App helps consumers ‘PICKKA’ OTC meds

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. —While many companies are extending their brands into the social media arena, bringing an interactive brand experience to online consumers at home, other companies are working toward extending that brand experience at the actual shelf through smartphones.

Evincii has launched an iPhone and iTouch application designed to help consumers make better shopping decisions on products related to health, wellness and well-being when they’re actually making those decisions—at shelf.

The new application, called PICKKA Med, provides the consumer with a “pharmacist in your pocket” functionality to better navigate the increasingly complex world of over-the-counter medicines. Consumers identify which retailer they’re visiting—product selections are correlated against many of the mainstream pharmacy chain’s planograms, such as Walmart or Walgreens—and then respond to a number of questions on symptoms. The end result is a series of recommendations of products, each with a picture of that product so consumers can quickly identify their selection on shelf.

Recommendations are based on FDA-approved, pharmacologically correct, symptom-based treatments that have been reviewed by a board of certified pharmacists, the company noted. More than 5,000 products—virtually every national brand OTC product sold in the United States—are included in the PICKKA Med knowledge base.