Getting the Drop on Walgreens

It may have been the first time that a drugstore pharmacist was hung from the ceiling. But there she was, an attractive (albeit corrugated) woman in a lab coat rappelling into Walgreens aisles this spring to illustrate the fact that the retailer’s pharmacists go “above & beyond” in their efforts to assist customers. Additional signs had other members of her profession jumping over counters and hurdling shopping carts.The eye-catching P-O-P materials may not quite have reached the level of “theater” that Walgreens marketing honcho Joe Magnacca believes will be vital to future success at retail (see Related Articles). But they did personify (so to speak) his point: that stores need a “reason for being” now that most consumer goods purchases are just a few clicks away. And what reason could be more compelling than the ability to speak face to face with a knowledgeable, helpful pharmacist whose expertise on matters of health and wellness “knows no bounds” (to quote the ceiling sign again).The spring campaign was undertaken to help introduce “Find Your Pharmacist,” a new tool on Walgreens.com that lets consumers search to find nearby pharmacists based on their clinical backgrounds, language capabilities and specific areas of expertise.The initiative was driven by research through which the retailer learned that, although location is the leading factor, training background and special interests are primary considerations for consumers when they select a pharmacist. In fact, 70% of the 1,000 respondents to a survey that Walgreens fielded last April said they would consider a different store if it had a pharmacist trained in areas that met their specific needs.Steering shoppers to a pharmacist that will better meet their personal needs is sort of a reverse-engineered aspect of the retailer’s ongoing store reinvention effort, which is fueled by “advanced analytics” to identify optimal product assortments for each location, according to Magnacca.“This is another way we are advancing community pharmacy by helping people connect on a more meaningful level with Walgreens pharmacists in their neighborhood, whether that is speaking their native language or providing clinical information specific to their health condition,” said Kermit Crawford, the retailer’s president of pharmacy, health and wellness, in a media release announcing the program’s launch.The fully integrated effort also included TV and local radio spots, along with shelf talkers, posters, A-boards, circular features and ads in the retailer’s monthly coupon book. A variety of digital and social media activity rounded out a campaign representing what Magnacca calls “integrative” marketing.The TV spots, which also depicted pharmacists physically throwing caution to the wind to reach shoppers in need of assistance, aligned with the P-O-P materials to offer a preview of Magnacca’s promise to make “the whole television/media/store experience … less siloed.”And some of the campaign’s digital marketing components reflect Walgreens’ efforts to, as Magnacca puts it, “have all our bases covered” when it comes to communication channels.Shoppers who checked in at stores via location-based mobile applications Foursquare, Facebook Places or Yelp and then posted the event to Twitter received direct-reply messages such as, “Want personal health advice from a Walgreens pharmacist? No appointment – or counter – required”). The messages contained links to the Find Your Pharmacist tool. LocalResponse, New York, developed the mobile effort.The chain also spread the word through AOL-owned Patch.com, a fledgling network of hyper-local “community news” websites that spans 23 states and Washington, D.C. The chain’s logo appeared front and center on the homepage of each site, alongside a “Patch Hometown Partner” designation and the “We’re going above and beyond” message. Specific stores in each community were identified, with links to more information about the location.Store-specific landing pages hosted by Patch.com carried an informational Q&A from Walgreens designed to help consumers build a relationship with a pharmacist via social platform Sharecare. “The local targeting that Patch.com offers on a national level fits well with the localization that’s behind our Find Your Pharmacist program,” a Walgreens spokesperson told the Institute.Similarly, Walgreens launched an “Answers” applet on its Facebook page that lets users ask health-related questions through Sharecare or chat online with a pharmacist.Online chats may not quite have the same impact as a simulated ceiling drop, but they do make the same point about the store- and customer-specific direction Walgreens is taking. Shoppers, watch your heads.

Getting the Drop on Walgreens

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