To Study the Major Factors that Influence the Prescription Pattern of Doctors

Abstract

Pharmaceutical marketing is unique as the decision making of buying the medicine lies in the hand of intermediate customer (doctor) rather than final consumer (patient). Thus pharmaceutical companies try to influence the customer (doctor) rather than final consumer (Patient). Thus doctors are the most important players in pharmaceutical marketing system. Doctors write the prescriptions that determine which drugs (brands) will be used by the consumer (patient). Thus influencing the doctor is a key to the pharmaceutical sales. Pharmaceutical companies try to influence prescription pattern of doctors in favor of their brands by offering various kinds of promotional inputs. Doctor’s relationship with pharmaceutical companies is receiving a good attention since last few years. The reason being that the pharmaceutical marketing of branded formulation start and ends at doctor’s place. The ever increasing number of companies, molecules and brands will force the companies to have a good bonding with doctors. This bonding will come by fulfilling the customer’s desire by giving exactly what he/ she wants in terms of knowledge, communication, and updates on recent innovations. In this study the researcher have made an effort to understand the same. If industry understands how to satisfy their customer it will helpful for developing a long lasting relationship with their customer. The purpose of the study is to develop a simple framework for finding out the impact of the different kind of promotional tools offered by pharmaceutical industry on the prescribing behavior of doctors.