No More Late Night Trips to the Pharmacy
Coined a ‘digital pharmacy’ Capsule’s brand strategy is about adding simplicity and convenience to their category. Capsule launched in New York last year and although only based in NYC currently, the business model provides an insight into the future of healthcare, which is becoming increasingly personalized to each patient’s needs.
Capsule’s brand value proposition is based on “five big things that everybody that goes to the pharmacy regularly experiences. One is, the average wait time is an hour. Two is that 40 percent of the time you go to the pharmacy, your medication’s out of stock. Three is that there’s no price transparency. You literally have no idea what your medication’s going to cost before you get to the counter. Four is that it’s really hard to get information about the drug, because most people take that little piece of paper that’s in 3-point font and throw it away. The fifth thing is it’s really hard to ask questions to a pharmacist when you have those questions” says Eric Kinariwala, former investor for Bain Capital and Capsule Founder.
“The way we designed the experience is to be completely digital. So there are two ways you can use Capsule. One is when you’re at your doctor’s office and your doctor asks you what’s your pharmacy, you just say Capsule. We’re already in every doctor’s system. We electronically get your prescription and we immediately text you, and you can schedule a time to have it delivered and enter your payment information. The other way you can use it is through the app or website by just typing in where your pharmacy is and the name of your medication. Then we’ll transfer your prescription over from the other pharmacy and arrange a delivery time.” says Kinariwala.
As with most successful disruptors, the brand was designed from the perspective of improving the customer’s experience. “We spent a lot of time really trying to understand the consumer journey. What is every point of friction and how do we remove them? We designed the business model to make sure that it supports how people actually want to use pharmacies, and we designed the product experience so that it’s completely seamless. Your doctor doesn’t have to do anything special to use it. You don’t have to do anything special. You don’t even need an account to use it, which is amazing. You go to your doctor, tell him Capsule is your pharmacy, and we get it. We built the brand from a visual perspective and a communication perspective to be something that’s super high trust and emotionally resonant. A big piece of the business isn’t just, “How does the brand make you feel? How does it look?” but also, “How does it engender trust?” You’re putting this thing in your body. You’re putting it in your kid’s body.”
Dave Ansett
David is the founder of Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in the creation of high engagement brands that attract the attention of their audience and stand out from their competitors. David has extensive experience working with corporate, retail, food & beverage and entrepreneurial clients. Find out more here
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter
You can check-out the Capsule concept here. www.capsulecares.com