By Frank DiFulvio
(WHI News) — Of all of the proven methods for building brand advocates the most enduring—and arguably most difficult—is talking a firm stand and then holding to it. Business is inherently wobbly in this point: pressed for short-term results most of can spin anything into something that sounds like what we said we stood for but also provides enough wiggle room that we can take an incremental deal that on its face seems inconsistent with our stated position.
Such is the predicament that drug stores—Walgreen’s, Duane Reade (owned by Walgreen’s), Rite-Aid and CVS to name a few find themselves. As purveyors of the products and services that are associated with “staying healthy” they have long found themselves under attack for selling decidedly not healthy products, in particular cigarettes. Cigarettes are a lucrative business, and given their addictive nature are an obvious choice for retailers that depend on a steady flow of return customers. Ironically, it can be as hard for a retailer to “quit” products like cigarettes–whose sales attributes fit this model nicely—as it is for those very same customers who purchase quit-aids…to actually quit smoking!
But that’s exactly what CVS did. CVS’ decision to discontinue the sale of tobacco products in its stores signified a stand that CVS was taking, in part to address the long-standing conversation about the inherent contradiction as a center for health and a retail seller of tobacco. Like a tire shop that also sold nails, the conversations noting this conflict were both predicable and widespread, at a level of a sort of uniform background noise.
With this announcement by CVS, people in my social circles who don’t normally talk with each other (I make it a point to follow lots of different people) were talking about the same thing: when one sees a spontaneous rise in a specific topic across demographic and interest group, the conclusion is that “this is big; it must be something to pay attention to.” In the same breath, it also (generally) means “this must be something to share.” And that is exactly what people were doing via the social Web.
But it didn’t stop there: more than sharing, people were adding their own voice. The most common added-thought was “as a result of this decision, I will shop (more) at CVS.” I saw this expressed on Facebook and Twitter of course, and also in mainstream media: I happened to be in London where the BBC did a feature opinion piece speculating on the motives, and asking the question “does it matter why a firm takes a specific course of action so as the action is clearly for the great good?” The conversation clearly went well beyond the initial announcement, and CVS is at this stage the early recipient of positive word of mouth.
It’s now up to CVS to back this up, build on this, and gain a market advantage. All from the simple (but not necessarily easy) act of taking a stand.
The WHI Group 