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ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCHOnline Open Access publishing platform for Management Research

Copyright 2010 All rights reserved Integrated Publishing association

Research Article ISSN 2229 3795

ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH 337

Study on Customer Perception of Planet Health Retail Pharmacy Chain Store

at Ahmedabad CitySunil Patel, Himanshu Barot, Keyur Darji

Assistant Professor, K.J. Institute of Management, Vadasma, [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Retailing, it is an emerging trend in the India. It is a proven fact that in India the retail industryhas become the 2nd largest employer after agriculture. The Indian retail market is the 5 th largestretail destination globally. It is estimated to grow from the US $ 266 billion in 2005 to US $ 435

billion by 2010 and US $ 587 billion by 2015. The entry of organized players is changing theface of the pharmacy business, which today is highly fragmented. The retail side too has been

posting high growth rates. The total retail pharmacy market will be growing at a rate of around15 per cent, while organized retail pharmacy will be seeing a growth of anywhere between 35and 40 per cent, according to Technopak Advisors. Besides, the high margins between 25 and35 %. This study was conducted to understand the functions of planet health & customer

perception towards planet health. The study was carried out at Planet Health Retail Store(Ahmedabad) where the survey has been conducted through questioner. The conclusion of thestudy shows that as far as CRM and store ambience is concern, they are managed properly, whilethe product range should extend vertically and horizontally. While testing the hypothesis, it wasfound that the customer perception towards planet health was on the positive side. Thus the

management is making the right moves towards better customer satisfaction.

Keywords: Retailing, Organised, CRM Customer Relationship Management

1. Introduction

The word retail has its origin in French word retailer and means to cut a piece off or tobreak bulk. The term Retailing is defined as All activities involved in selling goods andservices directly to final consumers for their personal and non business use. In simple terms, itimplies a first hand transaction with customer. Retailing involves a direct interface with thecustomer and the coordination of business activities from end to end right, from the concept ordesign stage of a product or offering, to its delivery and post delivery service to the customer.The industry has contributed to the fastest changing and dynamic industries in the world today.

Planet health which is a chain pharmaceutical store situated at Gujarat is very much concernabout their customers and trying to provide them maximum services through membership

program and through other way also. Planet health regularly & consistently tries to improve their

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basic functions by modifying them and try to make their customers perception positive towardstheir organisation.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Study of Pharmacy Retail Chains in India

2.2 Apollo Hospital Pharmacy Chain

Apollo Hospital, Chennai has set up a chain of 60 pharmacies under the following categories:

2.2.1. Hospital pharmacies: These are pharmacy stores attached to the Apollo Hospital. Theyare presently operating at Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi. The pharmacy stocks around 6,000 Rx

brands/presentations. Almost the entire business comes from Rx products. During the currentyear, additional hospital pharmacies were planned to be set up at Apollos upcoming and new

hospital projects at Coimbatore, Madurai, and Chennai.

2.2.2. Clinic pharmacies: These are pharmacy stores attached to an Apollo Clinic. The Clinic pharmacies are attached to Apollo Clinics at Chennai, Hyderabad, and Vishakapatnam. The pharmacy attached to Apollo Clinic, T. Nagar, Chennai has a daily sale of Rs. 60,000. Theinterior of each pharmacy changes from place to place depending on the availability of spacealthough one common feature is that the furniture is made of white cedar wood finish. All clinic

pharmacies are open round the clock, seven days a week.

2.2.3. IOC pharmacies: Apollo has entered into an agreement with IOC, the countrys largestpetroleum retail company, to set up around 100 pharmacy stores at their petrol pumps. About 20

such stores have been set up in Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Gandhinagar.Under the present arrangement, the Apollo Hospital is required to pay to the IOC a lumpsumamount of annual lease rent based on the location of the respective petrol pump and 4 per centroyalty on the sale of its products.

2.2.4. Stand alone Day and Night Pharmacies : Apollo operates around 45 stand alone day and night pharmacy stores. The size of these stand alone stores, depending on the location andits residential/ commercial potential, could vary from 150 to 350 sq. ft. Most of the stores in thiscategory, however, are close to 150 sq. ft in size. The standalone locations could include hightraffic areas like the airport. All these stores operate on 24x7 format.

2.3. Muthu PharmacyMuthu Pharmacy operates a chain of 14 pharmacy stores in Chennai. The main pharmacy locatedin Pursawalkam area of Chennai has a daily turnover of Rs. 65,000 (70% Rx products and 30%

Non Rx products). This outlet is considered to be the largest sized pharmacy outlet in SouthIndia. The company stocks approximately 8,000 pharmaceutical (Rx plus OTC) products. The

pharmacy offers counselling and door delivery facilities to its customers. It proposes to startquick delivery service with two independent telephone lines to book telephonic orders from itscustomers. It does not believe in offering discounts to its customers as it feels that the customers

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are most interested in timely availability of genuine products and quick delivery of requireditems at the customers doorstep.

2.3. Tru Value

Tru Value was a pharmacy chain promoted by TDPL (Tamil Nadu Dadha Products Ltd., a

company taken over by Sun Pharma Ltd., Mumbai). The chain operated around 15 pharmacyoutlets in Chennai. The outlets used to offer Rx products at an across the board discount of 10

per cent and hence ran into trouble with the local trade (distributors + retailers). The tradeassociation stopped supplies through its members and the chain was forced to close down its

business.

2.4. Other players set to enter

Pantaloons: Formerly into garments, tied up with Manipal Cure & Care.

Reliance Retail: Diversifying from other fields, tied up with Himalaya Drugs

Cipla Pharmaceuticals

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited

Fortis Healthcare and

Wockhardt Group

Model Pharmacy

3. Research Methodology

3.1 Objective

To study the customer perception for Planet Health retail pharmacy chain store at Ahmedabad.

3.1 1 Sub objectives

To study store layout and product categories compared to conventional store

To study promotion of OTC products like medical devices, pet range, health and dietsupplements and baby care compared to conventional store

To study the impact of 3 P membership (Planet Health Privilege Program) concept tonon member customers.

3.1.2 Research Design & Methods

Type of Research: Exploratory Research

Population / Universe: Members as well as non members customers of Planet Health.

Sample Size: 100 individual customers

Method of Sampling: Non probability and Convenient Sampling

Research instrument

Primary Sources: Feedback form (Questionnaire)

Secondary sources: Websites, books and magazines

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3.2 Company Scenario

Forget kapda aur makaan. After food and groceries, Indians are said to be spending themaximum amount on healthcare and beauty. According to healthcare industry estimates, the total

private expenditure on health is increasing by 27 per cent per annum.

Planet Health, a chain of Retail Pharmaceutical store was set up in 2001 by Mr. Rohit Patel(father of Mr. Ankur Patel), Managing director, Sagar Group of Industries (SGI), Ahmedabad,Gujarat, India. The operating philosophy of the business was to provide best service, world classambience and shopping. Planet Health is providing genuine products to their customers. Itstagline is Planet Health Because Life is Precious.

3.3 Corporate Philosophy

The cornerstone of corporate philosophy of SGI was that the law of the land, even though it

meant much higher investments in men and materials, must be followed in letter and spirit. Thiswould imply that, for its new venture, among other things, SGI would also have to hire qualified

pharmacists, provide air conditioning and refrigeration facilities, arrange stand by storage and power supply equipment, and sell all merchandise on bills. This would definitely increase thecosts of running the stores compared to the existing drug store format.

3.3 Operating Philosophy

The operating philosophy of the business would be to provide best service and world classambience and shopping experience of pharma products to the customer. This was translated into:

Genuine and properly stored products.

Health related merchandise including monitoring devices.

Multiple products and brands including Ayurvedic products.

Counselling for proper administration of products especially medicines & for shopping

Home delivery

24x7 services

Tie up with doctors and other paramedical services

Loyalty programme for a long term relationship.

3.4 Promotion

Promotion is done by giving discounts, membership schemes make people aware about spuriousdrug, by holding different health campaigns. Through promotion planet health clearlydifferentiate itself with other medical stores. Planet health always tries to make people aware of

planet health, their services, medicines, different schemes etc.

Following are the different ways in which planet health makes promotion.

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Cool & dry concept (know your medicines):customers are made aware of their medicines, atwhat temperature drug should be kept and in what condition. Most medicines should be kept

below 25 degree but most of people & even medical stores are not aware about that. Improperstorage of any product may reduce its potency or affectivity.

Planet health Privilege Programme (3p): This is membership programme for customer. Themore the customers spend more discounts they get. Not only customer earns more discounts onincreasing purchase but as 3P member also become entitled to a lot of other privileges and

benefits. Following are the examples.

Health card: The health card besides carrying membership particulars, display health andemergency related information to help you obtain emergency help, if so required.

3P privilege partner discount: customers can avail discounts of up to 50% on medicalservices charges levied by some of the well known hospitals, nursing home, consultantdoctors, pathology labs, health & fitness club, etc. of the city.

Free health check ups and counselling camps : Planet health organizes such camps from

time to time. 3P members can attend most of them free of charge. Special offers, surprise gifts, lucky draws.

Free home delivery & maintenance of prescription history.

Following are the other different ways of promotion style.

Planet health put posters to promote their products. They also distribute pamphlets of product awareness, their storage, and genuine medicines. There are posters of devices,sugarless ice creams and many wellness products.

They held camps to promote their store, their product and main purpose is to give customers

better services in cheaper way. Store layout also play major role to promote products.

Special discounts for medicines given to customer to regular customer considering aspreferred customer. Discovery coupon given to new 3P members to attract them.

4. Data Interpretation

Table 1: About Store decor or ambience

Excellent(1) Good(2) Average(3) Bad(4) Poor(5)

43 56 1 0 0

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Figure 1: Store decor/ ambience

Interpretation: Almost customers are satisfied with the store decor and ambience. 56% ofcustomers arrive at store feel good & 43% feel excellent regarding store decor and ambience.Majority of the customers feel good but not excellent. Still there is an opportunity for the

management to improve in store decor or ambience.

Table 2: About Store Layout


37 62 1 0 0

Figure 2: Store Layout

Interpretation: Here almost all customers feel good or excellent about store layout. They caneasily find the displayed products that they need. Most of them feel good about store layout andnot excellent. So, management should focus on the layout as well.

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Table 3: About the product range available in the store


26 40 31 2 1

Figure 3: Product Range

Interpretation: 40% of customers are satisfied with product range available in planet health.But many customer feel average or below average regarding product range. So, planet healthshould increase product range, new products should be made available in every planet healthstore as soon as possible. Company should satisfied maximum customer to stay in thiscompetitive market.

Table 4: About Product availability in the store


3 26 45 23 3

Figure 4: Product Availability

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Interpretation: Customers perception towards product availability in planet health store ispoor. 45% of customers feel average and about 26% feels bad or poor about product availability.Management has to take some action to reduce this level by making the new products availableas soon as possible.

Table 5: About attitude of the staff working in the store


53 46 0 1 0

Figure 5: Staff Attitude

Interpretation: Customer perception towards staff was positive. The customers like theway the staff interacted and helped them. Some customers were not satisfied with staff

attitude. Lack of knowledge about the product may be the reason for that.

Table 6: About product knowledge of the staff working in the store


5 30 56 9 0

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Figure 6: Product Knowledge of Staff

Interpretation: customer felt that product knowledge of staff was average or belowaverage. Many times staff was not able to answer customer questions regarding the usageof the product. Management have to provide some sort of training programme to improve

staff knowledge.

Table 7: About the billing & payment system of the store


53 40 7 0 0

Figure 7: Billing and Payment

Interpretation: Billing and payment system of planet health is excellent. According to study,

53% of customers felt excellent about billing and payment system. Few customers were notsatisfied with billing and payment system as they need to wait during the rush hours.

4.1 Hypothesis Testing

Null Hypothesis H0: < 3 positive perception towards planet health.Alternate Hypothesis: H: 3 negative perception towards planet health

4.1.1 Interpretation

The observed value is more than the critical tabulated value. So we fail to reject the nullhypothesis. So, over all perception of customer towards planet health is positive.

4.2 Findings

The ambience of the store is good as per the survey.

The store layout is very convenient and the customer finds the display attractive to findthe products they need.

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The product range is considered to be average by the customer and is at par with the otherretail pharmacy stores.

Product availability is a issue of concern for the store and the customers have to leave thestore without buying the product due to non availability.

The training provided to the staff, in terms of handling customers, is adequate as thecustomers are found to be satisfied with the service of staff.

Product knowledge of the staff is inadequate to make the customers understand aboutusage of product.

The billing system is good but there need to be two billing counters so thatduring the rush it reduces the waiting time of the people.

5. Conclusion

The customers feel that the store ambience and decor are up to the mark and does not requirechanges in it. The store layout is such that the customer find easy to search for the products andalso is their way through it. The product range should be expanded both horizontally andvertically to cater the needs of customers. The staffs are adequately trained in handlingcustomers and customer relationship which provides an edge to planet health over other retailstore. But the staff needs to be trained in the technical part that is creating understanding aboutvarious products and its usage. The billing and payment system is optimised for reduce waitingtime. While testing the hypothesis, it was found that the customer perception towards planethealth was on the positive side. Thus the management is making the right moves towards bettercustomer satisfaction.

6. References

1. M. Ramesh kanna & Dr. B. Senthil Arasu (2010) A study on changing Consumers Behaviourtowards online marketing with special reference to pharmaceutical products Consumer

Protection & Globalisation,pp 8 12

2. Abhinandan K Jain, Piyush Kumar Sinha, Preshth Bhardwaj (Oct. Dec. 2006) Planet Health,Volume 31, Viklpa (IIMA), pp 93 97

3. Kotler Philip Keller Kevin Lane, Koshy Abraham, Zha Mithileshwar (2008),MarketingManagement: A South Asian Perspective, 13/e, Pearson Education Ltd., New Delhi

4. Ken Black (2008),Business Statistics, 4/e, Chapter no. 9,Wiley India Pvt. Ltd., NewDelhi

Biographical Notes

1. Mr. Sunil Patel had received M.B.A. degree from HNGU, Gujarat. Presently he isworking as Asst. Professor at K.J. Institute of Management, Vadasma, Gujarat 382708.

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He has 5 years of industrial and 2.5 years of academic experience. His area of interestincludes RM, QTA, MR and SDM, Email: [email protected]

2. Mr. Himanshu Barot had received M.B.A. degree from HNGU, Gujarat. Presently he isworking as Asst. Professor at K.J. Institute of Management, Vadasma, Gujarat 382708.

He has 2 years of industrial and 2.5 years of academic experience. His area of interestincludes FM, SAPM,CMA and RM, Email: [email protected]

3. Mr. Keyur Darji had received M.B.A. degree from HNGU, Gujarat. Presently he isworking as Asst. Professor at K.J. Institute of Management, Vadasma, Gujarat 382708.He has 4 years of industrial and 1.5 years of academic experience. His area of interestincludes SM, IMC and MM, Email: [email protected]

Disclaimer

Concepts, views, interpretations, analysis shown and expressed in this article are the views of

the authors as an outcome of their research/ review work, Integrated Publishing Associationhave no responsibility in the views and expressions published in this article, for any queriesauthors can be contacted over the mail id provided.

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