Your customers are closer than ever. But their first stop may be further away.

Nine in ten people in England live within a 20-minute walk of a community pharmacy and 68% of the UK public trust pharmacists - second only to GPs.¹,²

Those are advantages most brands would spend years and significant budgets trying to build. Yet there is still a disconnect between the role pharmacy can play and the role people understand it can play.

The scope of community pharmacy practice is growing. Pharmacy First has expanded the role community pharmacy can play in managing common conditions, including assessing patients and, where appropriate, supplying certain prescription medicines without the need for a GP appointment. From this autumn, in time for flu season, that role is expanding further.³,⁴

At the same time, the routes people use to navigate their health are multiplying. Search engine and social are well established, while AI is quickly becoming part of the mix. Among 16- to 25-year-olds, 34% already use ChatGPT for health guidance and 30% use TikTok.⁵

Those figures don’t tell us that people are choosing technology instead of pharmacy. They do, however, show that people now have more places to turn when a health question arises. Being nearby, trusted, and capable doesn’t automatically make you top of mind when someone needs help.

For us at Brand Champions, that’s where the marketing opportunity lies.

It’s not simply about promoting more services but understanding what would make someone think of their pharmacy at the moment a need arises. Do they know what you can help with and do you know where they’re looking for answers instead? Understanding their needs and behaviours can help pharmacies become more visible and useful in those moments.

A strong marketing strategy might stretch across one pharmacy or an entire network, but how it comes to life shouldn’t look the same everywhere.

A pharmacy serving a community of young families may face different health needs, behaviours, and opportunities from one serving an older population. The services people need, the questions they’re asking, where they look for answers and even the local competitive landscape can change from place to place.

For pharmacy groups, that doesn’t mean creating a different marketing strategy for every branch. It means having a clear strategy that can flex intelligently around the communities each location serves.

Every postcode is a different opportunity.

At this year’s Pharmacy Show, Brand Champions is offering pharmacy businesses a free local opportunity check. We’ll take a fresh, outside look at the people around your pharmacy, what they’re looking for and where you’re visible today before identifying one or two opportunities worth exploring.

Want to see what we see? Show us your postcode.

EXPLORE YOUR LOCAL OPPORTUNITY

Sources

 ¹ Maidment I et al. The Positive Pharmacy Care Law revisited: an area-level analysis of the relationship between community pharmacy distribution, urbanicity and deprivation in England. BMJ Open, 2025. 91.7% of people in England lived within a 20-minute walk of a community pharmacy in 2023.

² STADA Health Report 2025 / Thornton & Ross. Survey of 2,001 UK adults, part of a study of more than 27,000 adults across 22 European countries. 68% of UK respondents reported trusting pharmacists “quite well” or “completely”.

³ NHS England, Pharmacy First. Community pharmacies can complete episodes of care for seven defined common conditions, including supplying appropriate prescription-only medicines where clinically indicated without a GP appointment.

⁴ NHS England, Patients to get quicker treatment for migraines, acne and 3 other everyday conditions at pharmacies, September 2026. Pharmacy First prescribing is expanding to five additional conditions at participating prescribing pharmacies from autumn 2026.

⁵ Semble, Beyond the search bar: From AI curiosity to connected care, 2025. Survey of 2,000 UK patients; among 16- to 25-year-olds, 34% reported using ChatGPT and 30% TikTok for health guidance.