The Impact of Brand Equity on Brand Preference of Pharmaceutical Products by Physicians in Ethiopia
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Date
2016-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Brands have become a major player in modern society. In fact they are everywhere. They penetrate all spheres of our life: economic, social, cultural, sporting, even religion. Brands have financial value because they have created assets in the minds and hearts of customers, distributors, prescribers, opinion leaders. Although current research focuses on building and concept of brand equity, so far it does not create the general consensus on the impact of brand equity on preference and the degree of influence that the different brand equity elements have on brand preference. The objective of the study is to examine the impact of brand equity on brand preference of pharmaceuticals by physicians in Ethiopia. A conceptual framework was use to see the relationship between brand equity variables and brand preference. A quantitative approach is chosen in this research. In order to collect primary data, a structured questionnaire was adopted and was given to the physicians taken as a sample. The SPSS version 20.00 for windows was used to process the primary data which was collected through questionnaire. The findings show that the results of the correlation on the determinants; brand awareness, price and perceived quality were significantly correlated with brand preference and impact the preference of pharmaceutical brands in a considerable amount. This implies that this factors being easily manipulated by the pharmaceutical companies, the companies can play a big role in positioning their product in the minds of their customers to be more preferred than other competitor brands in the market. The regulatory bodies also should give a high emphasis to this in improving and controlling the standard protocols in assessing the quality of the pharmaceutical brands in the market. Last but not least, physicians should act in a highly ethical and technically acceptable standard so as to find a balance between their choice of brand and patient as priority
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Keywords
modern society, brand equity, brand preference