Role of Demographic Factors and Stakeholders in Determining the Marketing Strategies of Pharmaceutical Companies in Thailand

Abstract

Sunisa Pensap, Witthaya Mekhum.

Marketing strategies have got much attention in the recent two decades both in domestic and international market. The growth and success of business firms are directly associated to the marketing strategies. However, a range of factors are available having their influence on the overall marketing planning and strategies defined by the pharmaceutical industry. This study aims to analyze the impact of various demographic factors along with the stakeholders on the marketing strategies of pharmaceutical companies in Thailand. This research objective was addressed through data collected from a sample of 463 respondents in the local market of Thailand. For the demographic factors, family profile, gender, age and level of income were selected. Whereas, stakeholders cover the title of 3Ps (payer, patient, and physician), and regulators. Our study has applied the descriptive statistics at first to provide an overview about the collected responses in terms of mean score, standard deviation from the mean, percentiles, kurtosis and skewness respectively. In the next step, pairwise correlation is calculated and presented with the relative p-values of each of the coefficient of correlation. Lastly, results have been shown their regression coefficients, determining the influence of demographic factors, and stakeholders on marketing strategies of pharmaceutical industry. Results have shown that there is a significant and positive impact of family profile, gender and level of income on marketing strategies. However, significant and negative impact of patient as among the key stakeholders is found. Additionally, payer, physician have also shown a positive influence on marketing strategies, but no impact from regulators is observed under full sample outcomes. Based on the study findings, it is suggested that pharma companies need to consider the stated results where significant and positive influence from majority of the variables is observed except for the physicians. However, our study is limited in some way. First, a traditional regression model was applied and results were discussed. Second, only two dimension of determinants of marketing strategies were observed; demographic factors and stakeholders. Third, study has a limited regional implications based on the Thailand economy. It is highly suggested that future research work would cover these limitations to cover the literature gap.