Let's Start at the Beginning: What is Marketing?

What is marketing?

Marketing in its most basic form, is defined as managing profitable relationships. More specifically, marketing is the process by which we create value for customers and build strong relationships in order to capture value from these customers in return.

Now, what is the goal of marketing and how do you put it into practice?

First we want to attract new customers. Secondly, we want to maintain and cultivate those current customers and relationships. We achieve these goals by following and estiablishing the following.

Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants

Take a couple of minutes and think about your community.

• What needs aren't being met?

• What are you doing better than your competitors?- What are your competitors doing better than you?

The beautiful part of being an independent pharmacy is that we are flexible. By getting a clear cut idea of where you stand in your community, we can adapt to meet your community's needs, change our store to better compete with our competitors and can continue to expand our services to be the pharmacy that people want to go to.

An example of understanding your marketplace is the Medicap Pharmacy in Toledo, Iowa. Tim Madsen, RPh was informed about a factory opening nearby that was expected to bring in aninflux of Hispanic families to their town. So to capture these families, Tim hired two Spanish speaking cashiers, started running Spanish radio spots, created Spanish flyers to hang around his store and spoke with Spanish speaking doctors in his area to let them know about his services.

Since he started, he has seen very positive feedback from the community and has seen an increase in Hispanic customers. By being proactive and adaptable he was able to get a head start on capturing these new customers and has set himself apart from the other pharmacies in his area.

Create a customer driven environment

Did you know: a recent study found that more than 50% of consumers said friends and family are the number one influence on their awareness of and purchase of products or services?

This means that, as a smaller company, we need to know the needs and wants of our customers and deliver the desired satisfactions better than our competitors in hopes of encouraging them to tell their friends and families about us. Unlike the Walmart's, CVS's and Rite Aids of the world, we don't have other departments to fall back on. We have to provide the best customer service, every day, to keep people coming back.

Additionally, providing excellent customer service requires more than politeness. Take some time to think about your store and ask yourself these questions:

1. Are you actively promoting your services to everyone who walks in the door and is everyone on your staff comfortable promoting those services? Provide scripts for them to use if necessary.

2. Is there a need to expand your services to better meet your customers' needs?

3. How are you adapting to any changes in your customers' needs?

By creating a customer driven environment, you show your customers that they are the most important part of your business.

  Always work toward delivering superior value

"The thing that drives everything is creating genuine value for customers"

- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo

So the question now becomes, what can we do on a regular basis to deliver superior value?

Below are a few suggestions. Be sure to talk to your marketing rep for additional ideas.

1. How about training your staff to start complimentary selling? For example, if someone

buys bandaids, ask if they need any antiseptic or with their allergy medication they also need more facial tissues.

2. Host annual Customer Appreciation events. For one day, grill out or cater in to thank

customers for their continued service. If you already do, then kick it up a notch by donating $5 to a local charity for each person that comes. Or make it a customer appreciation event/food drive and donate the proceeds to a food bank.

3. Pick a customer segment each month and do something special for them such as small gifts or flowers. It doesn't have to be something big or expensive to make a big impact.

Always remember what it is that makes your independent pharmacy better than a chain and go out there and SELL IT!

Build profitable relationships and create customer delight

Customer relationship management. A simple enough concept that focuses on just that;

managing customer relationships. While everyone has their own methods of customer interaction, the building and maintaining of profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction is the biggest piece that needs to be honed.

Essentially, the most important of the four steps, all comes down to delighting your customers by going above and beyond...every time.

Think about the stores that you are loyal to. Why do you keep going back? Is it the prices, the products or services or is it the customer service? Why do you use them, rather than any of the

competitors? It's because at some point, you decided to value them.

Customer value is the customer's evaluation of the perceived differences between all of the costs and benefits of competing companies and is the reason they choose you rather than anyone else. Several studies have shown that higher levels of customer satisfaction lead to greater customer loyalty, which then leads to better company performance.

So what does all this tell us? Basically, that if a company is smart they will strive to delight their customers by promising what they can deliver, and then delivering MORE than they promise. Any pharmacist can fill a prescription, but only a neighborhood pharmacist knows their patients' names, medication histories and backgrounds.

In conclusion, by following these steps you can improve sales for your pharmacy and set yourself apart from the competition!