GEOMARKETING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE STUDY OF SPA-TIALLY-LOCALIZED INFORMATION ON THE PHARMACY SEC-TOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL MARKET OF SAINT PETERS-BURG

Introduction. Geographic marketing is a decision-making technology in the management of spatially distributed objects characterized by a specific situa-tion and the infrastructure of an area. Objective: to reveal reserves for optimizing the development of the pharmacy market of Saint Petersburg. Material and methods. The objects of the investigation were the information and actual pharmacy resources of Saint Petersburg; population size; a general urban development plan, including functionality zones, passenger traffic, transport and pedestrian accessibility to pharmacies. Geomarketing, mapping, a natural experiment, spatial competition models, and sociological surveys (using a questionnaire) were used. Results. The author established the most important characteristics of the pharmacy market: the number of pharmacies; their territorial distribution; dy-namics of development; the number of inhabitants (potential customers) per drugstore; city-forming factors; the status and forms of competition; passen-ger traffic. She determined the factors threatening the development of the pharmacy market: an uncontrolled rise in the number of pharmacies; in-creased competition; reduced pharmacy profitability; no state regulatory im-pact on the structure and distribution of pharmacies; no strategic plan for the development of the pharmaceutical market. Conclusion. The study of data on pharmacy distribution made it possible to determine the competitive environment and to establish that the majority of urban pharmacies operate in the situation of severe competition. The possi-bilities of optimizing the development of the pharmacy market of Saint Pe-tersburg were ascertained, by taking into account the territorial distribution of pharmacies; guidelines for working out a strategic plan for the development of the pharmaceutical market of the city were elaborated.