Workshop Offers Emotional Experience A&D


	June 2007
	Workshop Offers Emotional Experience

This editorial website includes personal
observations by Masa Eto on an array of topics,
from world affairs to business. Mr. Eto is the
managing executive officer of the International Division at A&D Company Ltd.

“Wow, this is not going to be as simple as I thought.” was the first impression I got when we began working on the redesign of the showcase at a pharmacy shop. We had thought out the new design for the showcase prior to our visit and had prepared new tag lines to help consumers easily select a model for their specific needs. We were also focusing on making the showcase a lot more appealing for customers so we prepared a range of necessary POP materials to replace the old ones. Yet as soon as we began working on our assignment, we realized we had a lot more to do.

The pharmacy shop was located on the outskirts of Moscow facing a main street along which stood a number of similar looking, gray concrete apartment buildings reflecting the Soviet Union era. There were no other stores in the neighborhood and the pharmacy looked quite old and offered little aesthetic appeal to customers. This was despite the fact that the area was convenient for shopping, we observed a lot of people, mostly elderly women, coming out of the apartment buildings. This is a typical pharmacy shop, which has served the needs of the people and has survived many changes in recent times.

All medical business managers from the entire A&D Group assembled at A&D RUS on April 23 for a strategic medical planning meeting. Among other things one objective was to study what A&D RUS has done to achieve the number one position in the consumer blood pressure business in Russia and to learn from their successes firsthand by visiting various shops.Mr. Yuri Grotov, President of A&D RUS, suggested that we have a workshop as part of the agenda in which we visit pharmacies and redecorate the showcase and product layout. Therefore, we decided to form three teams, with each visiting a different pharmacy shop for redecoration or redesign of their showcase. Each group thought out the showcase design and product layout by working together with A&D RUS graphic designers, who responded so positively to our requests and stayed in the office till late at night to create actual tags, POP’s and other materials we came up with.


Working with our designer		Showcase layout plan

Julia was our team leader and the only Russian among us. Even though the shop pharmacists had been informed by Julia ahead of time about our visit and its purpose, they remained in the store watching in bewilderment as we communicated in English and Japanese and began tearing up the materials pasted on the showcase.

		As soon as we began removing the old, worn materials from the showcase, we realized that we had to begin with the basics and clean around the showcase unit. So we pushed the showcase out and swept the floor and cleaned the glass panes. The pharmacists knew which models sold best, yet Julia had to go into the store room to find these models for display and we also had to remove old models with incorrect price tags from the shelves. At that time the shop pharmacists began to understand the purpose and seriousness of our visit so they brought us rags and cleaning materials in order to help us to redecorate the showcase, and we all worked together as a team, the shop pharmacists and Julia’s team members. It took a lot longer to finish the job than we imagined. We realized that the showcase can easily become a mere storage space for products with no clear message for shoppers and that it requires a lot of careful consideration to create a display which will catch the eye of customers and offer an easy and clear message. We all relearned the importance of seeing and working at the marketplace where our customers see our products. All of us made the realization that we should look at the situation with the eye of a consumer from every possible angle, and this gave us a stronger and more emotional attachment to the products and marketing materials, and ultimately highlighted one of the most important elements in marketing.One more benefit of this experience was the fact that we had the opportunity to communicate with pharmacists and to develop a rapport with them, via verbal and non-verbal means.


Finishing touch for decoration

				Whether or not our redesign of the showcase was a success, we do not yet know. We will receive a scorecard from our Russian colleagues showing us whose team’s redesign work has increased sales. Independently of what the scorecard may tell us, it turned out to be a rewarding and emotional experience when I heard from Julia that the shop pharmacist asked if we would come back to the shop and redecorate the whole shop next time.
Redecorated Showcase		Team Julia and Shop Pharmacists

You may address any comments concerning this editorial by email to Mr. Eto