Personalized Health | CVS. The Brand for Sick People

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Well, at least that is how I think of them.

My earliest memories of CVS/pharmacy (or Consumer Value Stores as they once were called) are of trips with my parents picking up prescriptions or cold medicine. We may have picked up some incidentals while we were there but our mission was to make ourselves or someone in our family feel better. As an adult, I still shop at CVS for prescriptions and cold medicine although my incidentals have expanded to oral care, hair care and contraception. Not much has changed in my perception of the CVS brand in my 40 odd years. I still equate CVS to feeling ill (CVS == Sickness).

However, I recently had the opportunity to participate in a focus group to evaluate new vitamin displays at several locations. Although the displays were far from remarkable, one aspect deserves mention, a Vitamin Guide. The Vitamin Guide was central to the display and appeared to contain any information one would typically ask a nutritionist or dietitian. But unless I already knew what it was that I wanted, I don’t think it would inspire me to buy a new product that I may have needed. So, as essential as the Vitamin Guide is to the redesign of the display, it failed to cause me to further engage with or change my perception of the CVS brand.

Question: What would change my perception of CVS from drug pusher to health advocate?

Answer: Personalized Health

In recent years, there’s been quite a bit of effort (and investment) focused on personalized health care. For around $400, companies like 23andMe will tell you how your DNA affects your health. Although I find this service intriguing, I have been reluctant to fork over the cash to a web site for it. Now, if I could drop in to my local CVS and get this information as well as consultation afterwards, I guaranty that my perception would be changed. And think of all of the vitamins and health products that they could sell to me.

So, instead of investing in display designs that relate more to “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic” than they do to altering perceptions or increasing sales, CVS could use these funds to partner with companies like 23andMe and provide higher value services than their competition.

(Important Note: I once again found myself at CVS looking for cold medicine. This time, after the clerk checked my identication to make sure that I wasn’t on my way to the meth lab with my single package of Advil Cold & Flu medicine, I steered clear of the contraception and opted for a bag of Sour Patch Kids.)