February 15, 2011
By marketing4health in Case StudiesCase Study: Canadian Healthcare Social Media
A few days ago, I visited the websites of all the Canadian drugstore chains that were listed in Wikipedia. I looked for their Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube and any other social media and mobile app logos. I only looked at channels and profiles set up by the corporate head offices of Canadian pharmacy chains. Online drugstores which do not dispense Rx prescription drugs were omitted from the analysis. During my search, I saw many independent pharmacies and even individual chain stores who were active on various social networks, but I did not include these as part of this post.
Here are some statistics as of February 14 2011, based on an overview of the drugstore chains’ websites . It is possible that some drugstores have social profiles that are not listed on their corporate site homepage, therefore are not noted in this report. If you know of any that should be added to the list, just let me know in the comments section:
- 7 drugstore chains have at least 1 social media component listed
- 16 drugstore chains have no social media component
- Neither of the 2 online drugstore chains have a social media component
- 5 drugstore chains have a FaceBook page
- 4 drugstore chains have a Twitter account (5 if you include PharmaPrix)
- 1 drugstore chain has a YouTube channel
- 2 drugstore chains have a blog
- 2 drugstore chains have an app
- Shoppers Drug Mart FaceBook page has a strong lead in number of ‘likes’ and a moderate lead in number of followers on Twitter.
- London Drugs is the most ‘listed’ Canadian drugstore chain on Twitter
- London Drugs has the highest Klout rating on Twitter (The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.)
- Pharmaprix was the 1st to join Twitter, but their account is inactive … so in my opinion, this does not count. Therefore, the runner-up, London Drugs, was the 1st Canadian drugstore chain to join Twitter and to be active on this network.
| Association |
FaceBook
# of Likes* |
Twitter
Stats* |
YouTube
Stats* |
Blog |
App |
| Canadian Pharmacists Association |
Yes
221 |
Yes
99 followers
Listed 8 times
24 updates
Klout: N/A
Joined Mar 11 2010
Last post Aug 30 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Canada Drugs |
Yes
3,629 (a huge jump from just 2 weeks ago, where they had 2,813 community members) |
Yes
324 followers
Listed 2 times
37 updates
Klout: 26
Joined Aug 19 2009 |
|
Yes |
|
| Familiprix |
Yes
581 |
|
|
|
|
| Jean Coutu |
|
|
|
|
Yes
Prescription refill for entire family
|
| London Drugs |
Yes
1,751 |
Yes
2,535 followers
Listed 197 times
6690 updates
Klout: 55
Joined Jan 2 2009 |
Yes
37 subscribers
72,035 upload views
Joined Jan 2 2009
|
Yes |
|
| Pharmaprix
(the Quebec equivalent of Shoppers Drug Mart) |
|
Yes, sort of
25 followers
Listed 1 time
No updates
Joined Oct 30 2008
The site is completely inactive. It lists the actual Pharmaprix.ca website as its URL, but other than that, it seems completely unofficial.
|
|
|
|
| Shoppers Drug Mart |
Yes
18,326 |
Yes
3,282 followers
Listed 171 times
756 updates
Klout: 42
Joined Apr 25 2009 |
|
|
Yes
Weekly flyers, points tool, prescription refill, promotions and offers, store locator |
| Uniprix |
Yes
2,184 |
Yes
577 followers
Listed 32 times
331 updates
Klout: 29
Joined Oct 20 2009 |
|
|
|
* As per February 13 2011 research
[caption id="attachment_3358" align="alignnone" width="150"]
Creative Commons license, Flickr[/caption]
So which Canadian Pharmacy Chain is the most "social" online? It is a tight race between London Drugs and Shoppers Drug Mart. Both are very active and engaged, with large followings and innovative campaigns. We could argue that both organizations are head to head in this social media race. But if I had to choose just one, then I would suggest that London Drugs has a slight lead for the following reasons:
- Both organizations are engaged with their followers and are responding to posts by others, but London Drugs is doing so at an incredible rate on Twitter. In fact, London Drugs has posted on Twitter almost 9x as often as Shoppers Drug Mart.
- But who cares if London Drugs tweet a lot. Volume does not mean quality. But in this case, London Drugs have proven the level of quality of their engagement on Twitter with their higher Klout rating. This needs to be taken with a grain of salt though, as this figure can fluctuate quickly depending on engagement activity within a certain period of time.
- London Drugs has a successful YouTube channel. This is not only strategically clever from an 'online search' perspective, but it is also a great way to showcase your products.
- The #1 reason why I am naming London Drugs as the most social Canadian Pharmacy chain vs. Shoppers Drug Mart, is because London Drugs serves the Western portion of Canada only, whereas Shoppers Drug Mart serves the entire nation. So what? If you look at the amount of social media effort put in on a 'per potential client' basis, London Drugs is by far the leader. However, one might argue that their ROI may be weakened as a result.
Regardless of all the points mentioned above, Shoppers Drug Mart definitely takes the lead when it comes to its FaceBook activity (including FaceBook advertising - I see their ads on my FaceBook profile all the time), as well as its mobile marketing. I noted that Shoppers Drug Mart has not yet updated their FaceBook page to the new version which was launched a couple of days ago. My guess is that this is because they invested a lot of money in their tabs, and the new version minimizes the tabs on the left column. As for their new mobile app, it is a great tool to enhance customer loyalty.
[caption id="attachment_3371" align="aligncenter" width="616"]
Screenshot taken Feb 15 2011[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_3368" align="aligncenter" width="636"]
Screenshot taken Feb 15 2011[/caption]
What about the Canadian Pharmacists Association? Are they leading the way for their members?
Well, I would not say that they are "leading" the way, but they are at least involved. As you saw in the table above, the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) is experimenting with social media. They have a CPhA page on FaceBook called "CPhA New Practitioners" and, as the name suggests, is targeted to new pharmacists. There is even a clear description of their target market on the page, under the "Info" tab: "A new practitioner is an active member of CPhA who has held a pharmacist license in Canada not greater than five years."
The CPhA FaceBook strategy to focus on new pharmacists is emphasized by their group description: "As a new pharmacy graduate, your position in the workforce is unique. This group is for new practitioners to discuss the successes and challenges you face as you bridge the gap between education and career." The wall posts on the CPhA FaceBook page seem to be written by community members themselves.
CPhA is also on Twitter . Their strategy on Twitter seems more broadly focused on supporting Canadian pharmacists in general. Their bio reads as follows: "The Canadian Pharmacists Association advocates for pharmacists and supports its members to advance the profession and enhance patient outcomes."
Based on their level of activity and engagement, it appears as though the CPhA is still in the experimentation stage with social media. That is a good starting point, but as Canadian pharmacists and drugstores increase their activity with social media, the CPhA should consider elevating their involvement as well in order to share and engage with their target market. I look forward to seeing how the CPhA social media activities evolve in 2011 and in future years.
Which Canadian pharmacy chain would you have chosen as the "social media" winner? Let us know who and why in the comments section below.Read more
The largest clump of negative mentions seemed to be on the Shoppers Drug Mart FaceBook page,. These were posted as comments to Shoppers Drug Mart's announcement of the giveaway:
Here is what Shoppers Drug Mart did so far to counteract the negative comments:
Shoppers Drug Mart used their FaceBook page to address the negative feedback. Their statement suggests that this promotion may not be right for everybody, but at no point do they hint at the fact that they made an error in judgement when they agreed to this fast food promotion.
It appears as though Shoppers Drug Mart was using their FaceBook page as their main platform to respond to the critiques. They are even redirecting people within other networks onto their FaceBook fan page. I noticed this when they responded to my Twitter post about my dislike of their current campaign by redirecting me to their FaceBook page. Since there is no URL for the post itself, but rather for the entire page, I had to scroll down until I found their statement. As new posts are added to the wall, this statement will disappear under "older posts'.
Here are a few benefits of using FaceBook as the platform to respond to negative mentions:
1) you can quickly respond to the critiques and existing fans will have access to this information quickly,
2) you can easily engage your followers and get them to provide their insights, and
3) the statement will quickly disappear as it scrolls down, thus will rarely be seen unless somebody looks at older posts.
There is a downside though. If somebody who critiques the campaign was not a member of FaceBook, they would have difficulty accessing the organization's response. But considering there are over 16 million Canadians on FaceBook, I think this is a reasonable platform to reach a Canadian audience. I would suggest that Shoppers Drug Mart also post their statement as a comment below the 'giveaway announcement' post which contains all the negative mentions. That way, everybody who wrote a negative mention would be notified that Shoppers had indeed responded to the issue.
My personal opinion is that this was a very bad marketing idea which got lucky because it did not get the public backlash that I expected it would get. Considering the fact that the online mood was mostly neutral/positive, I don't blame the PR folks for writing a 'light' response to the issue. I do give them credit though for addressing the issue, and for asking the public for input for future campaigns. Now hopefully they will listen to the feedback.
Do you believe that Shoppers Drug Mart did a good job in responding to their upset clients? Tell us if you would have done anything differently:
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That's right: Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix , Canadian pharmacies that promote healthcare, are holding a McDonald's restaurant promotion. Sounds absurd, but it is true. Shop and buy a certain value of goods in order to receive gift certificates to the fast food restaurant. Note that Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is the licensor of full-service retail drug stores operating under the name Shoppers Drug Mart® (Pharmaprix®in Québec).
Details on the promotion are found below:
The promotion also shows up on their 'Contact us' page. Ironically, right underneath the McDonald's promotion, there is a link to a guide to health and wellness during the cold and flu season as well as the Motherisk program for pregnant women (on the home page) and a promotion for Tree of Life in support of women's health (on the 'Contact us' page).
I have never ranted on my blog before, nor have I ever intentionally pointed out poor marketing tactics. No marketer is perfect, but this is just too unreal to disregard. How can reputable drugstores like Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix talk about healthcare on one hand and then help promote eating at a fast food restaurant afterwards. Now don't get me wrong. I eat at fast food restaurants on occasion, so this is not an anti fast food post, although I would certainly not promote it.
What I am upset about is the fact that a trusted Canadian healthcare organization is actively promoting an activity that is clearly not a healthy choice. There is a substantial disconnect between Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix' message and their current fast food promotion. The pharmacy is sending out the wrong message to its consumers, and in my opinion, it risks losing credibility as a result, at least for the short-term.
Tsk tsk Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix! In your "About us" page, you talk about "accoutability". You didn't live up to this promise with your current McDonald's promotion. Please consider cancelling this promotion and stay focused on helping Canadians improve their health. We would all like to live a little longer and a little healthier, and we need healthcare organizations like yours to remind us and motivate us to do the right things to be healthy.
What do you think Pharmaprix should do as their next step? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
