DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES - A REVIEW OF CURRENT PRACTICES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v5.i6.2024.5232Keywords:
Digital Marketing, Pharmaceutical Companies, Marketing Effectiveness, Company Size, IndiaAbstract [English]
The Indian pharmaceutical industry has begun to change its marketing, with the introduction of digital strategies to engage stakeholders and grow market share. With changing times, the pharmaceutical industry must assess the efficacy of these digital strategies. As products and services are often marketed similarly across all companies, regardless of size, assessing the effectiveness of a digital marketing investment is necessary as firms embrace digital marketing. This study will examine the relationship between digital marketing investment and perceived effectiveness, as well as the perceived effectiveness of digital marketing based on the size of the pharmaceutical corporation (small, medium, and large) in India. A quantitative research design was used, and a structured questionnaire was distributed to 40 marketing personnel from pharmaceutical corporations located in Pune as the research sample. The data was analysed in SPSS software using regression and ANOVA techniques. The regression analysis showed a significant positive relationship, as the analysis showed a significant positive relationship for digital marketing investment and marketing effectiveness (R² = 0.452, p < 0.001). The ANOVA results indicated that there were differences in digital marketing effectiveness based on company size (F = 11.24, p < 0.001), it was found that firms which were medium and large were more effective with their digital marketing because of a better digital foundation and facilities to engage with market strategies.
The research has found that digital marketing is a significant success factor in the pharmaceutical industry, but especially for firms that will strategically build and develop this expertise. Smaller firms in the pharmaceutical space suffer from resource constraints that limit their ability to opt into digital opportunities and, in turn, experience the positive impact. From these findings, we recommend that firms, and especially SMEs, develop structured digital marketing budgets, allocate resources to training staff, and apply data-driven tools to improve engagement. The industries governing bodies and policymakers should also be encouraged to provide ample opportunities to support new digital capability building through financial incentives and regulatory clarity. This research adds to a large and growing body of knowledge on digital transformation in the pharmaceutical industry and offers actionable insights for practitioners and strategists.
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