Pharmaceutical firms spend a significant amount of their budget on promotions. Thus, it becomes imperative to study the perception of physicians, at whom a major share of these promotional efforts is targeted. Despite this, there exists very little published research examining customer response at the perceptual level. Thus, the authors have attempted to study the importance attached to promotion tools as information sources and the extent to which these promotion tools influence prescription behavior as perceived by physicians. Primary data for the study was collected through a survey of physicians. A total of 115 physicians participated in the study. The study indicates that physicians perceive conferences/symposia to be the most credible information source. An examination of the relationship between perceptions regarding various promotion tools and demographic variables indicates a significant relationship between gender and type of hospital and credibility attached to the various promotional tools. The study indicates a positive correlation between credibility of promotion tools and the extent to which it influences prescription behavior.
Purpose-The purpose of this study is to outline a conceptual framework for customer engagement in the context of social media for emerging markets. Three competing models of customer engagement were identified and tested to arrive at the best suited model for the given contexts. The alternative conceptual frameworks involve the constructs of active participation, community trust and community commitment in relation to customer engagement. Design/methodology/approach-Data were collected using questionnaires sent via e-mail to respondents. Structural equation modelling was then used to arrive at the best suited model, while also empirically testing for the relationships among the constructs. Findings-The study, by way of an empirical comparison of alternative conceptual frameworks, presents a customer engagement framework best suiting the social media context for emerging markets. The study also outlines active participation, community trust and community commitment to be acting as antecedents to customer engagement. Further active participation is identified as a necessary antecedent to customer engagement based on the comparative assessment of the frameworks. Research limitations/implications-While there is not much consensus on the nature of customer engagement, the study offers insights to marketers in terms of managing customer engagement with their brand communities. The study identifies the role and importance of inducing active participation in a brand community context. Further, it also identifies community trust and community commitment to be occurring as antecedents to customer engagement, with commitment implying for a more pronounced role in the framework. Originality/value-There is no consensus among researchers regarding the nomological network surrounding customer engagement. Further, very few of these studies have focussed on this construct in the context of emerging markets. This study thus attempts to close the above gap, by testing for alternative conceptual frameworks involving customer engagement, in the context of social media for emerging markets.
More than half of the world's population is poor. Certainly, their purchasing power cannot be compared with that of the riches, but it is their collective purchase potential which makes them a substantial market. The fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs), on the other hand, are the fourth largest industry in the world. FMCGs are relatively low cost products and the poor, by necessity, spend a significant amount of their income on FMCGs. So, by virtue of being a large consumer base for FMCGs, the poor are a promising market for the FMCG marketers. But little is known about their buying behaviour for FMCGs as only a few studies have been conducted on them in this regard. This study aims to explore their shopping orientations towards price, quality and brand for FMCGs in the context of one of the largest developing countries like India by exploring their consumer decision-making styles (CDMSs), especially their price consciousness, quality consciousness, brand consciousness and brand loyalty. Besides it, it also explores their post purchase behaviour and testifies its mechanism with the above mentioned CDMSs in the present context through structured equation modelling.
In the early 2000s, Prahalad and Hart presented the possibility of serving the poor profitably and alleviating poverty. They introduced the concept of BoP (Bottom/Base of the Pyramid). Recent scholarly work also justifies that BoP is a significant market, and it deserves attention from profit‐oriented businesses. An analysis of the existing BoP literature in the marketing domain reveals that the literature is scattered without a classification of themes, which can help researchers to understand the breadth of the area and depth of coverage in each of them. Intending to bridge this gap, this study synthesizes research on marketing in the context of BoP. The review uses a structured literature review method and classifies the various marketing studies on the BoP into relevant themes. This analysis of 88 articles published from 2000 to 2021 (October) includes a thematic literature review. It presents a comprehensive view of marketing literature on BoP, classifying it into five main themes: Conceptualizing Poverty, Market Assessment, Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior, and Role of Technology. The study also identifies major thrust areas within each of these themes. It concludes by offering suggestions for further research on the identified thrust areas, geographical contexts, and methodologies adopted. The study also assimilates insightful theoretical and practical implications.
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