The Marketing Mix of LJ Pharmacy.
Service marketing is a specialized branch of marketing that focuses on promoting and selling
services rather than tangible products. LJ Pharmacy is a great example for service marketing
as they don’t manufacture the product, but rather put emphasize on creating strong customer
relationships by understanding their needs. Its like a supermarket, but for medicine related
items.
Product
The product in service marketing refers to the intangible services offered to customers.
Understanding the customers’ needs and tailoring the services to meet those requirements is
essential. The service should provide value, solve a problem, or fulfil a need for the customer.
In LJ pharmacy’s case, the product element of the marketing mix attracts customers by
providing convenient, effective, and efficient services. For example, sales personnel are
trained to assist shoppers in finding the medicine they need at the company’s stores. Not only
that, there’s also a pharmacist that provide health consultation located at every single branch,
making it a lot more convenient for customers to get professional opinion.
They also carry a full range of over-the-counter medications(Also known as pharmacy
medicine) and front shop products for all of your healthcare needs, including GSLs(General
Sales List).
Price
Being a new player in the market compared to giants like Watsons and Guardians, LJ
Pharmacy decided on implementing the cost leadership marketing strategy in the attempt
from gaining a competitive edge against other competitors. In addition to providing low price
on the products, LJ Pharmacy also offers free lifetime membership that provides promotions
such as birthday promos, cash back and other benefits.
Place
Place, or generally knows as distribution, is very important for SMEs for multiple reasons.
First of all, SMEs generally have limited resources, so one mistake could lead to disastrous
outcome. In the case of LJ Pharmacy, this problem is even more obvious, as LJ Pharmacy
practice the direct selling method, which is great for the personalized shopping experience it
offers but is also a very demanding investment. LJ Pharmacy obviously made the right
decision, with multiple branches strategically located near residential and commercial areas,
making it convenient for people to visit before or after work or during weekends.
Promotion
Promotion is the final step in the marketing mix. A weakness of the service industry is that
services are easier to replicate than products, making it hard to maintain a competitive
advantage. Therefore, this leaves the brand itself to be the differentiating factor between one
service and another. Promotion refers to advertising and marketing materials an organisation
uses to showcase its brand to its target market.
LJ Pharmacy implemented multiple strategies to promote their brand. First of all, the
company advertises in websites and social media platforms like their Facebook page. On the
other hand, sales promotions in the form of special deals and discounts are used to attract
more consumers. They also hosted multiple health fair with free health screening and
promotions at different locations that eventually promotes the brand to the public.

Berger, K., et al. (2021). Assessing Community Pharmacy Workflow in the Face of
Increasing Prescription Volume. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association,
61(3), e149–e155.

Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong. (2018). Principles of Marketing, Pearson Education
Limited. e79-e82.