Does brand equity play a role on doctors prescribing behavior in emerging markets?

ABSTRACT

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the fastest growing Industry in the world. The relationship between pharmaceutical marketing and prescribing behavior (PB) is always a debatable issue. The research aims to identify the role of brand equity (BE) on THE PB of doctors. This is a primary research in which structured questionnaires with 21 multiple choice questions are used to collect data from 261 respondents. Research reveals that BE plays a vital role in influencing the doctor's prescription decision in India. Most of the doctors showed loyalty to branded generics due to easy availability, low cost, and satisfactory results on drugs. The niche therapeutic domain practice is the only exception wherein availability of branded generics is limited. The doctors found to be more inclined towards promotional literature, including clinical trial results, which gives an opportunity to revisit the old marketing strategies and tap the untouched therapeutic segments. It would be worthwhile to Pharmaceutical and Healthcare industry to curb the unwanted expenditures spent on the indecent marketing strategies to a certain extent. This research made an attempt to explain the influence of BE on doctor's PB through application of theory of planned behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• Brand equity
• prescribing behavior
• country of origin
• pharmaceutical marketing
• promotion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. R. K. Srivastava, Ph.D. is a Prof & HOD, Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education, Mumbai. He has delivered lectures at USA, Denmark, Thailand and South Africa. He was country head for ROWA.

Dr. Jitendra Bodkhe is manager International regulatory affair at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals.