Revolutionizing the Retail Pharmacy Business With IPharm

Change what pharmacy shopping means to customers by creating an elevated customer experience through scent.

Choose a brand scent and diffuse the fragrance at key points in the retail customer journey.

A refined brand experience and a remarkable on-site customer journey that customers remember and associate with IPharm.

Over the past few years, the pharmacy world has undergone profound changes in the face of regulatory pressure and increased competition from drugstores in the mass market. To overcome these challenges, many independent pharmacies have come together to form group pharmacies to benefit from more attractive purchasing conditions, better supply logistics, and, above all, marketing and merchandising advice. When IPharm sought to refine their group customer experience recommendations, they turned to ScentAir to elevate the pharmacy shopping experience.

Today, modern pharmacies must play on all senses to appeal to consumers. When customers think of shopping at a pharmacy, they often think of purchasing medicines and health care products. So when customers enter a pharmacy, they’re generally mentally prepared to buy only medicines and rarely consider buying parapharmacy products like cosmetics and hygiene products.

When IPharm contacted ScentAir, they wanted to revolutionize that way customers perceived their local pharmacy. To do that, they developed brand standards that apply to each pharmacy in the IPharm group. Standards included logo, merchandising, color of furnishings and music. But IPharm was ready to take the brand to the next level with a branded olfactory atmosphere.

Scent became a key element to promote the customer journey in IPharm pharmacies. Now, when customers enter an IPharm pharmacy, the olfactory atmosphere creates a mental trigger that changes the consumer image of the pharmacy. Creating an olfactory atmosphere in a pharmacy represents a real opportunity in terms of sales too. Surveys carried out by BVA in 2005 have shown that 5–6% of customers will have a different perception of their visit and the point of sale. This can offer tremendous impact in terms of purchasing impulse, visual guidance and management of time spent in-store and can generate significant additional sales.

The IPharm fragrance creates a warmer, more friendly atmosphere. The fragrance heightens the customer sense of well-being within the store, which drives customer purchases of goods other than medicinal products. IPharm worked closely with ScentAir to align their scent marketing efforts with other initiatives. Combining scent marketing with promotions and product highlights along the on-site customer journey makes the pharmacy feel like a place where customers can cultivate their well-being.

After installation, we followed up with the IPharm team. They’ve been delighted with their collaboration with ScentAir! “When we met ScentAir, we were starting the process of transforming the IPharm network into a real brand with all that that entails…The olfactory atmosphere of the point of sale was the missing element to give a real identity to IPharm and distinguish us from the competition,” said the Director of the IPharm network. “We wanted customers to say to themselves, ‘I am going to IPharm,’ not to ‘the pharmacy,’ and to make them feel good. Today the scent that has been recommended to us, and which has been chosen by our customers following a study, is available in 100% of our group, 28 pharmacies in Ile-de-France. We are really delighted with this collaboration and our are customers too.”