Just like a pharmacist has to use the right formula with the right combination of ingredients to mix a compounded drug for a specific patient, so too does your business need the right mix of marketing elements to succeed.
Every business is unique and your community pharmacy requires a different marketing mix than big box stores, retail chains, or even the other community pharmacy in town.
What is the marketing mix?
So, what exactly is the marketing mix This term stands for the operational elements of a marketing plan. Or, basically how you put marketing into practice.
The marketing mix typically includes a combination of controllable marketing elements, referred to as the four “P”s. These include price, place, product and promotion. For services, rather than tangible products, the marketing mix consists of seven “P”s. They include the same “P”s as the traditional marketing mix, as well as process, people and physical evidence.
Your retail community pharmacy has a unique position in the marketplace. You offer both products and services. In fact, the product you sell is uniquely tied to the services you offer. This unique positioning makes the elements in the marketing mix a bit trickier to define—but it can be done. For the purpose of the marketing mix, we’ll look at both aspects of your business, but we’ll focus more on the services you provide.
The elements defined
You can alter the offer you make to your customers by modifying the elements in the marketing mix. For example, a high-end brand would focus more on promotion and less on price. Take a look at the seven elements of the marketing mix and see how you can use the marketing mix to better position your community pharmacy to customers.
Price
Price is the cash amount customers exchange for the offering. When it comes to marketing your pharmacy, you’ll need to think about how much you want to emphasize price on your front-end items and the additional services you offer, like consulting, MTM, immunizations, and blood glucose monitoring. Do you want to focus on price and try to offer cheap front-end items and OTC products? Or, do you want to downplay price and focus on other elements in the marketing mix? Think about what will work best for your business and the types of patients you serve.
Place
As the spot where customers consume the service, your store’s physical location is the “place” in the marketing mix. While you likely can’t change your location to better market to your customers, you can alter other aspects to make your location more attractive to them. Maybe you want to put in a drive thru? Or perhaps you can change your store hours to make them more convenient?
You can emphasize or deemphasize place in your marketing mix, depending on how important it is to your business. Maybe your store sits in the heart of your town on Main Street? Then, it might do your business good to focus on “place” in your marketing mix. That way you can show customers that your pharmacy is part of the community, for example.
Product
For your pharmacy, your product and services are intertwined. Your product-service could be the excellent counseling you give each patient who picks up a prescription. Or, it could include your MTM, immunization, and other services. Or, perhaps you just think of it as the overall care you provide to your patients.
Promotion
Promotion includes all of the tools available to you to market your business. Many options exist to market your pharmacy. The more important aspect is figuring out the options that work best for your business. Maybe you do well with direct mail because you have an older population of patients who prefer regular mail. Or, maybe you do well promoting specials on your website. Try a bunch of different options to see what works best for your business.
Process
The process includes the procedures, mechanisms, and flow of activities by which the service is delivered. It’s how the customer experiences your services. Do you greet your customers the moment they walk in your door? What happens while they wait for their prescriptions? Can they have coffee or water? Do you check in with them if their prescriptions are taking a long time? From the moment customers walk into your store to the moment they leave, every step along the way is part of the process.
Physical evidence
The services you provide at your pharmacy aren’t tangible. Patients can’t see counseling or MTM services. They can touch the bottle of prescription drugs, but what other material cues do you offer them to experience your pharmacy? Your logo, store signs, website and more visual cues contribute to the feeling customers get about your business.
People
People are the most important part of any service because they’re the ones using it. Consider how you make the experience at your pharmacy meet the individual needs of each patient. Do you know your patients by name? Do you put pills in a blister pack for one of your elderly patients? Do you ask a patient who you know has had a cold how she’s feeling? Think about what you can do to make your patients feel special.
