One might think that the only connection that exists between Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner and the pharmacy industry is the Viagra he consumes. When asked if he takes a lot of it, Hefner said, “I don't take a lot, but I take it when it's called for.”
One doesn’t know if Hefner has made a difference to the sales of the otherwise blockbuster drug. But there is something that the Indian pharmacy industry can learn from the 89-year-old businessman.
This morning, I woke up with an acute backache, which got worse upon my reading in the newspapers that chemists across the country will keep their shutters closed for the whole day, marking their protest against the e-pharmacy business. “We have decided to go for nationwide strike on October 14 to protect health of general public as well as interest of our 8.5 lakh chemists in 30 states,” newswire agency PTI quoted JS Shinde, President, of All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggist. This means that in in Tamil Nadu alone (I reside in Chennai), 40,000 pharmacies will remain closed.
While one might agree with Shinde’s contention that: “The threat of drug addiction in youth looms large due to easy availability of drugs through internet and irrational use of medicines”; that said, it’s about time that the offline pharmacy stores adjust to the virtual reality facing them.
All other segments of the retail industry, including the big names such as Big Bazaar, are tweaking their strategies accordingly.
Hefner’s play
Hefner would nod in agreement with such a strategy. On Monday, October 12, a leading American publication broke the news that Playboy will be covering up its women. From March 2016, the magazine will no longer feature nude women. Tof further explain, according to this Washington Post’s article , “ Playboy called it a “redesign,” a “reimagined Playboy magazine (that) will include a completely modern editorial and design approach.”
The story further stated that it was an inevitable decision. “ Playboy executives admitted the magazine had fallen prey to the very animal founder Hugh Hefner helped unleash more than half a century ago: America’s demand for porn, now in the digital age.” Playboy ’s CEO Scott Flanders told another American paper, “That battle has been fought and won. You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”
It could be a wise decision as Playboy ’s closest competitor Penthouse didn’t read the changing market conditions as well. Hefner now plans to push Playboy ’s articles as the main attraction, not the centre spreads. In the past, the magazine has carried short stories by literary heavyweight Margaret Atwood and interviewed personalities such as Martin Luther King, Jr.
It now wants to do more of this.
Online pharmacy
Pharmacists are right about the lack of regulation over sale of drugs online. Some of the frontline e-commerce companies have been found selling prescription drugs. But this will change with the Government set to introduce guidelines for the same.
Instead of complaining, the pharmacy industry should check how to survive the onslaught from their online peers. Already, e-commerce companies sell health supplements online. There are start-ups that allow consumers to buy drugs online.
Like the other retailers, the pharmacists should also use technology to become more competitive, and where it makes sense, become partners with online companies to grow business. The neighbourhood kirana stores did the same, and have survived the big daddies of offline retail and continue to thrive despite the competition from e-retailers.
Now it is the turn of the pharmacy stores to rise to the occasion.