LONGS DRUGS SELECTS DEMANDTEC PRICE™ SOFTWARE TO GUIDE PRICING.
6th Largest Drug Store Chain Implements Powerful Demand Based Management System After Successful Beta Test
SAN FRANCISCO – October 16, 2001 – DemandTec Inc., the leading provider of Demand Based Management (DBM) software, today announced that Longs Drugs, the nation’s sixth largest drug store chain, has chosen to implement DemandTec Price™ software in its stores in California, Colorado, Nevada, Washington and Oregon. Longs Drugs will use Price to optimize pricing across its over–the–counter (OTC) categories. During a ten–week beta in thirty store locations, Longs used DemandTec Price prices in select categories, based on DemandTec’s scientific analysis of consumer demand and item-level profitability. The West’s leading drug chain was able to increase sales and profit without raising average prices in stores during the test.
"The results of the beta test with DemandTec were impressive," said Steve Roath, Longs President & CEO. "Optimizing OTC pricing strategies is an important part of the company’s growth and overall business performance. We anticipate this implementation will help us improve our profitability, yet allow us to maintain or improve our competitive price image with our customers. This decision is a testament to our confidence in DemandTec, whose scientific platform meets the 10 rules of effective Demand Based Management, as defined by Stanford professor Dr. Hau Lee. Dr. Lee’s whitepaper clearly defines a great yardstick for measuring the maturity and depth of expertise among vendors in this emerging sector."
"New retail applications AMR Research sees soon providing competitive advantage–such as profit and revenue optimization, advanced retail planning systems, multichannel segmented customer value management, and advertising, promotions, and marketing managementexhibit several of the 10 key DBM attributes Professor Lee has identified," said Greg Girard, VP of Retail Applications, AMR Research, in a report published October 10, 2001. "Current economic and market conditions have an unseen benefit; they should accelerate vendor development and retailer adoption of applications conforming to DBM requirements."
"DemandTec’s success in the test at Longs, one of the nation's top retailers, demonstrates that customer benefits are real and compelling. DemandTec's software helps retailers and manufacturers align their business strategies with consumer demand, a practice called Demand Based Management, leading to maximized revenue, profit, and business performance," said Dan Fishback, DemandTec CEO & President. "Our advanced science allows companies to do something they never been able to do before – forecast consumer demand separately for every item in every store – and use that information to make strategic merchandising decisions. We provide enormous improvements in profitability, productivity, and consumer loyalty, and it's critical to note that we emphasize increasing profit and revenue, rather than reducing cost. This important customer announcement is a great testament to the enormous value proposition we bring to the industry. I invite all retailers to test–drive our software and validate our value–add."
About Longs
Longs Drug Stores Corporation (NYSE:LDG) is one of the leading drug store chains in North America. Founded in 1938 by brothers Joe and Tom Long as "Longs Self–Service Drugs," the company currently operates 428 stores in California, Hawaii, Washington, Nevada, Colorado and Oregon. Annual per store sales average over $9.5 million. Longs’ unique strategy, focused on consumers' health and well being, includes competencies in the key categories of pharmacy, over the counter medications, photo and cosmetics, as well as other convenience offerings. Longs’ website, located at www.longs.com, blends consumer services and on–line shopping with extensive health and wellness information and also includes the latest company news and investor information.
About Price
DemandTec Price™ provides breakthrough technology for grocery, pharmacy chains and other retail stores to set optimal price combinations based on consumer response. The software allows retail executives to accurately match consumer preferences with product offers for maximized net profits and consumer satisfaction. DemandTec is the first optimization software provider that capitalizes on breakthroughs in consumer response modeling, activity–based costing (ABC) inference techniques, and intense computing power to deliver a solution that helps retailers fundamentally improve net profits by offering consumers the products they want at the prices they want to pay. DemandTec’s technology factors in point–of–sale (POS) purchase history, product attributes, promotions, and competitor pricing with patented economic methodologies to calculate optimal price points. These optimized price points are delivered to users in an intuitive software interface.
About DemandTec
DemandTec's Consumer Demand Management software helps retailers and consumer products manufacturers strategically plan, optimize, and execute demand–driven merchandising and marketing programs based on a quantified understanding of consumer demand. Retailers have ranked DemandTec #1 in Strategic Value, Customer Satisfaction, and Quality of Service among the top 50 retail software vendors in the 2004 RIS Leaderboard survey. DemandTec customers include B&Q, Best Buy, Brookshire Grocery Company, Duane Reade, H–E–B Grocery Co., Longs Drugs, Monoprix, RadioShack, and Safeway. DemandTec software is provided via the IBM On Demand program. For more information, please visit www.demandtec.com.
All trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. |
