New York, NY — As marketers, we’re always asking one basic question: What do people want right now? What will break through all the other noise and make their lives a little easier or a moment more delightful?
Those answers are always changing. Technologies, experiences, products, and media shift people’s expectations. They create trends. The brands that act on those trends early have the opportunity to build experiences the moment before people realize they need them. They can make new connections, shift behaviors and gain both bottom line and reputation returns.
Pfizer tapped into shifting expectations to recreate Viagra.com.
You might have called the trend America Prime. Or the Amazonification of America. The ubiquity of online shopping options from big brand names had created a new level of trust in internet retail. Many consumers who had previously feared typing their credit card information into a dot-com where suddenly a lot more concerned about finding the best deal the internet had to offer. Why stop at the store you know when an even better price (maybe with a free shipping offer!) could be just a few clicks away? We were quickly becoming used to having nearly anything we wanted delivered to our doorstep in 48 hours flat.
Pfizer started to see this trend change its customers. Of course, pharmaceuticals can’t be bought online the same way shoes can, but increasingly-sophisticated illegal online pharmacies made it look like they could be. In fact, one third of the annual 20 million online searches for the brand took potential customers to sites selling counterfeit versions of the drug.
Here’s where the numbers start to get really crazy:
- 25% of men who think they’re taking Viagra are really take a counterfeit drug. That’s a lot of lost customers.
- 75% of the men who buy counterfeit Viagra have actually talked to their doctor about the drug.
- And, three quarters of those have a real prescription.
This significant niche of men wasn’t going online out of embarrassment about ED or even to avoid the doctor. They were going on to get a better deal or to avoid going to the in-person pharmacy.
So, Pfizer went with them.
In early 2013, it launched an online store at Viagra.com.
Targeted search and banner ads were designed to intercept men with ED and help introduce them to these trusted resources. Even the language of the navigation sets the right tone (Buy Real Viagra):
Using CVS’s fulfillment engine, patients are able to fill or renew a prescription by having it ePrescribed to CVS, mailing in a paper Rx, or – even easier – having CVS call their doctors directly.
The site also checks their insurance and helps ensure the best price possible for each customer.
The new numbers have reportedly been very compelling. Some that Pfizer is sharing publicly include the first week impact: over 1000 orders; 14% from former Viagra users – likely those people who were already trying to reinvent how they buy prescription drugs.
Posted by: Leigh Householder
