The number of drugstores in the country is consistently increasing due to the change in health care demands of the
Filipino, primarily due to the aging population and increased incidents of disease due to unhealthy lifestyles. Given the
demand and the potential market, many companies are seizing the opportunity and opening drug stores. This imposes
threats to the existing drug stores, such as SouthStar Drug, though they are one of the largest drugstore chains in the
country. Competition among the industry due to the increasing number of players in the market affected the sales and
performance of the existing players, thus drug stores such as SouthStar Drug need to formulate and execute their business
strategies efficiently and effectively.
In this research paper, the researchers aim to analyze the business strategies SouthStar Drug is implementing in
order to remain one of the largest players in the industry. This will serve as an evaluation tool for their strategies both
internally and externally. This study used a random sampling technique to help analyze the business strategy of SouthStar
Drug Inc. The researchers surveyed 50 customers and 10 employees from the branches of Southstar Drug around the area
of Science City in Munoz.
It was found that the external factors affecting the strategies of SouthStar Drug are the following in terms of political
factors: the Senior Citizens Act (20%), economic factors: inflation rate and supply and demand of medicines, sociodemographic factors: new diseases, technological factors: CAD/CAM and CIM (advanced process), environmental factors:
natural calamities, and legal factors: consumer protection. The level of competition of SouthStar Drug against its main
competitors in terms of Porter's Five Forces of Competitive Analysis is medium in terms of bargaining powers of suppliers
and consumers meanwhile high in terms of threats of substitutes and new entrants. Also high on rivalry among
competitors. The critical success factors observed by SouthStar Drug compared to its competitors are: brand image,
market share, promotion and advertising, technology and innovation, employees, management, pricing, quality of
products, distribution, and corporate social responsibility. Among the mentioned success factors, employees are the most
important. Using different business models, the internal factors affecting the formulation of the strategy at SouthStar
Drug are the offering of a one-stop shop (strength), brand positioning (weakness), population growth (opportunity), and
emerging new drugstores in the market (threats). Based on the IE Matrix of SouthStar Drug the most effective in
maintaining a competitive advantage is market development.
Keywords :
Drugstores, Consumer Protection, Strategies, Sales and Performance.