Factors Influencing Consumer Preferences for Over The Counter Allopathic Medicine

Abstract

newline Over-the-counter drugs are non-prescription drugs that can be bought by individuals newlinewithout a doctor s prescription and are considered to be safe for consumption without newlinethe doctor s consent. The Indian OTC market was valued at Rs.188.6 billion in 2018, newlineand it is expected to reach Rs.441.1 billion by 2024, with an anticipated CAGR of newline14.20% during the forecast period, 2019-2024 (Businesswire, 2019) newlineOne of the common phrases in the field of marketing is and#8213;Customer is Kingand#8214; , By newlinekeeping the customer in the mind marketers do their research and thereby create newlineunique products to fulfill the needs and wants of the customers. The purchasing newlinebehavior of the consumer gets affected due to various factors; such as Psychological newlinefactors, Personal factors, Social factors, cultural factors etc. The research attempts to newlinereveal the factors that influence behavior of consumers towards the OTC (Over the newlineCounter) allopathic medicine through Ajzen s theory of planned behavior in the newlinedomain of health and medicine. newlineThe objective of the study is to examine the factors influencing consumer behavior newlinewith respect to OTC allopathic medicine. newlineAll the relevant variables that influence consumer behavior were identified through newlinesecondary data sources obtained out of the literature review . The review has been newlinedesigned in the line of terminologies as obtained or collected during the study. A newlinefocus group discussion was conducted to identify the factors on the foundation on newlinewhich the draft questionnaire was prepared. Based on the inputs gained from the pilot newlinestudy, the final questionnaire was developed. The stratified random sampling method newlinewas adopted for selecting samples of consumers from both rural and urban population newlinevi newlineof Hooghly district. Out of 500 responses 441 were considered for the study. Various newlinestatistical techniques such as exploratory factor analysis, regression analysis and newlinedescriptive methods were used to study the buying behavior with respect to OTC newlineallopathic analgesic topical medicines. newlineThe study concludes that among three factors under the Theory of Planned Behavior newlinethat is attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control: perceived newlinebehavioral control plays the most decisive role in determining the consumers newlineintention to purchase OTC allopathic medicine, which is followed by attitude and newlineleast influenced by subjective norms. Out of variables considered under Perceived newlineBehavioral Control, availability was the most dominant factor for influencing newlineintention to purchase OTC allopathic medicine. Demography has minimum or newlinenominal influence in consumers decision making process. Among the different newlinevariables under demography income has the highest level of impact but in a negative newlinedirection. This means higher the income of the consumers lower will be the intention newlineto purchase OTC allopathic analgesic topical medicines.