Longs study questions consultants' impact

Drug Store News, Sept 10, 1990

Longs study questions consultants' impact

LOS ANGELES -- A six-month study conducted in five Longs drug stores found that posting pharmacy consultants in OTC aisles had a significant impact on customers' purchase decisions but didn't significantly increase overall OTC sales.

The Over-the-Counter Drug Consultation Project, which was the cooperative effort of the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy, Longs Drug Stores and Bergen Brunswig, spanned November 1988 to May 1989 and involved 18 fourth-year Pharm.D students. These consultants spent between 30 and 40 hours a week, in six-week rotations, at five Longs stores in southern California and recorded a total of 2,000 "encounters," or consultations. There were also three control stores.

One objective of the project was "to get a sense of whether a shopper's purchase decision would change because of consultation, and people did change their purchasing behavior. That has not been seen in other studies," said Michael Nichol, assistant professor of pharmacy administration, economics and policy at USC's pharmacy school.

A main finding, he said, was that nearly 15 percent of the 2,000 encounters ended with the patient deciding not to purchase an OTC product, either because the customer decided the item wasn't needed or because the consultant recommended that the customer see his or her doctor first.

Another key finding was that one out of every four encounters ended with the buying of a different OTC product than they had expected to buy.

These findings suggest that a significant number of people "could make a better OTC selection than they have been making," Nichol said.

"We found there is a market for OTC information," he continued. "What we did not discern to the degree we would have liked is the impact on a drug store's bottom line."

Sales for 10 OTC categories were tracked over the six months at the five experimental stores compared with the three control stores, and the only statistically significant (at the .01 level) increase in sales occurred in the cough/cold category. There was no overall increase in OTC sales at the test stores. While strong effects were also seen in eye/lens care category sales, the increase was not statistically significant, Nichol said. (The other eight OTC categories were home remedies, analgesics, skin/acne, laxatives, antacids, vitamins, first aid and miscellaneous.)

Consultation may have affected cough/cold sales, Nichol said, because "there's a lot of confusion among shoppers about cough/cold medications--about what a product will do for a person."

There were about 500 encounters apiece in three of the experimental stores, and between 200 and 250 in the other two. In the stores with more consultations, customers were more likely to choose an alternative product after encounters. Also, consultations tended to last longer and cover more substantive issues.

Generally, consultations took three to five minutes, Nichol said. Consultants walked the OTC aisles and often initiated conversations with customers, although sometimes patients approached them, or a Longs employee referred a question to the consultant.

Another component of the study was a patient survey, which was given to each customer who talked with a consultant. About 37 percent of patients responded to the survey, which they mailed to Bergen Brunswig, and 10 to 15 percent of respondents wrote specific comments, all positive, Nichol said.