Survey shows that women frequent pharmacy based on convenience, location

WESTERVILLE, Ohio As many as 68% of women choose a pharmacy based on convenience/location, compared with only 48% of men, according to the Winter 2009 Ad-ology Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey released Wednesday.

Women prefer to fill prescriptions at a grocery store pharmacy, with more than twice as many females than males saying loyalty programs and rewards are “very important.”

Overall, 53% of pharmacy customers still prefer to fill their prescriptions at a drug store, versus at a grocery store or online.

“Grocery stores have been successful getting women into their pharmacies,” stated Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “There’s opportunity for other pharmacies to attract this demographic by highlighting convenience and their own rewards programs - especially online.”

Although most customers prefer to refill prescriptions offline, many are influenced by online content. Almost 1-in-5 reported that a store/pharmacy Web site provided “significant” or “some” influence on their choice of which pharmacy to use, with slightly more males than females influenced by store/pharmacy Web sites. Social media also was an influence: positive comments/reviews from other shoppers influenced 20% of customers.

Other key findings from the survey:

• In the last year, nearly half of pharmacy customers 65 years old and older initiated a conversation with their doctor about a specific brand of medication
• Out-of-pocket costs, knowledgeable pharmacists, and availability of generic medications are the most significant factors when selecting a pharmacy
• Hispanics more than other ethnic groups prefer filling prescriptions at drug stores (72.7%)
• Slightly more males than females were influenced by store/pharmacy web sites
• Of traditional media types, newspapers (21.8%) and television (20.1%) had the most influence on pharmacy choice

The Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey is conducted quarterly by Ad-ology Research to study on- and off-line media influence on buying decisions.