Teens Turn to Drug Chains During Recession
Teens (12-17) comprise more than 11% of the U.S. population, and spending by American teenage consumers is expected to reach $208.7 billion by the year 2011. Although their spending habits have been impacted by the recession, teenage girls today are spending more on the lower-priced categories of fragrances and cosmetics. In addition, chain drug stores continue to increase their market share of teen beauty purchasing at the expense of department stores. Rite Aid specifically targets female teen events in major markets, where they distribute a free “Glam Camp” tote bag filled with beauty products and bounce-back coupons from brands such as Jergens, Jesse’s Girl, Clearasil, Veet, Colgate, John Frieda, Hawaiian Tropic, Maybelline, Wet n Wild, Ban, Yes to Carrots, L’Oreal, Playtex, and Got2Be.
In August, the Glam Camp Street team was at Madison Square Garden distributing 1500 totes to teen girls leaving the Taylor Swift 2009 Fearless Concert. The weather was perfect and the area was mobbed with teens vying for the bags – it was a high-energy, fast-paced event that helped make their evening even more fun.
Radio station 94.5 WPST, covering the central New Jersey and Philadelphia area, welcomes students back to school with its annual fall College Tour. WPST and Rite Aid’s Glam Camp team visited local colleges to introduce students to a wide variety of beauty, skincare, and cosmetics products. This year’s College Tour went on the road to area schools such as Bucks County Community College, Mercer County and Raritan Valley Community Colleges, Rowan University, Westchester University, and Holy Family University. The students lined up to receive the free Glam Camp Beauty tote bag – over 1000 bags were distributed during the tour.
On November 9th, the Glam Camp team will attend the So You Think You Can Dance Tour 2009 at Nokia Theater Los Angeles, where more than 7,000 attendees will watch this season’s Top 10 dancers compete as part of the 40-city tour. Glam Camp street ambassadors will distribute the bags to teen girls at the event exits. Later in November, Rite Aid and Glam Camp will be part of beauty pageants for Miss Pennsylvania Teen and Miss New York Teen. Girls ages 14 to 26 participate in the swimsuit, evening gown, and interview competitions. The winners go on to compete for Miss Teen USA. Cosmetic Promotions, Inc – the national promotional company coordinating the entire event – is using social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook as another way to promote the event to teens. In addition, they are posting the event on websites such as the new freebeautyevents.com.