The American economist Edgar Fiedler appropriately warned that “he who lives by the crystal ball soon learns to eat ground glass.” Fiedler aside, chain drug retailers may want to consider a series of future commercial opportunities emerging from what — at least at times — might appear to be the disruptive chaos of today’s market.
Most consumers today are connected to digital technology through personal computers and, increasingly, mobile devices. They use smartphones more than three hours a day for communication, entertainment and shopping, and their online time and activities are increasing. Our Connected Health Consumer survey focused on finding out how consumers’ use of digital/mobile for general purposes (e.g.,
Marketing is among those operations undergoing a fundamental change in the digital world. Today’s consumer has materially different expectations about how she wants to buy products and services and about how she expects companies to market them to her. In such a dynamic environment, chain drug store executives need to make digital marketing a priority.
Consumer-centricity in retailing is often cloaked in words about putting the consumer at the center of our business, but what will happen when consumers are the focal point of their own business? The use of social media changes the dynamic and puts consumers at the core of their own brand. Bad customer experiences, often the
The Wild West never lacked for traveling salesmen pushing the newest elixir or snake oil to solve all your medical maladies. Fever? Take this! Stomach pains? Here’s the cure! As the health and medical fields matured, however, the playing field was leveled as trusted information became available through doctors, textbooks and other channels. The snake
Many retailers today are immersed in building multichannel capabilities. The multichannel wave has led to many good initiatives, making it easier for customers to interact with retailers across distinct channels, including fast-growing mobile channels. For example, A.T. Kearney’s Future Role of Stores research indicates that although 92% of retail sales still occur via traditional channels,
