PRINCIPLES OF
MARKETING RESEARCH
OF PHARMACEUTICAL
MARKET
AND STUDY OF
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Marketing research is the
systematic design, collection, analysis,
and reporting of data and findings
relevant to a specific marketing
situation facing the company.
Marketing research firms fall
into three categories:
Syndicated-service research firms: These
firms gather consumer and trade
information, which they sell for a fee.
Custom marketing research firms: These
firms are hired to carry out specific
projects. They design the study and report
the findings.
Specialty-line marketing research firms:
These firms provide specialized research
services. The best example is the fieldservice firm, which sells field interviewing
services to other firms.
Effective marketing research
involves the five steps:
Gathering Information and Measuring
Develop the research plan
Collect the information
Analyze the information
Present the findings
The second stage of marketing research
calls for developing the most efficient plan
for gathering the needed information. The
marketing manager needs to know the cost
of the research plan before approving it.
Designing a research plan calls for
decisions on the data sources, research
approaches, research instruments, sampling
plan, and contact methods.
Data Sources
The researcher can gather secondary
data, primary data, or both.
Secondary data are data that were
collected for another purpose and
already exist somewhere.
Primary data are data gathered for a
specific purpose or for a specific
research project.
Researchers usually start their investigation by
examining secondary data to see whether their
problem can be partly or wholly solved without
collecting costly primary data. Secondary data
provide a starting point for research and offer
the advantages of low cost and ready availability.
When the needed data do not exist or are dated,
inaccurate, incomplete, or unreliable, the
researcher will have to collect primary data. Most
marketing research projects involve some primarydata collection. The normal procedure is to
interview some people individually or in groups to
get a sense of how people feel about the topic in
question and then develop a formal research
instrument, debug it, and carry it into the field.
Primary data can be collected in five ways: observation,
focus groups, surveys, behavioral data, and experiments.
Observational research: Fresh data can be gathered by
observing the relevant factors and settings.
Focus-group research: A focus group is a gathering of six
to ten people who are invited to spend a few hours with a
skilled moderator to discuss a product, service,
organization, or other marketing entity. The moderator
needs to be objective, knowledgeable on the issue, and
skilled in group dynamics. Participants are normally paid a
small sum for attending. The meeting is typically held in
pleasant surroundings and refreshments are served.
Focus-group research is a useful exploratory step.
Consumer-goods companies have been using focus groups
for many years, and an increasing number of newspapers,
law firms, hospitals and public-service organizations are
discovering.
Survey research: Surveys are best suited for
descriptive research. Companies undertake
surveys to learn about people’s knowledge, beliefs,
preferences, and satisfaction, and to measure
these magnitudes in the general population.
Behavioral data: Customers leave traces of their
purchasing behavior in store scanning data, catalog
purchase records, and customer databases. Much
can be learned by analyzing this data. Customers’
actual purchases reflect revealed preferences and
often are more reliable than statements they
offer to market researchers. People often report
preferences for popular brands, and yet the data
show them actually buying other brands.
Experimental research: The most scientifically
valid research is experimental research. The
purpose of experimental research is to capture
cause-and-effect relationships by eliminating
competing explanations of the observed findings.
Іnterviewing
The following is a list of the different
types of questions in questionnaire design:
1. Open Format Questions
Open format questions are those questions
that give your audience an opportunity to
express their opinions.
2. Closed Format Questions
Closed format questions are questions that
include multiple choice answers.
3. Leading Questions
Leading questions are questions that force your
audience for a particular type of answer. In a
leading question, all the answers would be equally
likely.
4. Importance Questions
In importance questions, the respondents are
usually asked to rate the importance of a
particular issue, on a rating scale of 1-5. These
questions can help you grasp what are the things
that hold importance to your respondents.
5. Likert Questions
Likert questions can help you ascertain
how strongly your respondent agrees
with a particular statement.
6. Dichotomous Questions
Dichotomous questions are simple
questions that ask respondents to just
answer yes or no.
7. Bipolar Questions
Bipolar questions are questions that have
two extreme answers. The respondent is
asked to mark his/her responses between
the two opposite ends of the scale.
8. Rating Scale Questions
In rating scale questions, the respondent is
asked to rate a particular issue on a scale
that ranges from poor to good. Rating scale
questions usually have an even number of
choices, so that respondents are not given
the choice of an middle option.
Consumer Market
Consists of all the
individuals and households
who buy or acquire goods
and services for personal
consumption.
Before business can develop marketing strategies, they must
understand what factors influence buyers behavior and how they
make purchase decisions to satisfy their needs and wants. Buyers
are moved by a complex set of deep and subtle emotions.
Their behavior result from deeply held
values and attitudes; their perception of
the world and their place in it, from
common sense, impulse or just plain whimsy.
There are also several stages through
which the consumer exhibit before
deciding to purchase goods or services.
These includes 5 steps which are: problem
or need recognition, information search,
alternative evaluation, purchase and postpurchase evaluation
Consumer Buying Decision Process
Problem
Recognition
Purchase
Decision
Information
Search
Evaluation of
Alternatives
Post-Purchase
Evaluation
Consumer behavior involves study of
how people buy, what they buy, when
they buy and why they buy. It blends
the elements from psychology,
sociology, sociopsychology,
anthropology and economics.
It also tries to assess the influence
on the consumer from groups such as
family, friends, reference groups and
society in general.
Consumer buying behavior is
influenced by the major factors:
Personal
Psychological
Social
Cultural
Situational
Personal Factors
Age
Life-Cycle Stage
Gender
Health Status
Financial Resources
Housing
Psychological Factors
These are internal to an individual and
generate forces within that influence
her/his purchase behavior. The major
forces include motives, perception,
learning, attitude and personality
Psychological Factors
“Wants”
Based on a want or desire to
have something. Not a
necessity.
Psychological Factors
Motivation:
Motivation is the psychological feature that
arouses an organism to action toward a desired
goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain
goal directed behaviors. For instance: An
individual has not eaten, he or she feels hungry,
and as a response he or she eats and diminishes
feelings of hunger. There are many approaches
to motivation: physiological, behavioural,
cognitive, and social.
Psychological Factors
Motivation
Perception
The process by which an individual
selects, organizes, and interprets inputs
to create a meaningful picture of the
world.
Selective Exposure
Selective Distortion
Selective Retention
Psychological Factors
Motivation
Perception
Learning
Changes in an individual’s behavior
arising form experience
Psychological Factors
Motivation
Perception
Learning
Beliefs
Descriptive thoughts that a person holds
about something
Psychological Factors
Motivation
Perception
Learning
Beliefs
Attitudes
Enduring favorable or unfavorable
cognitive evaluations emotional feelings
and action tendencies
Social factors play an essential
role in influencing the buying
decisions of consumers.
We need people around to talk to and
discuss various issues to reach to
better solutions and ideas. We all live
in a society and it is really important
for individuals to adhere to the laws
and regulations of society.
Social Factors influencing consumer
buying decision can be classified as
under:
Reference Groups
Immediate Family Members
Relatives
Role in the Society
Status in the society
Reference Groups
Every individual has some people around
who influence him/her in any way.
Reference groups comprise of people
that individuals compare themselves
with. Every individual knows some
people in the society who become their
idols in due course of time.
Reference groups are generally
of two types:
Primary Group - consists of
individuals one interacts with on a
regular basis.
Primary groups include:
Friends
Family Members
Relatives
Co Workers
Secondary Groups
Secondary groups share indirect
relationship with the consumer.
These groups are more formal and
individuals do not interact with them
on a regular basis,
Example - Religious Associations,
Political Parties, Clubs etc.
Role in the Society
Each individual plays a dual role in the society
depending on the group he belongs to. An individual
working as Chief Executive Officer with a reputed
firm is also someone’s husband and father at home.
The buying tendency of individuals depends on the
role he plays in the society.
Social Status
An individual from an upper middle class would spend
on luxurious items whereas an individual from
middle to lower income group would buy items
required for his/her survival.
Culture & Subcultures
Cultures
The accumulation of values, knowledge, beliefs,
customs, objects, and concepts that a society
uses to cope with its environment
Subcultures
Groups of individuals who have similar value and
behavior patterns within the group but differ
from those in other groups.
The factors of situational influence:
changes in the macroenvironment, in particular the
economic situation in the country, the level of
scientific and technological progress, change of
ownership forms, etc.;
changes in consumer circumstances, in particular
changes in its financial condition( state), changes
in the price of the product, arising of the
necessity another purchase;
atmosphere at the pharmacy, the actions of other
consumers who may stimulate the act of buying
and oppose its implementation.
In general, the factors which influence
purchasing behavior of consumer can be
divided into two groups: controlled and
uncontrolled by the pharmaceutical
company.
Psychological, personal, social and cultural
factors and situational factors are not
subjected to the control of the
pharmaceutical companies.
Marketing mix аre referred factors
by the pharmaceutical company.
Marketing mix is formed by product,
pricing, sales(distribution) and
communication policies.
Consumer Buying Decision Process
Problem
Recognition
Purchase
Decision
Information
Search
Evaluation of
Alternatives
Post-Purchase
Evaluation
Problem Recognition
Purchase decision making process begins when a
buyer becomes aware of an unsatisfied need or
problem. This is the vital stage in buying decision
process, because without recognizing the need or
want, an individual would not seek to buy goods or
service.
There are several situations that can cause problem
recognition, these include:
Depletion of stock
Dissatisfaction with goods in stock
Environmental Changes
Change in Financial Situation
Marketer Initiated Activities
Information Search
After the consumer has recognized the need, he /
she will trying to find the means to solve that
need. First he will recall how he used to solve such
kind of a problem in the past, this is called nominal
decision making. Secondly, a consumer will try to
solve the problem by asking a friend or goes to the
market to seek advice for which product will best
serve his need, this is called limited decision
making.
Sources of information include:
•Personal sources
•Commercial Sources
•Public sources
•Personal experience
Alternatives evaluation
Consumers’ evaluates criteria refer to various
dimension; features, characteristics and benefits
that a consumer desires to solve a certain
problem.
Product features and its benefit is what influence
consumer to prefer that particular product. The
consumer will decide which product to buy from a
set of alternative products depending on each
unique feature that the product offers and the
benefit he / she can get out of that feature.
Purchase Action
This stage involves selection of brand and the
retail outlet to purchase such a product.
Retail outlet image and its location are important.
Consumer usually prefers a nearby retail outlet
for minor shopping and they can willingly go to a
far away store when they purchase items which
are of higher values and which involve higher
sensitive purchase decision. After selecting where
to buy and what to buy, the consumer completes
the final step of transaction by either cash or
credit
Post-purchase Actions
Consumer favorable post-purchase evaluation leads
to satisfaction. Satisfaction with the purchase is
basically a function of the initial performance level
expectation and perceived performance relative to
those expectations. Consumer tends to evaluate
their wisdom on the purchase of that particular
product. This can result to consumer experiencing
post purchase dissatisfaction. If the consumer’s
perceived performance level is below expectation
and fail to meet satisfaction this will eventually
cause dissatisfaction, and so the brand and/ or
the outlet will not be considered by the consumer
in the future purchases. This might cause the
consumer to initiate complaint behavior and spread
negative word-of-mouth concerning that particular
product.
ABC analysis
Most pharmacists and managers know that
only a few drug items account for the
greatest drug expenditure. Often 70-80%
of the budget is spent on 10-20% of the
medicines.
ABC analysis is the analysis of annual
medicine consumption and cost in order to
determine which items account for the
greatest proportion of the budget.
Categorize into:
A, those few items accounting for 75-80% of total
value
B, those items which take up the next 15-20%
C, the bulk of items which only account for the
remaining 5-10% of value.
Typically, class A items constitute 10-20% of all
items, with class B items constituting another 1020% and the remaining 60-80% being in category
C.
VEN analysis
VEN analysis is a well-known method
to help set up priorities for
purchasing medicines and keeping
stock.
Drugs are divided, according to their
health impact, into vital, essential and
non-essential categories.
VEN analysis
• vital drugs (V): potentially life-saving or
crucial to providing basic health services
• essential drugs (E): effective against less
severe but significant forms of disease,
but not absolutely vital to providing basic
health care
• non-essential drugs (N): used for minor or
self-limited illnesses; these may or may not
be formulary items and efficacious, but
they are the least important items
stocked.