CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS PHARMACEUTICAL OTC MEDICINES IN THE PATAN CITY

Abstract

The objective of the research is to determine the factors which impact the attitude of consumer in decision making process when purchasing pharmaceutical OTC medicines and to understand the impact of advertising, cost and availability factors on the consumer decision-making process when buying OTC medicines. The market for over-the-counter (OTC) medicines in India has seen significant growth in current years. Based on the survey, it can be clearly seen that customers takes OTC medicines for Severe (short term) disease. Under the study it is seen that majority of the customers are neutral towards advertising of OTC Products and disagree that advertising distress the buying behaviour of the customers. Most of the customers perceives that OTC medicines have lower cost than prescription drugs. During the research study, it can be seen that the there is an increase in the purchase of the OTC medicines as compared to the last year and customers thinks that OTC products are easily available than prescription products.

KEYWORDS: OTC medicines, Consumer Behaviour, Pharmaceutical Advertisement, Availability, Cost.