Norman de Greve on the CVS Beauty Strategy

“How did we get here?” Norman de Greve, chief marketing officer of CVS Health, posed a rhetorical question to the audience last week. “How did we get to a place where 80 percent of women feel inadequate after viewing a typical beauty ad because it is so extravagant and manipulated?” he asked, then touching upon when showing “plumage” was a means to attract a mate. But the beauty industry has taken plumage to unprecedented levels. “It became a contest of smoother skin, longer lashes and higher cheekbones,” said de Greve. “Every marketer was desperate to have their model look more perfect than the one in the next ad or page.” The beauty business at CVS was once reliant on this “arms race — maybe we should call it the skinny arms race” of airbrushed and photoshopped ads. CVS relied on big-brand advertising to help the retailer sell its beauty products. “The big beauty brands created demand for their products, and we merchandised them at a reasonable price close to home. Trends were introduced by television commercials and fashion editors.” Business was “good,” but there was an emotional downside to all this perfection. “We were constantly barraged with images [of perfection],” said de Greve. “Women

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