Walgreens’ Linh Peters on Leadership, Health Outcomes & Consumer Power

Welcome back to today's edition of the Speed of Culture podcast. We are here in Las Vegas for the CES show kicking off 2023, and I'm so excited today to introduce our guest, uh, Lynn Peters, who is the Chief Marketing Officer at Walgreens. Lynn, thanks so much for joining today.

Thank you for having me. Super excited to be here.

Absolutely. So I'd love to get started by hearing a little bit about your background. You've worked at some of the most prominent brands in retail and beauty and fashion. And it's an incredible career journey you've had. And I'd love to hear about some of the highlights and maybe some of the things that shaped the executive that you are today.

Sure, I would be happy to. So I have spent the majority of my career in what I would consider to be consumer-facing marketing organizations, right? And so I've probably, you know, worked every customer journey, right? So I was at— I started my career at Best Buy. So you're thinking about customers who are buying refrigerators and TVs every 7 years. And then I also was in the grocery industry, right? Which is like daily, weekly sort of like consumer experiences. So So I think for me, I think the common threads are that I've always been incredibly fascinated by the customer. So, you know, mindset, behaviors, sort of just figuring out who they are and what they're looking for. And so I think that's always been the lens of which I've looked through my career, right? So how do I get better understand the customer? How do I create experiences that actually meet their needs and ultimately solves their problems?

Absolutely. And when you started your career at Best Buy in 2005, there was no iPhone. There was no YouTube. Facebook was just getting started. You know, we were living in a different world.

Yes.

And people like you and I who started our careers in the early 2000s or mid-2000s have lived through a transformation, acceleration of technology that really is unparalleled in history. Yeah. You know, how have you been able to navigate these changes? Because marketing in 2005 looks nothing like marketing here in 2023.

Yes. No, I think that's totally true. I think the other big shift is also just like the shift of power to the consumer. Yeah, right. So I think, I think for a lot of organizations and businesses, they've had to actually like upend their business models and their operating infrastructures because of that. And I think to your point, like that probably had never happened before. And so I think I think as a marketer and I think as an executive, it forces you to really, I think, consider sort of things that are outside of your swim lane, right? So you're constantly thinking about not only is how the customer interacting with our brand and our business, but just like what is the customer doing, right? How do they live their lives? How are they using technology across the board? And so I think it's a much more holistic approach to understanding who your customer is and then trying to figure out how that applies to the business that you're in.

Absolutely. I mean, what I like to say is that the power shifted from the boardrooms to the sidewalks. And, you know, I wrote a book called Youth Nation. It's about how the youth market, which used to be sort of an afterthought because they didn't have discretionary spending power, really had no input on the future of business. And now it's the opposite, where young people adopted Red Bull or the iPhone or TikTok, and then it becomes mainstream.

Right, right. And they're your advocates, right? They're the ones that are going to convince their friends and their family, like, what's hot and what's new. And the brands that are relevant.

Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about your current role. So you joined mid-last year at Walgreens as Chief Marketing Officer. Why Walgreens? What drove you there?

You know, I think that's a fantastic question. So I think, you know, as a lot of people, I think with COVID it was just one of those moments for me to kind of really reassess my career and the things that were important to me. And, you know, I, my, my journey, I think, in life is that I am actually a refugee and an immigrant. So my, my family immigrated to the United States in the '80s. And at the time, we were surrounded by this amazing community of people who helped us do everything from find housing to get into school, but also just navigating things like public health and public services. And so I am the product of having that wonderful community and that support and that guidance early on in my life. And so I think when the opportunity came up at Walgreens, our mission is to be the leading provider in localized healthcare and well-being. And so for me, it's an incredibly personal mission to be able to provide access and support and guidance to people in underserved communities in such an important space as healthcare.

Yeah, and the healthcare space, like the financial services space, has been very slow to disrupt. It's highly regulated. So in a lot of ways, when it comes to people understanding how to get reimbursements for their health insurance or so many other iterations of the healthcare industry, it just isn't a great consumer experience. Correct. Compared to, you know, retail and other categories, which is basically completely disrupt their business model with digital.

Right.

Is that something that, I guess, excites you and in terms of being able to tackle some of those challenges on behalf of those consumers?

No, it very much excites me, 'cause I think to your point, I think especially when you're working in a consumer-facing brand, right, like a Best Buy or a Target or a Starbucks, like you're always focused on the consumer, right, and that journey, and sort of like how do you take friction out of the experience, how to create more seamless, and I think within healthcare, even as personal as it is, I don't think there's that same philosophy and approach applied to it, so I think for me, it's incredibly exciting to figure out not only how do we do it as a consumer-facing brand and a retail-facing brand, but also like with our business model, we are expanding into a lot of opportunities that involve our B2B partners, right? So it's helping them understand the opportunity to better understand their, their patients and their customers. And how do we kind of build the connection between the B2B experience with the B2C experience, which is what we're— where we've historically played.

Right. And at the same time, I just got an email this morning right before this interview started from Amazon saying, welcome to your new Amazon Pharmacy. Right. So now you have Amazon coming into the space and you have companies like One Medical and that are trying to innovate and give this sort of like retail healthcare where you can kind of walk in. Is that something that Walgreens is focused on in terms of expanding its addressable market?

Yes, it is. Well, I think, I think that the differentiator that we have as a brand is that we are in every community, right? We have over 9,000 stores. We not only have physical footprints in those stores, but we have a lot of relationships, right? Our pharmacists and our store team members live and work in those, in those communities, which I think is incredibly important. So, you know, one of the things that we have is we have a concept called Walgreens Walgreens Health Corners. It's mainly on the, on the East and West Coast, but it's really a partnership to kind of bring that localized healthcare into those communities. And so when you walk into a store with a Health Corner, you actually have dedicated health advisors, right? Whether they're pharmacists or nurses that actually are just walking the stores and are available there to talk to customers. So it's a different level of access than you would have with your pharmacist. Like, we still have our pharmacists in the pharmacy area of the store where you can talk to and pick up your prescriptions, but the health advisor is really bent to kind of bring together sort of the pharmacy experience, but also when you're just walking the store and you might need something off the shelf, right? Or it's more of an OTC product. They're there to give guidance, to give counsel, to provide input. And so that's a completely different model for us, right? And we've seen really fantastic results with that in terms of just the level of engagement, you know, things like NPS. And it's also creating better health outcomes for our customers in those markets.

I mean, and that's a very cool concept. It's also something that consumers probably don't expect. So they don't expect to walk into Walmart and have that sort of advocate. So I would imagine part of your job is storytelling the evolution of Walgreens because I would never think of that, that would— that experience would occur when I walked into one of your retail locations.

Absolutely. So I think one of the things that I'm focused on as a CMO is how do we make sure that we, from a marketing standpoint, a go-to-market standpoint, how do we make sure that we are talking about those experiences and just making sure that customers understand, you know, availability and access to them. And so that's the other piece of this, right? That's really exciting to be able to tell that story for Walgreens. Yeah.

So what are some of the ways that is that Walgreens goes to market to drive growth, to share its evolving story with consumers that you're really focused on here in 2023?

Right. So I think in 2023, I think there's a couple of things that we're really doing. So I think one is from a brand purpose and mission standpoint, it's to your point, right? Really talking about our narrative and our story as that localized healthcare and wellbeing provider. And so I think that's really exciting, right? And that gives us a lot of opportunity to not only do that within our own channels, but also how do we do that, I think, you know, within paid, I think with digital, also working with our B2B partners in terms of just bringing that story together. The other piece that is really exciting about Walgreens is that we have a phenomenal loyalty program. So it's called myWalgreens and we have 102 million members. That's a big number. Yeah, which is a big number, right? And I've worked for really some really fantastic loyalty programs. But I think for us, like, that is just— there's a massive opportunity there because we know those customers are in our stores, they're in our environment. So how do we, you know, take all of the information and sort of like knowing who they are and what they're buying and sort of what's on their mind and apply that more holistically to help them manage their health? And the last piece is, I think I mentioned earlier, is just around the B2B space. So huge opportunity for us to really create a differentiated value proposition for our partners in that space and really kind of bringing in, you know, sort of that consumer-first, that data-centric approach to how we can build better customer experiences for their patients.

Yeah, totally. And when you talk about 102 million members in your loyalty program, that's just, you know, an incredible amount of first-party consumer data. Correct. So the new— I've been speaking to a lot of, you know, really prominent marketers here at CES, and so many of them talk about a full-funnel approach.

Right.

And it's hard to have a full-funnel approach without first-party data in the wake of all the, you know, recent evolutions of Apple and privacy, etc. You really need that first-party data. I think for some traditional CPGs, they're gonna struggle because traditionally they sold through the big box retailers. They don't have customer data.

Right.

But Walgreens does. Yes. So how is that something that you look as an asset for how you go to market?

Yes. No, that's, that's your point. Everything that you just said, it is an incredible asset for us. Right. And I think the nice thing is that we have built this really holistic ecosystem. So we obviously are doing things to talk to our customers about Walgreens as our brand. But we also have this really fantastic media ad group, right? It's called Walgreens Advertising Group, and they are there to service our CPG and vendor partners to help to help them do just that, right? To help them bring them into our environment and to sort of make that match between their products and services and then the customers that are most relevant to them.

Got it. So if you look at— you talked about the consumer journey in terms of the different places that you've worked at throughout your career, and obviously some of these companies like, like Target and Starbucks have really, you know, set the bar in a lot of these areas. When you think about the customer experience, so I'm a consumer, I'm not feeling well, right? Do you see a world where I'm going to the Walgreens app and somebody's talking to me and either directing me to my primary care provider and say, oh no, come in and, you know, you could just buy Advil from us or something like that. Do you see that as the role? Where in the consumer journey of a consumer not feeling well or needing sort of health devices Walgreens fit in in the future?

Yeah. So I think, I think where, where Walgreens has historically played is either kind of in that environment where, you know, like our pharmacy is a huge component of our business. Right. So oftentimes it's like when you're coming in to get a prescription because you aren't feeling well or because, you know, you've— it's like a post-op post-op care. And so I think the opportunity for us is to get much further upstream in terms of what that customer experience is, right? And so it's almost like healthcare and well-being, it's almost— it's also preventative, right? It's just like, how do you kind of maintain and manage your health? And so it's not so much as like you're coming in for an acute problem, it's just how are we part of your, your journey and your everyday experience just to kind of like make sure that you're living well. So to your point, I think it's everything from, you know, preventative, right? So like areas, you know, such as like how to have better sleep, right? How to better manage your health, kind of how to, how to better manage your condition. We can absolutely play in those spaces. And I think the beauty of Walgreens is that we have, you know, physical stores, but we also have a phenomenal e-commerce experience, right? So we have things like, you know, we can, if you want to order something, we can deliver it in, you know, like under an hour, right? So there are elements of the customer experience. And I think it's interesting, you kind of don't realize that we can be in your life until you're in the moment. Like I was recently at a conference conference, and I was not feeling well. And I was like, okay, I'm here, I'm offsite, I'm really far away. And I just like went into my Walgreens app, I ordered, you know, some Gatorade and some medicine and it came, right? So it's like those types of things where I think those are the moments where people need us and I think we can be there for them. And I think that's the exciting piece, right? In terms of just bridging the physical and the digital.

Right. And when you talk about stuff like preventative care and getting better sleep or whatever it may be, ultimately that's going to manifest in content, right? You need to be creating content for the consumer. So do you spend a lot of your time thinking about what types of content are we going to create for the consumer? Where are we going to serve it up? And how are you looking at that strategy evolving?

Yeah, no, I think that's true. I think if you think about healthcare, you know, we've seen stats before where especially like with millennials, they're going to, you know, PopSugar, they're going to TikTok to get their medical advice, right? Which I think is interesting, but it's also a little bit scary. And so I think the opportunity that we have, I think when you talk about content, is exactly that, right? It's providing guidance. It's probably in some instances debunking things that are out there.

Trust, right? You want to be a trusted partner.

It's very much about trust. And I think that the nice thing with our brand is that we have incredible trust, right? We are a 100-plus-year-old brand, and that's kind of where we started our history, right? If you think about Charles Walgreen, it was really about being in the community, about being trust. His whole notion was like, I want to treat everybody as if they were a family. And so we take that very seriously as a brand. And so it's like, to your point, how do you create content How are you making sure that people, you know, sort of get all of the information? And I think in the moments where it really matters from a medical perspective, getting it right.

Right. Absolutely. So, you know, we were talking before this interview started about being at CES. It's great. It's the beginning of the year. You kind of can take a step out of the everyday business hustle and actually think about, okay, what do I want to accomplish this year, etc. So as a chief marketing officer and at a very prominent company, you obviously have a lot of priorities. What are some of the biggest challenges that you're trying to tackle this year and how do you go about sort of trying to solve those problems?

Yes, no, I think that's everybody's problem, right? You need more hours and—

Or, and to prioritize, right?

Yes, yes, yes. So I mean, I think the things that we're working through are, you know, what I would consider to be probably just a lot of the same things that other marketers are thinking through, right? So, you know, you're not only trying to think through just, you know, things like, you know, potential inflation and sort of the economy and sort of just like what's weighing on consumers' minds, I think in that respect. But we're also, you know, still dealing with COVID and a lot of those things. And so, and then just like to your point, like the changing dynamics of the consumer, but also just the changing dynamics of the employer and employee, right? So there's just a lot of stuff happening. So I think for me, it's incredibly important to really focus on the things that are priorities for the business, right? I always say like, you have to be intentional as a leader about where you spend your time because it's very easy to focus on a lot of different things. Be reactive. Yeah, be reactive, focus on a lot of things and wanna solve everything. But my mantra is really like, what are the most important things that I can focus on and impact that are actually going to drive measurable impact to the business, right? And ultimately, you know, improve things like customer experiences and team member experiences. And so that's really kind of how I focus on things. There's definitely a measure of like prioritization and planning, but you also have to be nimble enough in terms of how you work, of your infrastructure, of how you manage your business to be able to react, you know, to some of those changing conditions. Absolutely.

So in terms of the pie chart of your day, how much time is spent managing up? Because I know a big part of being a CMO is working with your executive team and understanding the business challenges that go beyond marketing. You obviously have a team under you. You have outside partners. Right. How do you break up how you spend your time each day? And is it like intent? I know we talk about not being reactive, but do you have sort of— you're one of those people who have like a fixed schedule every day where you do things, or is it kind of a little bit more fluid?

You know, I think that's a fantastic question. So I do try to, I think, manifest that into like intentions of ways I'm spending my time, right? And so, yes, I think for me there's really kind of, you know, 3 sort of like areas, right? So it is definitely managing up, right? It's managing across the organization. I think with the executive team, there's an element of managing my team, right? So like the people underneath me that I would consider to be really sort of the movers and shakers and really the ones that are driving results. And I think the layer that I feel like oftentimes as leaders we ignore is just your peer set. And so at the end of the day, for me, it's like I spend a fair amount of time working across my peer set because it really is about like building those relationships, about building collaboration and trust. And so when you can kind of manage at that level, you're oftentimes going to prevent things from either escalating to senior leadership or you're also going to give better direction and guidance to your teams below you. —right? And I think that's where those are the areas where I feel like sometimes things sort of like go sideways because you're, you know, you're having to either like, you know, kind of course correct your team or you're also having to spend a fair amount of time managing up. Absolutely.

So I want to switch gears a little bit because, you know, if I look at your career from 2005 on, it looks like, you know, a very— I don't want to say typical path, but like a tried and true path of becoming a CMO. You work at world-class brands, you work your way up. But prior to 2005, I think that your life has been anything but typical. I've read a lot about how you immigrated to the US. I'd love for you, if you're comfortable with this, talk a little bit about that story because I found it incredibly inspiring and I think our listeners really enjoy hearing about that.

Yeah, I'd be happy to. So, you know, I always tell people that I think before, before probably like the 2005, when I would talk about myself, you know, I, people would be like, where are you from? And I'd say, oh, I'm from Minnesota, grew up in Minnesota. And that was sort of always my talk track. And I think especially I think when we started our careers right back in the '90s and the 2000s, like your whole approach was to focus on fitting in, right? Like, how can I sort of like blend into everybody else and just make sure that, you know, everybody knows that I'm kind of cut from the same cloth? And so I think later on my career, going through things like Black Lives Matter, through the, you know, sort of like unfortunate situation with Asian hate, it really sort of opened my eyes to the fact that especially as an Asian American woman, an immigrant and a refugee, I have a responsibility to, I think, talk more about myself, right? And then who I am and how I got here. And so that was sort of the catalyst for me to really talk about, you know, my experience as a refugee and immigrant. And so my family immigrated to Minnesota in the '80s. And when we left Vietnam, we left on a cargo ship. So if you're familiar with the term boat people, we were boat people. And, you know, we left Vietnam, bought passage on a cargo ship. It was a totally illegal operation. But we were, you know, a family of amongst, like, you know, 3,000 or 4,000 other people. And so we left Vietnam. And our ship ended up in Hong Kong Harbor. And we had no idea where we were going. We just kind of got on the boat and like, okay, we'll end up somewhere. How old were you? I was probably about 3. 3 years old. I had my parents at the time and 2 siblings. And my mom was pregnant. And so we ended up in Hong Kong Harbor.. And at the time, Hong Kong had kind of just stopped accepting immigrants and refugees because they were dealing with this massive influx. And so our ship got stranded in Hong Kong Harbor and we sat in the harbor for a good 4 or 5 months. And, you know, they were, they wouldn't allow us onshore. And so we just were living on this cargo ship in, you know, not very good conditions, didn't have food and water and some of those things. And finally there was a group of men that were just like, okay, we've got to do something, right? Like we just can't sit here. People are dying and people are getting sick. So my dad was one of them. They all, a bunch of them swam for shore. Not all of them could swim, but that was really the forcing function for the Hong Kong government to do something about it. And so we were in a refugee camp in Hong Kong for about a year, and then we're luckily, we're sponsored by a Lutheran church in Minnesota and brought over. And then the other, I guess the wonderful thing is that we found out years later that ship's journey was chronicled in a National Geographic article. So I have the article at home, which kind of talks about it, which is sort of like a—

We'll share it in the show notes.

Yeah, which is a little bit of a full circle moment. But so I think when I told that story for the first time, I was at Starbucks and it was in front of, you know, the entire marketing organization. And I just had such a positive response. You know, I had people that came up to me and like, "Thank you for telling me your story." It's so inspiring. And I think it just— I think for a lot of people, it just allowed them permission to show up that way, right? And talk about their own story and talk about their own journey and their own fluence. And I think for me, it has absolutely shaped who I am as a leader and how, you know, And I think the successes in my career, I think a lot of it is innate to, I think, that upbringing and that experience that I've had.

I mean, in what ways being an immigrant and very much minority in business, how you think that impacts the way that you have had to interact in the corporate world? Because obviously you're a fighter, it's in your DNA, your family are fighters, right? Yeah. I mean, but what other ways do you think it's impacted your rise? Professionally?

You know, I think for me it has, you know, I think we talk a lot about EQ, right? And now we talk a lot about authenticity. And I think for me that's always been a part of who I am because that was sort of how people had treated me, right? I mean, we had this group of strangers, this group of church parishioners who had never really even seen an Asian person, but they were completely open to spending their time and energy and opening their homes, right? So I learned very, very early on in life about empathy. About community, about giving, about being vulnerable, about building trust and relationships. And so I've always really kind of centered that in terms of who I am as a person. And that just has manifested in not only how I interact with, you know, my peers, my coworkers, but also how I lead teams. And so for me, it's really about building that culture and that environment within an organization that really allows people to, one, sort of show up that way, but also like see the benefit and the power of when you have a group of people that operate that way and the magic that we can do not only from a business from a business standpoint, but also just like an organization standpoint.

Absolutely. So if you're a young person in your career listening to this podcast and you want to end up in the CMO seat one day, right? And maybe you're feeling like you're getting held down by the organization you're in, or you just, you haven't had great luck in 2022. Right. What advice would you give to those people to get there, to get to where you are right now?

Yes. I mean, I always tell people, it's kind of funny because people always ask me that question, right? And I was like, you know, I never started out my career as like ever saying that I wanted to be the CMO, right? And so I think for me, you know, the things that I would tell people is one, I think regardless of what level that you're at or what role that you're in, you really need to make sure that you are maximizing your voice. And so I always tell people, like, it's very simple. Like, if you are invited to a meeting and you're in the room, you need to say something, right? You need to share your perspective. You need to share your voice because you have a seat at the table. So whether it's things like, you know, participating in the conversation or asking questions, I think oftentimes, especially when you're starting out for your career, you feel like your job is to just sit in a room and listen. Right. And I always feel like, you know, you're— yeah, you know, it's like, you know, your perspective is really important. Your point of view is really important. It's all about kind of just how do we, how do we know more and understand more. Right. So I always talk about a little bit about that. I always talk a little bit about the fact that, you know, for me, it has been tackling problems that nobody else wants to take, take care of. Right. It's really easy, I think, to do the easy stuff. But I think the moments in my career where I've been incredibly successful and where I've seen sort of like seismic shifts have been because I've taken on roles or assignments that other people just didn't want to take on. So I think that's the other piece. And then I think the other piece of advice that I give people that has worked very well for me is just in terms of like how you operate and how you show up. And I always tell people that it's for me, I always assume positive intent. And so that can have a lot of applications, that can have a lot of meaning. From others.

You assume that other people have the right intentions.

Exactly, exactly. And I think when you you kind of go into a conversation or a meeting or an interaction with that sort of at the forefront, you're gonna show up differently, right? You're going to interact and you're going to partner differently. And I think oftentimes, especially in this world where everything is virtual and digital, it's very easy to, you know, kind of lose sight of that, right?

Yeah, tell yourself your own story. Exactly. Right. That's fantastic. So to wrap things up, I mean, is there one quote or mantra, given your incredible background, that you tend to live by that drives you every morning when you wake up?

Oh, gosh, that's a good one. Honestly, I think it is the one around assume positive intent. Yeah. You know, because I think for me that works both within my— Mantra for all of us in 2023. Within the work environment. But I think also just, you know, like just as a human being, right? I think if you— I think especially now it's kind of funny, like, you know, you talk about things like labor shortages and, you know, travel woes and all these things happen. But I think if you just apply that to how you operate and how you think about interacting with other people in your life and the decisions that you make and how you show up, I think we could all, you know, benefit from that.

For sure. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Lynn. This is an incredible interview. I can't wait for our audience to hear it. And I hope you have nothing but a prosperous 2023, as I'm sure you will, with Walgreens. So on behalf of Suzy and the Ivy team, thanks again to Lynn Peters for joining us. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, from here in Las Vegas at CES, see you soon. Take care, everyone. Bye-bye. Hey!