Inside Duane Reade’s Transformation: What Made Walgreens Take Notice?

When the 50 year old NYC drug store chain, Duane Reade decided to rethink their brand and customer experience, they hired Joe Jackman. This career retail strategist and expert in guiding retail brand transformations became responsible for leading their overall strategy and spruce up their image. Beginning in late 2009, the brand started bringing to life the company's new brand mantra of "New York Living Made Easy" with a complete overhaul. Jackman will speak for the first time at an industry event about the insights that led to such transformation.

The ultimate result? Walgreens took notice and acquired the chain in February 2010 as part of their own Customer-Centric Initiative.

The Institute for International Research is pleased to announce that Joe Jackman, Acting Chief Marketing Officer for Duane Reade will be keynoting at the 10th annual Shopper Insights in Action Conference taking place July 11-14, 2010 in Chicago, IL. His session “Revitalizing Brands: The Power of Insights to Drive Retail Transformation” will take place on Tuesday, July 13th at 10:30 am.

Jackman was also a key member of the leadership team tasked with the recent turnaround of Old Navy, and most recently, as Acting CMO of Duane Reade, one of the leaders behind the impossibly fast and surprising reinvention of Duane Reade, New York’s iconic drugstore chain.
In his presentation, Jackman will draw from his experience with these retail brands and others, sharing his thoughts on how to craft strategies that ignite momentum before change becomes visible, the role of research to establish foundations for action and uncover what really matters, and the importance of allowing insights to be the north star for creating inspired brand expression and content.

The Shopper Insights in Action Conference Background
The 10th annual Shopper Insights in Action Conference is recognized as the industry’s #1 shopper-focused event in the world – where Brands, Retailers and their Partners analyze the changing shopper mindset, translate insights into opportunities and explore emerging trends influencing the retail world. To view the complete program and speaker roster is available for review at: www.shopperinsightsevent.com

This event is open for registration. $100 discount is available through May 14, 2010. For registration information, visit the conference website at www.ShopperInsightsEvent.com or call 888.670.8200

When registering please mention priority code: M2215PR1

With over 50 educational sessions, 75+ speakers and over 500 expected to attend, this is the most comprehensive agenda for translating insights into action. Speaking companies are best-in-class brand and retail leaders including Procter & Gamble, Stop & Shop, JCPenney, Staples, Home Depot, Office Depot, Food Lion, Kraft Foods, ConAgra, The Coca-Cola Company and more. Visionary keynotes include Dan Ariely, Author of Predictably Irrational, Lee Eisenberg, Author of Shoptimism, Kit Yarrow, Author of Gen BuY and more.

Press Contact: Hinde Liepmannsohn, hinde@iirusa.com