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2012-09-07

Brand salience of OTC pharmaceuticals

Senior Lecturer Richard Owusu and colleagues have published a research article titled “Brand salience of OTC pharmaceuticals through package appearance” in the International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, (2012),Vol. 6, Issue 3.

The background is the increasing liberalization of pharmaceutical product marketing in various over-the-counter (OTC) and self-service formats. At the same time competition is increasing from generic products. Pharmaceutical marketers have to adopt innovative marketing approaches to survive in the changing environment.

The research problem is the impact of extrinsic product cues on customers in Finland, USA and Ghana. The three countries differ in consumer culture and the nature of the health infrastructure, but have recently had a similar development in the liberalization of pharmaceutical marketing.

The study was done using an experimental conjoint analysis approach in which respondents in the three countries evaluated packages of two pharmaceutical products with different extrinsic cues.

The results showed differences and similarities in the impact of the packaging product cues across the three countries. Differences and similarities were also detected across the two different, but related, product types. The study found that the impact of product cues is contextual, varying across the samples and product types. The results provide conceptual implications and highlight that medical marketers should recognize the varying impact of salient cues on consumers’ product preferences and choices.