Fundamentals for branding in retail pharmacy chain business - YRC

In an era of online retail pharmacy businesses appearing in large numbers, going brick and mortar may sound like a difficult business proposition. But the fact is that the traditional format holds an elephant’s share in the retail pharmacy sector ( https://www.yourretailcoach.in/industries/hospital-and-health-clinics-consulting/ ). The problem with retail pharmacy is access to a wider market absence of which limits their growth and expansion. Having a branded pharmacy chain of stores addresses this problem. However, branding is a tough job with homogeneity of products just as in grocery or departmental stores. YRC offers a perspective to tackle the issue of branding in retail pharmacy chain business in the form of a few fundamental questions or steps that need to be answered by businesses.

Who are the customers?

How customers perceive a brand is a big priority in business. This perception is capable of driving or sliding the revenue and market share of companies. Through advertising and other promotional efforts and activities, businesses strive to establish their brand identities in the eyes of the target market segment. To build and maintain a meaningful, effective, and strategic brand perception, businesses must have a clear understanding of who their customers are, what constitutes value for them and what their product/service requirements are. In this context, a target segment can be meaningfully defined on two broad parameters – demographics, psychographics, and consumer behaviour. Demographic factors like age, income, education, employment, etc. are more quantifiable than psychographic factors which include personality, lifestyle, hobbies, etc. Consumer behaviour nails home how these potential customers or groups of customers interact with and respond to their needs and priorities from realization to consumption.

What constitutes value to the customers?

Within the same target segment, different groups of customers can have slightly altered versions of what is ‘value’ to them. For example, customers in nearby localities may prefer in-store shopping experiences. Regular or bulk buyers are more likely to prefer discounted pricing. The more health-conscious segment will prefer products of reputed brands. There is always a crisscrossing of values across the different groups of customers. But a pharmacy business cannot provide all the values to all the customer groups. This is where business and marketing acumen and strategic discretion come into play. A common thread has to be identified that has maximum value coverage spanning across all the groups.

What value addition can be made?

Simply identifying the value is not enough for the reason of sustainability. We are living in times where many companies are resorting to product or service obsolescence so that the need for repurchase or refill or re-servicing arises more frequently. Customers are smart enough to see through such unethical business practices. Quite the contrary is creating products and services that have value-addition to customers. This is a long-term sustainability strategy. Free home delivery is the simplest of examples for value-addition. Efforts should be made to address higher values of customers. That is how strong businesses grow.

Where is the competitive void?

After finding the basic value proposition and possible value addition, the next question is whether the identified solution addresses the void left unattended by the existing players in the market. Even the biggest of the brands are not good enough to fulfil customers’ needs and expectations in totality. Changing business environment is a big reason for this. Other reasons include poor operational control, slower marketing response, lack of organizational control, over-emphasis on what worked in the past, etc. Identifying what competitors are leaving undone in fulfilment of the needs or solving the problems of the customers provide the opportunity to create a unique value proposition. This further strengthens the business idea as a product or service that is intended to be catered to a market.

Developing the business model

This final step becomes much easier when the answers to the previous questions are available. A business model ( https://www.yourretailcoach.in/business-model-development/ ) defines ‘how’ a business is going to generate revenue and stay profitable. The ‘how’ part is what the questions posed by YRC seeks to resolve. The ability of a business to generate a consistent footfall, demand, and sales is hidden behind how well it understands its customers and their priorities and expectations and how efficiently and consistently the business can create and deliver the intended value offering. Therefore, a business model is not just about finding a UVP but also determining the value chain activities and the required network of capabilities.

Businesses have to go beyond understanding the existing and explicit needs of customers. They must also anticipate needs and expectations. Preparing for what lies beyond this line of visibility is what a modern-day retail pharmacy chain business ( https://www.yourretailcoach.in/industries/hospital-and-health-clinics-consulting/ ) needs to build a strong brand positioning in the market. Otherwise, every other business is more or less offering the same set of products and services. Distinguishing brands from one another have become difficult for the average customer. This is the ideological barrier which businesses need to transgress and create products and services and solutions that go a few knots ahead of fulfilling customers’ needs and expectations. And to achieve this, the tough and difficult, otherwise obvious, questions have to be answered at the early stages of business formulation.
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YourRetailCoach
Pune, India–411016
Phone: +91-9860-426-700
Email: consult@mindamend.net

YRC is a Management Consulting Company, especially for the B-C Sector.
Our expertise lies into designing of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Franchise Development, Strategy & Operations services, Process Audits & Training.
We help companies to organise their operations and expand through best management practices.

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