I'm all for expanding your distribution channels, but Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) new fundraiser strategy just doesn't seem appropriate to me. Earlier this week J&J announced it will launch a new promotion this month enabling fundraising groups to sell J&J's over-the-counter medicines and products in exchange for an 8% donation to the community group sponsoring the fundraiser. They're targeting churches, charities and nonprofit groups, including the Girl Scouts. Yes, the next Girl Scout promotion in your neighborhood may not be for cookies. Thanks to J&J, children will have the opportunity to sell Tylenol, Sudafed, Motrin, Benadryl and more to friends and neighbors.
J&J is positioning this new distribution channel as a great alternative to door-to-door sales of cookies, wrapping paper or candy. Instead of having to cart around boxes of merchandise, children, schools, churches and nonprofit groups can simply direct people to buy their regular over-the-counter medicine from J&J online at the Ucareorg.com website. They can simply type in the fundraising group's unique code then order their drugs, and 8% of the sale goes to the fundraiser. It's so simple, yet it seems so wrong.
What do you think? Does this sound like a breakthrough idea like J&J is calling it, or does it sound a bit too unorthodox? My daughter is too young to be in the Girl Scouts, but when the day comes that she has to do her Girl Scout fundraising duties, I don't think I'd allow her to push drugs or medicinal products.
Not only does it seem wrong, but I don't know how this will work with products containing Pseudoephedrine or Ephedrine as they are now stored behind the counter to prevent people from buying/stealing mass quantities for conversion into crystal meth. I'll take the cookies, candy and wrapping paper please, but when it comes to OTC, I'll do the shopping.
Posted by: Scott | June 28, 2007 10:58 AM | Permalink to Comment