars franchise.
The company does not reveal
revenue data for the Band-Aid
brand, but Johnson & Johnson
worldwide group chairman Sandi
Peterson told investors in July
that Band-Aid sales rose 6.3% in
the first six months of 2015 and
gained 2 percentage points in
market share, compared to the
same period in 2014. That came
after the introduction of Frozen
around Halloween 2014 and Star
Wars in February 2015.
Although some Band-Aid box-
TIM LOEHRKE, USA TODAY
Band-Aid started offering “Star Wars” bandages in February.
The decorative adhesives account for 20%-30% of sales.
BANDAGE MARKET
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:
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%
Source IQI
KRIS KINKADE, USA TODAY
“That’s how people live
their lives is around the
things they’re
passionate about.”
Michael Marquis, Johnson & Johnson
Online still entices more
shoppers over weekend
In-store deals fail
to get consumers
to go out-and-about
Hadley Malcolm
USA TODAY
Many shoppers said “no,
thanks” to wild crowds over the
holiday weekend as more people
opted to shop online than in
stores, initial data show.
As retailers seamlessly transitioned from Black Friday deals to
Cyber Monday deals as early as
Saturday, they were riding the
tailwind of a shopping weekend
that found more than 103 million
people say they had or planned to
shop online Thursday through
Sunday, according to the National
Retail Federation’s consumer
sentiment survey of 4,281 people
out Sunday. That’s compared to
nearly 102 million people who
shopped in stores during the
four-day period.
NRF changed its survey meth-
odology this year to account for
shifts in online and mobile shopper behavior and most of the results are not comparable to
previous years.
The preference for online deals
is an encouraging sign for retailers as they roll out another round
of online-specific sales heading
into December. Although as the
shopping season becomes more
prolonged, fewer people are expected to shop online Monday itself compared with last year, 121.3
million vs. 126.9 million in 2014,
NRF says.
The data show a marked shift
from the days when paper circulars and “doorbusters” enticed
consumers into stores.
Online shopping was likely
driven by convenience, growing
consumer comfort levels and a
desire to avoid overflowing stores
during the busiest shopping
weekend of the year, says Traci
Gregorski, vice president of marketing for MarketTrack, a rev STORY CONTINUES ON 2B
es still boast about “superior
breathability,” “flexibility and
comfort” or “one-step infection
protection,” the decorative boxes
feature the Band-Aid brand name
and little else but a splashy image
of a fictional character, such as
C-3PO, Dora the Explorer or Disney princesses.
Michael Marquis, general manager for J&J’s oral care, wound
care and health essentials brands
in the United States, said decorative Band-Aids now account for
20% to 30% of sales.
“As opposed to talking to consumers about the specific merits
of our stickiness, our fabric or the
different features of the product,
a lot of what we’ve been realigning our message around is, how
do we connect with people
around their passion points?”
Marquis said in an interview.
“That’s how people live their lives
is around the things they’re passionate about.”
J&J’s market share in the
broader category — defined as
first aid, tape, bandage, gauze and
cotton — was 44.8% in the 52
weeks ending Nov. 1, with revenue of $377 million during that
period, according to research firm
IQI.
That’s 10.2% higher than sales
during the calendar-year 2013,
when market-share hit a low of
43% market share, according to
IQI. That category also includes
J&J’s Neosporin brand and other
products.
Marquis emphasized that the
brand has also had success with
other strategies, including a
“tough strip” variation and marketing efforts on cooking shows
and magazines, under the premise that amateur chefs are prone
to cuts in the kitchen.
The Frozen Band-Aids have
been a particularly big hit,
prompting countless socialmedia photos of people showing
off their fingers wrapped in bandages featuring the lovable Olaf
or the spunky Anna.
Greg Marcotte, a high-school
math teacher in Worcester, Mass.,
said his 8-year-old daughter likes
the Frozen Band-Aids, while his
10-year-old daughter prefers the
superhero option.
“I almost feel like they’re a
fashion accessory,” Marcotte said,
adding, only half jokingly, that his
kids “enjoy getting hurt a little bit
more.”
Johnson & Johnson boosted
its marketing budget to fortify
Band-Aid brand’s appeal to what
Marquis calls the “chief care officer” in the home.
The company increased its advertising spending on the BandAid brand by 9% to $8 million
during the first six months of
2015, compared to the same period in 2014, according to Kantar
Media.
Millennial parents, one of
J&J’s targets for the Band-Aid
brand, are seeking “not only the
performance attributes but they
also want the emotional qualities” in a brand, Marquis said.
That emotional connection
had frayed in recent years. Johnson & Johnson had been losing
sales to private-label competitors
as customers perceived parity in
choice for adhesive bandages.
Par Excellence
Important Internally Flawless Diamond Ring • 8.45 Carats
GIA Certified “Triple Excellent” • H Color • Platinum
888.814.6279
rauantiques.com
15MSRA178-04-119697-106