Menopausal Women: Driving Sales, Making Decisions

Drug Store News,  Nov 5, 2001  by Diane West

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Thousands of American women do it every day, and creative retailers help them. Four thousand women a day hit menopause, according to a recently released study from the General Merchandise Distributors Council's Educational Foundation. Seventy-four million will hit it by 2010. Menopause is second only to personal illness in importance and impact to women over age 40, according to MarketHealth president Jim Wisner, author of the GMDC report, "Women's Well Being Merchandising Strategies."

But menopause is only one of many women's health concerns. Retailers need to know that it is these women who make most of the health care and spending decisions, making three-fourths of the health care decisions in American households and spending 2-out-of-every-3 health care dollars.

Women make 61 percent of all trips to the doctor and purchase 59 percent of all prescriptions written, meaning they're apt to be spending lots of time in the drug store. Yet they're not spending all of their time, or their dollars, at the druggist. In fact, drug stores were the most common shopping destination for only one product category--prescription drugs--according to the GMDC study. Over-the-counter medications came in a far second and vitamin supplements came in third. Mass retailers easily beat out drug stores, supermarkets and specialty stores as the place to shop for OTC medications and supplements, according to the GMDC report.

Drug stores, therefore, must seek additional ways to draw in female shoppers and keep them. One low-cost strategy, Wisner and others suggest, is to reach out to local women's health networks and forge mutually beneficial promotional alliances.

The U.S. government considers women's health issues important enough to warrant its own division. The Office on Women's Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, supports national and local programs geared toward improving and researching women's health.

It also supports a network of Centers of Excellence, located at universities and health clinics nationwide. Federally funded projects at CoEs range from prenatal care, bone health, smoking cessation, breast health, domestic violence and the like. There are 15 CoEs and seven community-based CoEs located in most major metropolitan areas in the United States. (A complete list of locations is available at http://www.4woman.gov/COE/links.htm.)

Wisner strongly urges retailers and wholesalers to reach out to their regional CoEs in order to get a better handle on their female consumers' wants and needs. "The CoE's community outreach function, including proactive programs, as well as educational brochures, is where the action is," Wisner wrote in the GMDC report.

Dr. Alice Dan, the director of the CoE at the University of Illinois at Chicago, concurred with Wisner's comments. "At our CoE, we are seeking to build alliances with retailers to help us disseminate important health information to women," she said. "We recognize that retailers are uniquely positioned to provide educational materials to their women customers and to create outreach programs for them. We would be interested in discussing joint programs or use of our educational materials."

Retailers could avail themselves of their regional CoE's educational materials, coordinate or sponsor health fairs, lectures and workshops and host women's health days. CVS has made inroads in this area, Wisner noted, as has Ukrops Super Markets, Medicine Shoppe and Ahold-owned supermarket chains, such as Stop & Shop. Store-based tie-ins using materials from a local CoE could include osteoporosis screenings, cholesterol screenings, massages, pharmacists and dietician Q&As, giveaways, coupon booklets and sale days.

GETTING PHYSICAL MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL

Health professionals and market analysts alike agree that there are three ways to attract the over-40 health-conscious female consumer: physically, mentally and emotionally.

Kenneth Witte, Pharm.D., and Mary Lynn Moody of the Drug Information Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Pharmacy say this concept of "whole health" remains popular among women. (Even prescription drug makers have cued in to this: a major selling point of Duramed/Solvay Pharmaceutical's estrogen replacement drug Cenestin is that it is a "plant-based alternative" to WyethAyerst's Premarin.) The retail view of the whole health concept, according to Witte, "brings together several different product groupings that enhance health, but have not traditionally been managed together in a typical retail organization."

It requires retailers to weave women's well-being products throughout the store and not hide them in a back-aisle labeled "feminine products." Instead of maxipads and menopause, Witte and Moody urge retail drug stores to think more in terms of soy and supplements.

"Functional foods focused at women will become even more prevalent," Witte told attendees of the National Association of Chain Drug Store's August 2001 pharmacy conference, citing soy, calcium and folate-based foods in particular. Phytochemicals and lutein, he predicts, soon will join them on the shelves. The American Dietetic Association has long recognized phytochemicals' potential ability to prevent diseases like cancer and diabetes, and recent university studies suggest lutein may play a role in preventing age-related macular degeneration.