by Dave Wendland, CommunityVoice for Forbes Agency Council, as appeared on Forbes.com August 23, 2017 “Why not?” That’s the question my then 10-year-old son asked when he wanted to launch his own web-based business. Honestly, I couldn’t come up with a reason why he shouldn’t put his passion to work. It reminded me of a similar question … Read More
Natural products, value-based shopping gaining traction
By Jen Johnston as seen in Chain Drug Review, August 21, 2017 Consumer affinity for natural products has quickly extended beyond food and beverages into over-the-counter and personal care products. According to Kline Group, the U.S. market for natural personal care products has grown over 7% recently, while the U.S. market for natural O-T-C medicines … Read More
Data Integrity Matters
by Dave Wendland, as seen in HealthCare Distributor magazine, “Out of the Box” column, July/August 2017 It was about three decades ago that I had the privilege of hearing a presentation by an IBM executive who made a rather prophetic proclamation: “The key to success will belong to those who have the data.” And this, from a … Read More
Bringing Product Concepts To Reality: Scale Or Fail
by Dave Wendland, CommunityVoice for Forbes Agency Council, as appeared on Forbes.com August 11, 2017 There was a time when a product’s success was measured by its ability to reach market saturation in record time – and for retail, that meant broad, ubiquitous distribution. My, how times have changed, thanks partly to the internet … Read More
The Culture Currency
by Dave Wendland, as seen in HealthCare Distributor magazine, “Out of the Box” column, May/June 2017 During my career in the consumer healthcare industry, I have visited thousands of organizations — from manufacturers to distributors, service providers to retailers. It has confirmed for me that a company’s culture is the way the company “feels” once you’re … Read More
Keeping it simple
By Dave Wendland for Drug Store News May 23, 2017 Earlier this year associates from Hamacher Resource Group, Inc. (HRG) returned from the Natural Products Expo West with armfuls of literature, samples, and ideas. In fact, the sheer volume of items they saw with probiotic, ready-to-drink, immunity, or wellness-boosting attributes could easily fill a … Read More
Lazy Susans, tie racks and front-store merchandising
By Dave Wendland for Drug Store News June 19, 2017 My daughter and I were experimenting in the kitchen the other evening — cooking up what was sure to be a masterpiece. Reaching into the lazy Susan in the spice cabinet, I had a eureka moment. To be honest, this is not the first … Read More
Oh, the Places We’ve Been!
by Dave Wendland, as seen in HealthCare Distributor magazine, Out of the Box column, March/April 2017 Among the works of the late, great Dr. Seuss, is his classic book entitled, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, the story speaks of “soaring to high heights and seeing great sights to being left in a Lurch on a prickle-ly perch.” … Read More
New ideas on use of retail real estate generate excitement
By Dave Wendland as seen in Chain Drug Review, April 24, 2017 Call them pop-ups or stores-within-a-store, the use of retail real estate is transforming before our very eyes. And it seems to be happening everywhere. Let’s begin with a definition. What is a store-within-a-store? Simply put, it’s an entire category, grouping of products or … Read More
Do something noteworthy
By Dave Wendland for Drug Store News April 14, 2017 If you are a parent, we likely have many things in common. As my kids were growing up, I would always tuck a little note inside their lunchbox with an inspirational or encouraging thought for the day. In fact, there were times that I did … Read More