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Why Aren’t Drugstores Blogging?

posted by Russ Ain @ Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - 1:02 PM
You’re driving home from work with a pounding headache. It’s been bugging you all day. Pulse…pulse…pulse. Even worse, you know that your aspirin supply at home has dried up.

What is the first thought on your mind?
“Stop at a local drugstore and buy some.”

CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid. They're all at the forefront when all you need is a quick fix for a cold, headache, or stomach pain. They’re convenient, relatively small, and well laid out.

Since these are such staple retail stores, it begs the question: Where’s their presence in the blogosphere?

Right now, the answer is a resounding nada, zilch, zero.

Do they feel that they are too busy? Well, 79% of the Fortune 100 are finding time – why can’t these three?

Maybe they haven’t looked at the two big benefits of initiating a corporate blog.

  1. Reputation Management – Every big, national brand has dissidents. When a minor problem isn’t resolved, complaints arise. And if these nit-pickers have a well-read blog or powerful message forum presence, it can snowball into more blog posts, tweets, and messages. Example? Kevin Smith vs. Southwest.

    A corporate blog is a great forum for damage control by publicly responding to complaints that consumers may have or announcing new store features.

  2. SEO – There is a great deal of competition for drug stores. Not only are the big three competing, but virtually every supermarket sells drugs and has a pharmacy. Not to mention online stalwarts like Drugstore.com.

    Creating a blog provides unique content for search engines to crawl and for other bloggers to link to. The combination of the two further promotes the brand and overall organization.
To Walgreens, CVS, and Rite-Aid execs – please review the above and engage your online marketing staff to establish a stronger online presence. Your bottom line will thank you.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Shaden said...

Your kidding me right?

First, drugstores fall into that category of retail where there is really no differentiation - when you need aspirin you generally go to the most convenient place to buy it. I doubt that anyone would say "Geez, I really like what Walgreens had to say in their blog about foot insoles the other day, I think I'll go 5 miles out of my way to buy shampoo" Like gas stations, they all essentially offer the same goods and services with a different logo on the front of the store.

2nd - Let's seriously think about who's gonna read a Drugstore blog. What could they possibly write about that would capture the average person's interest on an ongoing basis? The latest bunion treatments? Advances in toothbrush technology? Aren't we all just a little busy to read the latest blog post on eye shadow techniques from the cosmetics specialist at Rite-Aid? Just stop and ask yourself, would you read a drugstore blog? Hell, when was the last time you even went to a drugstore website?

3rd - Reputation Management - The Kevin Smith/SWA is an unfair example. Last time I checked CVS didn't limit obese customer to certain sections of the stores. And let's say they did. Is the mere presence of a blog going to mitigate an act that would cause such an outrage? A blog didn't make Southwest immune from Kevin's Smith tirade and I didn't immediately go to SWA's blog to follow the unfolding drama.

4th SEO? I am a big fan of SEO. But I don't Google "hemorrhoid treatment" to see which drugstore comes up first in the SERPs. At best, I read about it on WebMD or go to the closest drugstore talk to the pharmacist. A blog plays absolutely zero role in my drugstore purchases.

Finally, re: "To Walgreens, CVS, and Rite-Aid execs – please review the above and engage your online marketing staff to establish a stronger online presence." To Drug store execs - do you really want my business??? Focus on this:
1. Be close to my house
2. Be open 24 hours
3. Don't make me wait to check out
4. Fill my prescription in 5 minutes or less.
5. Don't overly inflate your prices - there's a Walmart/Kroger right across the street.

I don't need you to blog, I don't care if you tweet, I could dare less about your online presence.

February 24, 2010 at 2:59 PM  
Blogger Russ Ain said...

Hi Shaden, thanks for reading our blog as well as the great comments.

First pt - I certainly agree that most people don't care what drugstore they go to. However, when you have places like Walmart and Target who can heavily undercut the big three AND they sell a multitude of other products too, its a tough sell for me.

Second pt - Agreed again. They would have to work hard to make the content quite compelling for it to garner readership. But if they were to make it interesting, it would provide great ammunition (and links) for the other reasons I mentioned - ORM (online rep mgmt) and SEO.

Third pt - There's always the potential for problematic sites/blogs to arise in the SERPs (ex. curecvsnow.org). If the ORM is handled effectively, they should be able to power positive spin within search results and social media. I think HP did a credible job combating their recent digital cameras being touted as "racist".

Fourth pt - I don't think Drugstore.com would be in business if Googlers weren't after their products. All of the big three stores are doing e-tail, so incorporating SEO and being at the top of the SERPs is key for them to generate sales.

"Finally" pt - I, too, would love if they'd heed those 5 edicts! Regarding the pricing though, their target market is a 7-eleven with decent shampoo which will always supersede the potential for lower prices.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond!
Russ

February 24, 2010 at 4:34 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

2nd & 4th point: I would read a drugstore blog if it showed up in a Google search result. Why did I lose my sense of taste when I was on a certain medication? (And no, it wasn't hemorrhoid or bunion treatment, thanks for asking!!) I couldn't find the answer online and still don't know why. A good source of info might elevate one of these drugstore chains above the commodity status.

February 24, 2010 at 5:02 PM  
Blogger Russ Ain said...

Bob, that would be the ultimate goal - for a drugstore to create an authoritative enough blog that it draws significant traffic away from the WebMDs and Wikipedias.

Thanks for reading!
Russ

February 25, 2010 at 9:35 AM  

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