FlavoRx: Taste of meds boosts loyalty

A two-part study by the Temple University School of Pharmacy and market research firm WilsonRx found the availability of custom flavoring for children’s medications boosted customer satisfaction and loyalty. The study, consisting of an intercept survey of 200 mothers at Philadelphia and 
New Jersey drug stores and a review of a WilsonRx mail survey of 34,454 customers, found that 50% of parents were very or extremely likely to recommend a pharmacy that actively informed them about flavoring services, while 7% were not. 


At the same time, 52% of respondents to the survey said they didn’t know whether their pharmacies offered the services, compared with 6% who said their pharmacies didn’t offer them and 42% who said they did. Meanwhile, according to medication flavoring maker FlavoRx, only 3% of medications that can have flavoring added actually do.


But those stores without flavoring or that don’t promote it could be seriously missing out. The study found that a store could gain 16 to 24 new customers per year and generate between $51,000 and $78,000 in new business by promoting a custom-flavoring service.


The line in “Mary Poppins” about “just a spoonful of sugar” contains a grain of truth. According to the intercept survey, 79% of children complained about medication tasting too bad to take, and about 85% of interviewed subjects said the taste of liquid medicine is somewhat or very important to them and to their children.