For the Tomahawk Leader
TOMAHAWK – The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) last week announced that Tomahawk Pharmacy had received the 2022 NCPA Innovation Center Excellence (NICE) Award for Best Marketing Promotion.
NCPA said this is the fifth year of the NICE Awards competition, which was created to “recognize pharmacies for their efforts to enhance their value, promote their services, and better serve their communities.”
“Congratulations to Tomahawk Pharmacy for earning the NICE Award for Best Marketing Promotion,” said NCPA Innovation Center President Kurt Proctor. “The NICE Awards spotlight the best of community pharmacy branding and marketing – the innovations and redesigns that have made promotions more effective and patients’ experiences more rewarding. We’re glad to recognize the Tomahawk team for its Good Bugs promotion, a creative way to help keep area kids at their healthiest.”
“The probiotic market took off several years ago as consumers recognized that overall good health is synonymous with gut health,” NCPA stated. “When the pandemic started two years ago, probiotics became more popular as people wanted their immune system to be in tip-top shape as a line of defense against COVID-19.”
NCPA noted that Tomahawk Pharmacy has been offering products from Pharmed Wellness, its own private line of probiotic supplements created by pharmacy owner Tyler Stevenson.
Acacia Flory, Tomahawk Pharmacy’s retail development specialist, said the pharmacy developed a Good Bugs campaign to help people understand the benefits of Pharmed Wellness’ berry-flavored chewable, with an eye toward marketing the probiotics for kids.
“We created colorful ads featuring probiotic microbes and a back-to-school theme for the early fall,” Flory stated. “We then brought in some books and plush (toys) that fit the probiotic campaign to create an eye-catching end-cap with merchandise that is easily bundled into a sale.”
With parents concerned about their kids’ health going back to school in a pandemic, Tomahawk was able to highlight its probiotic products to promote their immune health, NCPA said.
“We marketed it as a great way for your kids to start the day,” Flory said. “It was really helpful to our community. They were coming in and checking it out and talking to us more and figuring what else we could do for them.”