Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing Tools on Building Brand Perception: With Reference to Surgery Transplant Products in Sri Lankan Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the rapidly growing industries in global and even local contexts. Industry practices referring to marketing and business development are found as peculiar in terms of its norms and legal frameworks operate. The “transplant segment” of the medical sector in Sri Lanka too seems to be a competitive segment as per the intensity of investment and competition exist. Having focused to the behavioral significance of this product segment in Sri Lankan context, researchers investigated about how customer relationship practices impact to develop perception and market positioning of the product brands. Researchers used 40 sample units (medical professionals) from different areas where the transplant surgery methods being implemented actively, and empirical data were collected through structured questionnaires. The independent variables were recognized as four variables namely personnel sponsorship, institutional sponsorship, continuous medical educational programs and commitment rewards where brand perception was referred as dependent variable measured through 3 items namely price, quality and packaging were taken as dependent variables driven to perception . As per the four hypotheses tested, it was found that all the relationship marketing practices significantly impact on the brand perception. The contribution of personnel sponsorship and continuous medical educational (CME) programs were found as most effective relationship marketing tools indicating above 0.6 of correlation coefficient at 95% confidence level whereas commitment rewards was also figured as an effective relationship marketing tool at above averaged level.