-
Caring as a competitive advantage
It’s 3:28am and our teething daughter’s fever is raging through her shivering body. Her cheeks burn red and our hearts burn with desperation and hope.My tearful wife gives our baby some medicine, and I hear her silent prayers caress every drop entering our sick baby’s mouth. ‘I hope this will help you, sweetheart.’ What was…
-
Marketing Focus – Issues & Insights
Greetings from Edinburgh, Scotland. Throughout Britain, Brexit remains a much discussed but unresolved issue. The journey to the ultimate conclusion will be long, complex, somewhat convoluted and subject to considerable negotiations. There will be costs incurred as a consequence of the referendum. At this time many of those are difficult to identify, quantify and schedule.…
-
Marketing Focus – Miscellaneous Essays on Management & Marketing
BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS – NOW TRANSACTIONAL My, how things have changed. The nature of, and expectations for most business relationships in 2016 are now founded and valued on single transactions, and short-term relationships. Put aside the well crafted vision and philosophy statements about customer-centricity, client-driven and mutually rewarding strategic alliances. Reality is, that for…
-
Another Big Yellow Box Format
For some time the name “Big Yellow Box” has been the unofficial title given to a certain warehouse-type pharmacy group. Psychologically it has been determined that the colour yellow in association with retail environments creates a flow-on effect of “cheapness” or “low cost” in a consumer’s mind. Many major retailers include large slabs of the…
-
A Cautious Introduction of Marijuana into Your Pharmacy
Recently, an Israelis company lodged an application to approve its topical cannabis derived products for sale in the Australian market place. So topical marijuana may be the first entrant in the Australian pharmacy market. Some marijuana products already exist in the retail market place – but they are for external use only. Hemp oil, for…
-
Marketing Focus – Essays on Management & Marketing
HOLD BACK THE TIDE A measure of just how much some union officials are out of touch is the current mass media advertising campaign being conducted by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association in Western Australia. In essence, it is a personal attack on the West Australian Premier, Colin Barnett, and his legislative initiatives…
-
Alliance Boots will Spearhead a Global Onslaught with our Goverment’s Assistance
The news broke last week that Alliance Boots was making plans to enter the Australian market. This appears to be another step in the global concentration of community pharmacy, which Australian pharmacy has been able to withstand. Until now. The original Boots pharmacy group, a UK-based company, was recently taken over by the largest retail…
-
RFID Is a Basic Step Towards Specialist Goods & Services Success
Specialist Retailers like Rebecca Minkoff are benefiting more from service and supply chain agility. Australian specialist pharmacies lag well behind. Today, consumers are more informed, empowered and demanding. As the line between the physical and digital worlds blurs, retailers must differentiate themselves to drive customer loyalty. That means delighting customers and patients beyond expectation while getting…
-
Trust – It Always Has to be Worked at
Pharmacy always appears in national polls measuring trust, and always in the first three, with results for pharmacists, nurses and doctors all highly ranked and all close together. Trust is an elusive concept to quantify and when evaluating, only a subjective opinion can be formed as a measurement. But in human beings it is something…
-
Marketing Focus 1. The Year of the Entrepreneur 2. A Black Star 3. Pursuit of Business 4. Digital-Era Local Marketing 5. The Digital Divide
It’s official. 2016 is the year of the Entrepreneur. Those looking for leadership, financial stimulation and a “leg-up” from government or the mining industry will be disappointed. In both instances for them the cupboard is bare. For the innovators the potential for financial rewards will be substantial – but as rare as genuine entrepreneurs. …