Neuromarketing for pharmacies: common courtesy

The conception of Neuromarketing for pharmacies matches with the current industry trend. Retail shops have started to penetrate the market of healthcare and sell not only goods, but also OTC-medicaments and biological supplements. At the same time pharmacies are catching the trend from retail shops. New laws are cutting into the margins of pharmacies and they start to be more focused on marginal products, which people can buy without any prescription from a physician (Phoenix Group, 2018). In this case customers always have a “free will” (Krajnovic, et al., 2012) to decide about purchasing and pharmacies can enhance a profit.

From another point of view, Neuromarketing for pharmacies is not about “buy more”, it’s about “buy in our pharmacy, but not from competitor”. This conception can be realized with agreement with ethics and will let pharmacies make an accent on uniqueness and customer care.

Neuromarketing shouldn't be used for increasing sales of Rx medicaments, must be carefully used for OTC drugs (it depends on the category) and the most suitable for parapharmaceutical products (toothpaste, cosmetics etc.), which customer can buy not only in pharmacy, but in retail shops, as well.

Yulia Prozherina, Ph.D. in Neurophysiology,
MBA, NMSBA member