LARGO, Fla. -- Eckerd Drug Stores here and Glamour magazine have joined in a women's health-oriented cross promotion that, in its multilevel approach, could serve as a model for supermarkets, consumer publications and health and beauty care manufacturers who advertise with them.
The most prominent feature of the six-week promotion, called Healthwise, is a special section in the November Glamour that focuses on women's health issues and includes the findings of a health care survey commissioned by the magazine and Eckerd.
The section showcases 22 advertisers like Nivea, Evian, Clairol and Glaxo Wellcome, whose products are flagged in all 2,600-plus Eckerd stores with signs announcing temporary price reductions and touting the Eckerd-Glamour partnership.
"This is really the first time we've done anything so large, on such a grand scale," said Judy Glassman, Glamour's director of special projects. "This had so many tiers to it. It's really integrated marketing at its best."
Representatives of Eckerd were unavailable for comment.
Glamour, which is published by New York-based Conde Nast, has 11.9 million readers and a paid circulation of 2 million, according to Glassman. The November issue went on sale Oct. 14.
Glassman said it was too early to comment on how the issue was selling.
For Eckerd's part, the chain is devoting a four-panel, "Dutch door" space in its regular circular to Healthwise and the featured products. Copy is headlined "Take Charge of Your Health!" and highlights savings on particular items, including $1 off the November Glamour.
The circular, whose circulation Glassman put at 24 million, also includes a sampling of the Glamour-Eckerd study's findings, like "Among young women between the ages of 18 and 34, one in 10 have no primary health care provider" and "In the past year, 38% of women 55 and older did not have a mammogram."
In Eckerd stores, every hour on the hour the public-address system calls shoppers' attention to Healthwise and the participating advertisers' products, a 22- by 28-inch Healthwise poster is placed right inside the entrance and, at the shelf, "tip sheets" with graphics designed by Glamour offer bits of health advice keyed to the featured items. Where Evian is displayed, for example, a tip sheet stresses the health benefits of drinking lots of water.
Eckerd also created a Healthwise adjunct to its web site, which was sponsored by participating pharmaceutical manufacturers, Glassman said.
Initially, Glamour came to Eckerd with the idea for Healthwise, Glassman said. She said she did not know whether Glamour had approached other chains.
"Health is one of the things we do best," Glassman said, adding that, given the emphasis on health and beauty care in the drug channel, the partnership with Eckerd "was a natural."
The survey's results were drawn from a direct-mail questionnaire sent to 2,600 women, ages 18 to 65, and 1,100 doctors nationwide. The questionnaire was developed with the help of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Health Care Advisory Board, the Commonwealth Fund and Dr. Susan Blumenthal, assistant surgeon general at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The findings were announced June 19 at an HHS conference in Washington called "Healthy Woman 2000," and the most noteworthy formed the basis for Glamour's in-book section, which opens with a "Message on Women's Health" written by Dr. Blumenthal.
