Have you ever watched a television commercial or seen a magazine advertisement for a nonprescription medication that claims to be pharmacists’ most-recommended brand?
Well, if you have, you can be sure it’s true.
Only products that have come out on top
in Drugstore Canada’s annual Survey on
OTC Counselling & Recommendations
are allowed to make this claim and use
the distinctive #1 logo.
A request to participate in Drugstore Canada’s 2008 Survey on OTC Counselling & Recommendations was emailed to a random sample of Canadian pharmacists, and made available for online participation, between September 24 and November 21, 2008. Responses were received from 1,178 pharmacists, for a response rate of 10%. The margin of error is +2.4%, 18 times out of 20.
In the fall of 2008 we surveyed Canadian pharmacists for their opinions and practices in counselling patients on nonprescription medicines. As well as asking them about how they counsel patients, we also asked pharmacists about the nonprescription products they most often recommend to patients.
Each respondent was asked to name the brands that they personally recommend in over 70 popular nonprescription product categories. The questions were open-ended—no brand suggestions were made. Every response was tallied up by our research department to establish a score for each brand mentioned, and a ranking for each category to determine the brands most recommended by pharmacists.
Only the brands that receive the most mentions in their categories may rightfully promote themselves as “Pharmacists’ #1 most recommended brand.” To find out which brands are the most recommended by pharmacists, turn to the charts on the following pages.
Drugstore Canada extends our thanks to the research department of Rogers Media’s Business and Professional Publishing Group for producing and managing this annual survey.
