TORONTO - Canada's biggest drug store chain has banded together with independent pharmacists in hopes of rallying consumers against Ontario's plan to end professional allowances in a bid to bring down drug costs.
But marketing experts say skeptical consumers won't buy the chain's attempts to take on the cause of the "little guy" and the ads won't have much of an effect on swaying consumers to oppose the cuts.
Shoppers Drug Mart (TSX:SC) bought full page ads in Wednesday editions of large newspapers encouraging consumers to visit a website -- sponsored by a coalition called Ontario's Community Pharmacies -- and send messages to Ontario's premier and health minister to reverse the province's decision.
Patrick Gossage, the chairman of public relations firm Media Profile, who has worked on behalf of generic drug companies, says the campaign is an attempt to tug at the heart strings of consumers about losing their pharmacies.
While that may be true of independent druggists, Gossage said it is hard to believe that Shoppers, which have basically evolved into mini department stores, make a majority of revenues from the pharmacy.
"From a PR point of view I really wonder whether the public is going to have its sympathy aroused from one of the biggest retail chains in Canada. That's a very tough sell," he said.
"They want to make it sound like they're for the little guy and for them to paint themselves as the little guy is a real challenge for the PR firm that's working for them."
Pharmacists have vehemently opposed Ontario's planned funding cuts since Health Minister Deb Matthews announced them last week as part of a plan to bring down the cost of generic drugs by at least 50 per cent.
Shoppers has said the move will force it to cut jobs, store hours and services.
They said the regulated professional allowances pharmacies have been receiving offset a funding gap between the $7 dispensing fee consumers pay and the $14 it costs to provide services associated with filling the prescription.
Shoppers spokewoman Tammy Smitham said the ads were taken out to combat misleading information in the media regarding the proposed funding cuts.
There is a 30-day review period, in which the public is invited to share their input with the government. Matthews has indicated her willingness to listen to feedback, but has also expressed her commitment to pass the legislation as it is.
Gossage said the government will likely succeed if Matthews keeps pushing the savings to consumers.
"Saving money on drugs will trump corporate issues...and cheaper drugs for you and I will, which will reduce our plan costs will trump everything if that part of the message could get out more effectively."
David Soberman, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Business said the winner of the public relations battle will come down to who consumers -- who have a natural distrust of both government and corporations -- trust the least.
"People tend to react to things that seem to be more immediate and more close by so the potential of my Shoppers Drug Mart now only being open till 8 o'clock at night...these are things that make people very worried," Soberman said.
Meanwhile, the government's argument that it would save taxpayers $500 million a year in savings from the Ontario Drug Benefit plan is more distant and indirect, he said.
"That will tend to have less impact on them than my neighbourhood pharmacy's going to be closed."
