In the Philippines, pharmacies have been a staple of the Filipino’s way of life. These establishments offer products ranging from medicines to other needs as well. In most pharmacies, they also sell candies, baby milk, toiletries, skin care, drinks, and other snacks. With the number of branches and variations of these pharmacies that exist in the Philippines, Capstone-Intel Corporation looks into the public perception of these establishments.
Capstone-Intel is a high-impact research company that uses innovative research technologies, tools, and methods to convert data and information into breakthrough insights and actionable intelligence outputs. It is committed to helping its clients solve problems, find solutions, grow markets and constituencies, build reputations, navigate risks, manage crises, and be the country’s leading private research and intelligence agency.
Background
A number of these pharmacies have been in the Philippines for the longest time. One of the oldest started in 1945. Mercury Drug store, one of the longest-existing drugstores, has been around for around 77 years. Its competitor, Southstar Drug, boasts a relatively longer lifespan, with them having first opened their doors eight years prior. Since then, other drugstores have been entering the market in order to dilute the monopoly that Mercury initially had. These include Watson’s, The Generics Pharmacy, and Generika Drugstore, to name a few.
Methodology
From August 20, 2023 to November 20, 2023, Capstone-Intel utilized its social listening tools in order to scan publicly available Facebook accounts for their posts that mention the following pharmacies: Mercury Drug, Southstar Drug, Watson’s, The Generics Pharmacy, and Generika Drugstore. The data gathered had no specific demographics attached to them, and no personal data was tracked.
Facebook performance
Capstone-Intel Corporation’s social listening tool was able to gather the following data for the different pharmaceutical companies.
For Mercury Drug, there was a total of 200 posts found on Facebook. Among these posts are a total of 843 comments and 4,958 overall shares. It also garnered a reaction count total of 6,116. The reaction breakdown is as follows: 3,196 (52.3 percent) Like reactions, 2,562 (41.9 percent) Love reactions, 25 (0.4 percent) Haha reactions, 324 (5.3 percent) Wow reactions, 4 (0.1 percent) Sad reaction, 5 (0.1 percent) Angry reactions. All of these combined accumulate an engagement score of 5,563.9.
For Southstar Drug, a total of 183 posts were scanned. These had 545 comments, 731 shares, and 6,254 total reactions. These can be broken down as 3,698 (59.1 percent) Like reactions, 2,425 (38.8 percent) Love reactions, 9 (0.1 percent) Haha reactions, 106 (1.7 percent) Wow reactions, 13 (0.2 percent) Sad reactions, and 3 (0.1 percent) Angry reactions. These make up for an engagement score 1,410.9.
Next would be Watson’s Pharmacy. The social listening tool was able to gather only 41 posts for this brand. Among these were 623 comments, 547 shares, and a reaction count of 3,265. These are as follows: 1,176 (36 percent) Like reactions, 1,847 (56.6 percent) Love reactions, 181 (5.5 percent) Haha reactions, 54 (1.7 percent) Wow reactions, 3 (0.1 percent) Sad reactions, and 4 (0.1 percent) Angry reactions. These led up to the total engagement score of 935.8.
Moving on would be Generika Drugstore, with 311 posts scanned. Among these are the 252 total comments, 1,756 total shares, and a reaction count total of 10,182. These can be broken down into 7,146 (70.2 percent) Like reactions, 2,975 (29.2 percent) Love reactions, 2 Haha reactions, 57 (0.6 percent) Wow reactions, 1 Sad reaction and 1 Angry reaction. This would merit an engagement score of 935.8.
Finally, the Generics Pharmacy. Under this brand, there were a total of 85 unique posts on Facebook. Among these posts are 139 comments, 254 total shares, and a reaction count of 1,622. This can be broken down as follows 668 (41.2 percent) Like reactions, 514 (31.7 percent) Love reactions, 436 (26.9 percent), 2 (0.1 percent) Wow reactions, 1 (0.1 percent) Sad reaction, and 1 (0.1 percent) Angry reaction.
Dominant reaction, top stories
For Mercury Drug, the top post under this keyword is from the Facebook page is from the page Nails and Toes. Currently the main reaction to this post is that all 19 reactions, specifically the 19 Love reactions.
For Southstar Drug, the top post revolves around a photo contest that they are hosting in cooperation with Scott’s vitamins. For this post, there are 206 (71.8 percent) Like reactions, 78 (27.2 percent) Love reactions, and 3 (1 percent) Wow reactions.
For Watson’s, the top post is from Maybelline New York’s Facebook page regarding their promo. In this, their post was able to garner 162 (47.8 percent) Like reactions, 139 (40.9 percent) Love reactions, 37 (10.9 percent) Wow reactions, and 2 (0.6 percent) Sad reactions.
For Generika Drugstore, the top post is an advertisement from the Facebook page of Asianskymall. This post was able to garner 1,895 (79 percent) Like reactions, 492 (20.6 percent) Love reactions, and 12 (0.5 percent) Wow reactions.
Finally, for The Generics Pharmacy, the top post is from Yedda Romualdez’s official Facebook page, reporting the financial assistance being given to the residents of Quezon City. This was able to garner only 109 (57.1 percent) Like reactions and 82 (42.9 percent) Love reactions.
