CVS rolls out Gillette's Fusion before Super Bowl

Here's how the nation's largest pharmacy chain unveiled Gillette's newest shaving creation to every CVS store in a single day.

By Jeff O'Neill, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 2/1/2006

There’s nothing subtle about the Super Bowl. And that’s just what Gillette was banking on when it launched the marketing campaign during the game for its new Fusion razor earlier this month.

But a marketing initiative this big has to be backed up with an equally large distribution plan. And that’s exactly what Gillette did when it partnered with CVS, the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, to release the Fusion to every U.S. CVS store—5,400 of them—in a single day and before any other retailers had the razors.

But, apparently, it was all in a day’s work for the logistics team of CVS.

Mace Conway, director of logistics planning for the chain, tells Modern that the Fusion rollout is just one of between eight to ten “speed-to-market” events for the stores every year.

“We have between eight and 10 weeks of planning for a one-day execution,” he says.

Conway notes that there is involvement throughout the distribution operation starting with inventory control, merchants and purchasing, ultimately ending with store operations.

Conway and his team used five of the company’s 12 national DCs for the Fusion rollout.

Once the product arrived at the DCs, CVS coordinated pick-and-pack activities and readied the product for shipment. Following the speed-to-market event, Conway explains that all of CVS’s DCs would be involved in replenishment of the razor.

Based on a particular store’s location, strength in sales and shaving market share, it was assigned a ranking (between one and six) that allocated a predetermined number of Fusion displays, Conway notes.

Using expedited shipping through a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, CVS sent the Fusion out the first morning with trucks arriving at the five DCs at dawn, with plans to have the item in stores between 6:00 a.m. and noon the following day.

The execution proved a success. Since implementing the one-day rollout system years before, “We have worked all the kinks out,” Conway says.

He adds that Gillette and CVS also coordinated a similar one-day rollout for the Mach3 razor, the Fusion’s predecessor.