Factors Influencing the Prescription Behaviour of Doctors-An Insight for the Pharmaceutical CRM Strategy Formulation

Abstract

Marketing has always been a major thrust area for the Pharmaceutical industry. Pharma firms usually bear a huge expenditure on marketing, especially sales efforts. Marketing in the Pharmaceutical industry is mainly done through personal selling techniques of promotion through MRs.Marketing of pharmaceutical products to doctors takes place through relationship marketing. Company representatives called medical reps meet the doctors in their specific geographic territory and promote their products to them. The doctors, in turn, prescribe the products to the patients who buy them from the chemist shop. Factors influencing doctor’s prescription behaviour can be classified into three categories: Socio-cultural factors, Personal-Psychological factors, Pharma Marketing factors. Now a day’s companies give a major thrust to the CRM aspect of their marketing strategies. Customer relationship management (CRM) is the strategic process of shaping the interaction between a company and its customers with the goal of maximizing current and lifetime value of customers for the company as well as maximizing, satisfaction for customers.CRM helps Pharma companies to generate revenue from shelf life by reaching more new prescribers (doctors) and patients (end customer) thereby keeping them loyal by increasing their well- being.