Harris poll: Walgreens tops among drug store retailers in brand equity

NEW YORK — Consumers gravitate toward traditional pharmacies for their everyday health-and-wellness needs, according to the "2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend" survey released Monday. Among retail pharmacy operations, Walgreens enjoyed the greatest brand equity among consumers based on top consumer scores in "familiarity" and "purchase consideration" categories. Overall, Walgreens' brand equity was tabulated at 69.9, CVS/pharmacy came in at 67.4 and Rite Aid 62.5.



Pharmacies in the "drug store brands" category also included Costco, Kmart, Target and Walmart. This is the first year that Harris Interactive polled consumers around drug store brands.



In the "value retailer" category, Target was rated higher than Walmart. "Top scores for all three elements of brand equity — 'familiarity,' 'quality' and 'purchase intention' — drove this strong performance," Harris Interactive stated. And Costco debuted as the "Gasoline Retail Brand of the Year."



The Harris Interactive consumer survey uses a brand equity model with elements like familiarity, quality and purchase consideration to help quantify a brands' connection with consumers.



The study was conducted online from Jan. 31 through Feb. 20, 2012, and analyzes the responses of more than 38,500 consumers on key measures of brand health — including how well the public knows a brand, how positively they think of the brand and their consideration to do business with or donate to a brand. Each brand is rated 1,000 times among respondents who are familiar with the brand. Harris Interactive has conducted its EquiTrend study regularly since 1989, and can offer yearly trended data from 2005. The Equity Score, a key takeaway from EquiTrend, has been validated against financial performance by Georgetown University, Harris Interactive stated.