The Brand is Everything
So you have purchased your new pharmacy, hired your staff and filled your shelves. Now how are we going to get people in the door?
Most people tend to use a scatter approach to marketing. Maybe they throw an ad in the local newspaper or some spots on their favorite radio station (because if I listen to it then everybody does, right?) . Or maybe they buy a big ad in the yellow pages. And then nothing happens. Hey, you spent money and time on this, now why doesn’t it work?
Because you didn’t do the heavy lifting that has to happen before you can ever hope to market successfully. And it starts with figuring out who you are or in marketing speak – WHAT IS YOUR BRAND.
5 Steps to Marketing a New Pharmacy: The Budget
The Budget
It is obvious why we should determine a marketing budget, yet few people do it, especially in small business. Why is it so important?
First, if you put a budget together, it will force you to plan in advance which marketing activities you should implement. Now remember, this is a guide because we certainly don’t want to continue to do activities that don’t work.
Which brings us to the second reason to have a budget in place – This will allow you to better track which activities are most effective. I have no problem with supporting the local soccer team or girl scout troop, but often times we are spending more in these categories than we realize and a change in allocation may be called for. A large yellow pages ad may have been effective in the past, but times are changing and the amount you allocate to this should probably change as well.
It is interesting to note that people who have been marketing for a long time tend to spend more money than people who are new to marketing. Why? Because done right, it makes a big difference.
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