A
Research Paper
On
“Perception of Consumers Regarding
OTC Products”

Submitted To:

RITAKA M’AM

Submitted By:

VIKASH L SHAH
118070592028

Introduction

As with many other aspect of healthcare today, the market of OTC medications is undergoing dramatic change. OTC drugs (over the counter) are those drugs that sold without prescription from chemist.

Before some years ago there was small no. of medications for treating minor problems such as cold, skin burn, diarrhea, fever, pain. Now list of OTC medicines has expanded to include agents with claims of beneficial effects of mood, memory, energy and general well being.

The present scenario is as follows.
OTC market of ointments and balms is 16%, analgesics and cold preparations is 9%, and antiseptic cream is 8%. For cough product that is 5%.

People use all type of OTC medicines. An important question for the public health community is “how well do consumers understand and process essential information about OTC product” and “what is the general perception of consumers regarding OTC products”.

OTC medicines are increasingly used for self medication for variety of common heath problems. OTC products are safe when taken as directed. Sometimes consumers may not realize the potency of drug and may be inadvertently be taking steps that could put their health at risk.
This research paper is focusing on consumers’ perception about OTC products which include, -Effect of price, -Effect of advertisements, -Brand name .

Products included in research
This research includes three types of products. 1. Anti cold o Topical anti cold o Oral anti cold 2. Analgesics(drugs used to reduce pain) 3. Anti pyretic(drugs used in fever)

Pharmaceutical advertising is one of the most important factors that can have direct impact on buying behavior of consumers. Advertising frequently reflects the discoveries of motivational research as it applies to consumerism. This is particularly important incase of OTC medications because consumers spend thousands of rupees on its purchase. OTC drugs have directly advertised to consumers over various kinds of media for several decades. This research paper will help to understand the factors that affect on purchasing decisions of buyer.

Traditionally price has operated as the major determinant of buyers’ choice. Price was set by negotiation between buyers and sellers but in prices of medicines there is no “bargaining”. While taking medicine people have some choices. They have some criteria by which they can choose products. The criteria are price, quality, quick relief etc. This research paper will help to know which is the major factor price or quality.

Brand of particular company is a name or sign or symbol or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or groups of sellers or producers. Particular brand name of company is differentiating the product from the competitors. Consumers’ perception or feeling about product’s attributes and how they perform distinguishes a particular brand from its competitors. E.g. peracitamol is drug name and crocine is brand name. Pcm is main ingredient of it. Metacine, lamolate are other brands which contain pcm. This all brands cure fever, so people can take any of them. So companies want to market their particular brands.
According to monograph of AAFP(American academy of family physicians) general perception of OTC products is as follows.
-OTC medicines are not real medicines.
-A belief that “more is better” when treating headache.
-Limited understanding of the ingredients in OTC medicine.
-A perception that generally OTC products don’t have side effects.

Objectives:

1) Find out the effect of Advertisements sales of OTC products or purchasing decision of buyer. From this research we can find the effect of advertisements whether that is coming on TV, news papers or magazines. We can know the most important media to give advertisements of OTC products. We can know how many percentage of people relay on it. 2) Effect of price on buying behavior. From this we can know whether people prefer quality of product or price will be the major factor for them. 3) Impact of brand name. We can know will people see the brand name while taking medicines.

Limitations: ➢ It was not possible for us to make a survey from whole city or other city. Those respondents are taken who are convenient to reach. ➢ Time constraint: To collect the primary data for this project we had the time of a month, so it was not possible for us to cover different places for collecting data. ➢ Sample size taken is small to cover this vast topic. ➢ People don’t have clear idea about OTC product

Learning outcomes: ➢ To study impact of consumer perception on OTC products purchase ➢ Effect of various factors like price, TV advertisements, brand name, Doctor’s advice, quick relief on buying behavior of consumers

Research Methodology

In our project research we made qualitative method of sampling to reach the behaviouristic aspects of the customers. We here select the target customer for the project with the help of convenience sampling which helps us in making exact approach of the consumer behaviour for the same.

• Sample size of the project-100 • Data collection method- Personal interview with a questionnaire containing some open and close ended questions. • Research type- Primary analytical research • Sampling technique- Non probability convenience sampling • Universe-people using OTC products in Gandhinagar

Collection of primary data:

Personal Interview: We had visited different households in Gandhinagar who are of different age group, profession, sex, education and fill our questionnaire and also took feed back from them about the OTC products that how they purchase it, which factors are affected to them while buying it.

Coverage of study- Some part of Gandhinagar

Analysis and Research Findings

➢ From the study we came to know that people frequently suffered from body pain and headache. Fever and cold occurred some what less. The frequency will be more in monsoon and winter. The people who are doing job or business suffering from headache and body pain frequently.

➢ Most of the people (38) take medicine while they are suffering from fever followed by body pain. Less people are taking medicine in case of headache.

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➢ 54% of people take Allopathic medicines in above problems while 18% of them choosing Ayurvedic preparation.12% of them don’t do anything, they just avoid it.

➢ Out of 100 respondents, 31 respondents are taking medicines by doctor’s prescription. 26 people relay on them selves. So there is no major deciding factor while taking medicine. All factors are equally effective.

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➢ 47% of people are aware about OTC products. While 53% of people are not aware about it.

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➢ In the OTC segment there are two types of preparations 1) Oral preparation. 2) Topical preparation.

➢ In oral preparation D-cold total, Crocine, Vicks action 500, combiflame, bruphene, metacine are the major brands in OTC market.

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➢ In topical preparation Vicks vaporub and zandu balm are the major brands which are using in cold. ➢ Moov is the universal brand for normal body pain. 85% people use it.

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➢ While suffering from body pain and headache 50% of respondents prefer oral preparations, while 34% of them use topical preparation. There are 16% of people prefer to take both type of preparation.

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➢ To find out impact of brand name, respondents are asked to give their preferred brands during general health problems. The brands are as follows.

➢ For cold – Vicks action 500, D’cold total, super one, actified, Vicks vaporub and zandu balm.

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➢ For fever – crocine, metacine, lamolate, calpol. They all contain pcm.

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➢ For pain – anacine, bruphene, lamolate, moov, combiflame.

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➢ The major brands from above are vicks action 500, crocine, combiflame, moov, vicks vaporub, metacine.

➢ Majority (70 out of 100) of people came to know about this brand from doctor’s preparation. Advertisements, others’ experience are also important sources from which people became aware about these brands. People don’t relay more on news papers for this type of ads.

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➢ We also try to find out major deciding factors to take OTC products like price, taste & flavor, company profile, advertisements, formulations, quick relief.

➢ From above all factors quick relief is the most important factor (82), which is followed by advertisement (31) and price (31).

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➢ There is much type of advertisements media like news papers, magazines, TV etc. But most of the respondents (66%) are relay on TV advertisements.

➢ The major brands like vicks action 500, super one, crocine, disprine, vicks vaporub are popular in market because of their TV advertisements.

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➢ When people are asked to switch to other brands which are sold at low price, most of them (58%) refused this offer. According to 58% of respondents said price is not major deciding factor while purchasing OTC products. 42% respondents considered price as a deciding factor.

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➢ 38% of people are not aware from the contents of the OTC brand and 60% of people don’t want to read the contents.

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Conclusion

Conclusions are the extracts squeezed out from the whole work. After scrutinizing the primary data collected from consumers following conclusions can be drawn about their perception regarding OTC products.

Age and profession are the causes for headache and body pain, while monsoon and winter are the causes of fever and cold.

• Advertisement frequency reflects the discovery of motivational research. According to this small scale survey, we came to know the considerable impact of TV advertisement on purchasing decision of buyers. OTC markets are mainly relay on TV advertisement. Most of the consumers came to know about OTC product via Advertisement.

• Price is always being a major factor in any purchase but that thing became falls in OTC market. People want quality and quick relief from medicines rather than considering price as a major factor.

• As science of medicine is not a general field most of the people are not aware about the contents of OTC products. They just know the brand name of it. People do even not prefer to take medicine with different brand name having same content. This thing shows the impact of brand name in OTC products.

• Company image and formulation of product doesn’t matter for respondents. Most of the people don’t bother to read the contents of product

Bibliography

www.healthcareindustry.com www.expresspharmapulse.com www.pharmabiz.com
Swarbrik James, Boylayn C. James, Encyclopedia of pharmaceutical technology,vol-2