POC marketing connects Rx, customers

Is your pharmacy patient a needle in the healthcare haystack?

Pharmacy marketing is in the midst of an evolution thanks in part to targeted point-of-care educational marketing that has proven to be a high-powered tool with attractive returns on investments, higher rings at the register and enhanced patient compliance.

“Probably one of the biggest differences [in POC marketing] is the whole targeted process. You want to talk to the patient about what a brand is trying to get across,” said Gary Norman, executive vice president and general manager of Rx Edge, a provider of direct-to-consumer marketing solutions delivered in retail pharmacies. Rx Edge’s business has grown 20 percent to 40 percent each year for the last five years, he explained.

Given the challenges facing the healthcare system, it is more important than ever for pharmacy retailers to position themselves as healthcare destinations. But effectively “reaching” the consumer audience through the millions of marketing messages in today’s mass media can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. According to some industry sources, including Norman and Traver Hutchins, president and chief executive officer of consumer health educational marketing company MediZine, POC educational marketing can help retailers and suppliers break through the clutter and connect with the millions of people who visit a pharmacy each day.

“We start our journey at the doctor’s office but the bulk of our power is right at the pharmacy counter,” said Hutchins, who founded New York-based MediZine in 1994 and today has five consumer health publications—REMEDY, Diabetes Focus, Diabetes Focus Espanol, MediZine’s Healthy Living and MDminute. MediZine’s Healthy Living, alone, currently is distributed at the point of care in more than 70 retail chains, at 32,500 pharmacy counters and thousands of doctors’ offices, giving it a total quarterly circulation of 3.75 million copies and more than 16 million quarterly readers.

TV might capture bigger numbers; but are they the right numbers? Unlike a commercial opposite the nightly TV news, POC advertising puts the brand marketer with a healthcare message in front of the right audience. Clearly, pharmacy customers come into the store with health care front of mind. That would explain the recent surge in POC advertising.

Gregg Jones, R.Ph., director of clinical programs and marketing for Ahold USA, sees great value in such POC marketing as MediZine’s Healthy Living and Diabetes Focus.

“Anytime we can get information into the hands of the patients who need it is a benefit,” said Jones, who noted that the publications are well-received by its pharmacy patients. Ahold USA operates more than 600 stores, most of which have in-store pharmacies.

To enhance its reach to consumers, Jones said the company is looking to link the pharmacy pages of its Web site to the MediZine Web site.

In its pharmacy locations, Ahold USA carries MediZine’s Healthy Living and Diabetes Focus, as well as Diabetes Focus Espanol in the 10 percent to 15 percent of its stores that have a high index of Hispanic shoppers.

“If it is a diabetes-related focus, people who pick it up most likely will have diabetes or will be prediabetic. It is well-received because there is a lot of good information in it and it really puts all of the materials into one spot,” Jones said. “We have manufacturers who will come in and ask to put brochures on our pharmacy counter but it is a lot easier if you have a consolidated magazine like MediZine.”

Ahold USA is working with other companies, such as LDM Group, to implement point-of-dispensing messaging in its pharmacies.

“These POS marketing pieces do a lot to reinforce a healthy lifestyle for our customers and the New York community. There are great pieces on wellness and compliance [in the marketing materials] as well as information on how to stay healthy. It is good for our image both as a convenient health and wellness destination and certainly as a pharmacy as our goal is to help our patients stay healthy,” said Kathleen Albert, manager of pharmacy marketing for Duane Reade.

The Manhattan-based pharmacy retailer, which has more than 240 locations, works with such companies as MediZine and Rx Edge to communicate in-store with its patients.

When asked about the benefits of such POC marketing publications as MediZine’s Healthy Living and shelf talkers, such as those offered by Rx Edge, Albert said each serves its own purpose and both are important when it comes to effectively reaching consumers.

“The magazine is something you drop in your bag and read at your leisure and the Rx Edge pieces have great immediacy,” Albert said. “I don’t think that one is more effective or beneficial, as there are different applications for each. Because a shelf talker is more prominent when you are at the point of purchase I think it is convenient for the consumer to read. At the same time, the MediZine magazine is something you can take away so you have sufficient time to absorb all of the wellness information.”

Each year, manufacturers spend about $5 billion on direct-to-consumer marketing, about half of which is spent on broadcast followed by general-interest magazines at about 30 percent. While POC, or “alternative media,” currently accounts for less than 10 percent of that $5 billion pie, it is the fastest-growing segment next to online marketing, Hutchins explained.

While POC marketing is undoubtedly growing, there are some challenges that remain, especially in the areas of funding and merchandising such consumer education. One is: who pays? When it comes to funding there are four potential buckets of money to go after: non-profits, customers, retailers and sponsors.

Non-profits, while valuable as a resource, typically do not have the funds to effectively educate the volume of in-store need. Meanwhile, retailers are not in the business of having their customers pay for education. In terms of a retailer funding, marketing departments want to educate customers but they don’t necessarily have the funds to invest in it. Furthermore, some retail marketers cringe when sponsors are highly prevalent in POC vehicles because they believe it conflicts with their image as education providers.

“Conversely, merchandising departments want to sell things. If they can be shown that education not only supports the marketing need but also increases sales, then they tend to become advocates. Since most chains have razor-thin budgets for education, however, [having the retailer invest] has not shown much traction in the industry to date,” Hutchins said. “That leaves sponsors as the remaining method to bring education to the customer.”

Important, when done correctly, POC-based communications vehicles, such as MediZine and others, can tie in meaningful advertising opportunities that do not taint the value of the education itself, according to sources.

Perhaps even more important to pharmacy retailers and healthcare product marketers, when done correctly, POC marketing also can drive incremental sales and improve patient compliance and persistence, with measurable ROI. According to data from Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Rx EDGE, the average lift in prescription volume, based on research of more than 100 POC marketing programs, is 9.8 percent. Furthermore, the average return on investment is about $7 for every $1 invested.

Rx EDGE, which launched in 2000 to provide pharmaceutical marketers with an in-store alternative for their DTC marketing efforts, has grown to reach more than 18,000 drug stores, supermarket pharmacies, mass and supercenter pharmacies, and it has implemented more than 200 programs for clients. It promotes pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare brands with at-shelf dispensers, counter displays and other in-store media inc