Decision Making Factors In Purchasing The Analgesics Brands On Romanian Pharmaceutical Market

Nowadays promotional activities play a very important role, especially in pharmaceutical sector. This statement is supported by the huge amount of marketing expenses of the top pharmaceutical companies (Olson, 2015). We were interested to investigate the way people choose the analgesic brand and to identify how powerful are advertising features, recommendations or previous experience in the decision making process. Taking into consideration that on the Romanian market are available a limited number of notorious brands and many local brands, we wanted to investigate the attributes of brands and products taking into account in the purchase decision of the pharmaceutical industry. This is a quantitative research of the romanian consumer. We used four focus groups as a research tehnique. The findings reveal that among the most important product features are the quality of the product which is reflected through its quick action (releasing the pain) and no side effects. Because of the fact that most of the analgesics are over the counter drugs (OTC) and they can be bought without prescription, the pharmacists’ recommendation represent one of the key factor in choosing a brand, among previous positive experience and promotional strategies. A good brand is according to the respondents, one which is well promoted on the television. Therefore, the consumer is attracted to powerful brands, effective products and the pharmacist’s recommendation may play an important role because of his authoruty in the field. Powerful brands are those that can afford to promote effectively and those that are notorious or very well known in the local market.