ASSESMENT OF PHYSICIAN PERCEPTION TOWARDS MARKETING COMMUNICATION TOOLS (IN ADDIS ABABA HEALTH CARE INSTITUTIONS)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the physician perception towards marketing communication tools in Addis Ababa health care institutions by examining the physician perception towards the marketing communication tools including word of mouth, free drug sample, detailing aids, medical sales representative’s knowledge, medical journal, brochures and leaflet, seminar, product launch meeting, sponsored medical events, CMEs, email communication and low value gift by 1-5 Likart scale questions. All responses were collected by using questionnaire through judgmental sampling (n=270). Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics is used to measure the perception of physician towards the marketing communication tools; one-way ANOVA and independent sample t-test are used to analyze if physician perception towards the marketing communication tools is independent of the demographic characteristics of physicians and Correlation Matrix using the Spearman correlation is demonstrated to analyze relationship between extent of exposure to the marketing communication tools and physician perceptions towards the marketing communication tools. Hence, this study is considered as an attempt to assess marketing communication tools influence on prescribing behavior of physician. The Results reveal that physician prescribing behavior is mostly influenced by colleagues or senior doctor followed by seminar , MSRs information, CMEs, brochure and leaflets, detailing aids ,medical journal, product launch meeting sponsored medical event, free drug sample, low value gift email communication. Perception of physician towards the marketing communication tools is independent of their practicing institution, patient administered daily and years of experience. The communication tools including medical journals, product launch, CMEs and mail communication is dependent of their educational level, whereas majority of the communication tools including word of mouth, detailing aids, free drug sample, MSRs knowledge, brochures and leaflets, sponsoring medical events, seminar and gift tools is independent of their educational level. Exposure to marketing communication tools and physician perceptions towards the communication is strong positive correlation in case of email communication followed by low value gift, product launch, brochures and leaflets, medical sales representative information, word of mouth seminar detailing aids medical journals, sponsoring medical events, CMEs.