IMPACT OF MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES ON PHARMACEUTICAL MARKET OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

The Pharmaceutical industry is one of the promising sectors and the second largest contributor to the economy of Bangladesh. The Pharmaceutical Market of Bangladesh in 2019 was valued at about BDT twenty-three thousand crore. There are 15 therapeutic segments of the Pharmaceutical market like alimentary and metabolism, systemic anti-infective, cardiovascular system, nervous system, respiratory system, muscular-skeletal system, genitourinary system & sex hormones, blood & blood forming organs, dermatological, sensory organs, systemic hormones, parasitology, hospital solutions, antineoplastic plus immune module and others. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) Strategies were applied to select the cardiac market segment in the present study as a model to represent the Pharmaceutical market as a whole. Doctors, Patients and Marketers are considered as the important components of the Pharmaceutical market. The cardiac market segment has 10.56% of the market share and 15.53% of the market growth in the pharmaceutical products growth-share matrix which represents star position among different market segments. The aim of the study is to explore the impact of different variables of Marketing Strategies and Techniques on Stakeholders’ Satisfaction and Sales. A Conceptual Model was developed by exploring the cardiac market segment in the context of Bangladeshi Pharmaceutical Market using Customer Satisfaction theories and Marketing Mix Strategies. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted to explore the perspective of different Stakeholders, such as Cardiologists, Cardiac patients and Marketing Professionals. Furthermore, the impact of Marketing Strategies and Techniques (MST), offered by the Marketing Professionals, on the satisfaction of Cardiologists (Customers) and Cardiac patients (Consumers) were analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis. Marketing Professionals evaluated the variables of Marketing Strategies and Techniques (MST) based on Sales performance of the Pharmaceutical companies. These attributes of Marketing Strategies and Techniques were then used to develop structured questionnaires to evaluate the impact of the variables on the Stakeholders’ Satisfaction. Majority of the Cardiac Hospitals and Pharmaceutical companies are situated in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. A sample size of Cardiologists (156), Cardiac patients (200) and Marketing Professionals (180) were selected from the city of Dhaka. Random sampling method was used in this study. Data was collected using drop off and collect method by distributing self-explanatory questionnaires among the stakeholders. A total of 536 respondents were asked to rate the importance of variables/attributes of Marketing Strategies and Techniques (MST) indicating their degree of agreement with satisfaction statement using a 5-point Likert scale (1= Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree,3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree and 5 =Strongly agree). Factor Analysis by SPSS version 20 was used for managing most correlated variables by reducing it to a manageable few factors which are labeled as Medicinal, Economic, Convenience and Communication relationship benefits. Exploratory Factor analysis was applied to evaluate the impact of Marketing Strategies and Techniques on Stakeholders’ Satisfaction as a whole and also separately for each stakeholder. The first important factor extracted from Rotated Factor Matrix labeled as Medicinal benefit, includes Awareness Campaign to prevent cardiovascular diseases (p = 0.000), Price Quality relationship (p = 0.000), Safety Information (p=0.000) and Efficacy (p = 0.000). It was found to have a positive impact on Stakeholders’ Satisfaction. Affordable price (p=0.000), Company Reputation (p=0.000), Selling Skill of Medical Representatives (p=0.000), Promotional Policies (p=0.000) and Continuous Medical Education for doctors (p=0.000) were grouped under second important factor labeled as Communication benefit. The second factor has significant effect on the Satisfaction of the Stakeholders. The third factor labeled as Convenience benefit, includes Facility of Model pharmacy (p=0.089), Location of Pharmacy (p=0.089), Brand Image (0.089) and New Cardiac Medicine (p=0.089). The third factor was found to have an insignificant impact on Stakeholders’ Satisfaction. The fourth factor tagged as Economic benefit was found to be significant and contains the variables Competitive price (p=0.000) and Availability (p=0.000). The impacts of relative influential factors on the satisfaction of the individual category stakeholder were found to be different. If the factors are sequenced according to the relative importance for the Cardiologists, then the Economic-Medicinal (p=0.000) benefit is of top most priority. The followers are Medicinal Communication (p=0.000), Communication (p=0.000) and Medicinal benefits (p=0.03) respectively. Like the Cardiologists, the Patients also prioritize the economic-medicinal issue. The second most important factor is Medicinal Communication rather than Convenience benefit. The Factors loaded to Rotated Matrix that impact on Marketing Professionals’ Satisfaction about Sales are Convenience Medicinal benefit (p=0.001), Communication benefit (p=0.025), Medicinal (p=0.009) benefit and Economic benefit (p=0.004) respectively. It was observed that the gap between the Overall Satisfaction about Marketing Strategies and Techniques and Stakeholders were significantly different. Cardiologists, the direct customers of medicine suppliers are moderately satisfied (Mean score = 3.89) and Patients (the consumers) are not satisfied. The mean score of Patients’ Satisfaction is 2.88. Interestingly, Marketing Professionals are very satisfied about their Sales performance (Mean score = 4.06). The assessment of cardiac patients (200) regarding their satisfaction of medicine quality, affordability, availability and communication relation which impact on sales were found to be different depending on the market shares and reputation of pharmaceutical companies. Recently, Model Pharmacy has added a new dimension in Distribution (Place) Strategies of medicines in 2017. Patients’ Satisfaction about the four variables regarding the Facilities of Model Pharmacy such as Quality of medicines, Reasonable price of medicines, Data-based system and Counseling by ‘A’ grade pharmacists were found satisfactory than retail conventional pharmacy in Dhaka city. The Regression Analysis of Factors indicates that most of the hypotheses of the Conceptual Model have statistical significance. As the study was conducted on three categories of stakeholders, the findings may give policy makers the chance to compare relative importance of variables from viewpoint of doctors and patients. This can lead to development of better Marketing Strategies and Techniques resolving medicinal, economic, convenience and communication issues.