Marketing Strategies Adopted by Pharmaceutical Companies in Response to the Changing Consumer Buying Behaviour in Kenya

Abstract

This research was designed to investigate the marketing strategies adopted by pharmaceutical companies in response to the changing consumer buying behavior in Kenya. The studied two objectives were; to determine the marketing strategies adopted by pharmaceutical companies in response to the changing consumer buying behavior and to establish the challenges faced in implementing the marketing strategies. Data was collected from the country managers or the product managers or equivalent of 37 pharmaceutical companies. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. Percentages and tables were used for data presentation. The study found that different pharmaceutical companies adopt different marketing strategies in response to the changing consumer behavior. The findings of the study indicate that pharmaceutical companies have adopted strategies such as promotional, pricing, marketing segmentation, positioning, branding and distribution strategies. However, from the study the commonly adopted strategies were branding and pricing. The least adopted strategy was market segmentation. The finding also indicated that the pharmaceutical companies face challenges such as resistance to change, financial requirement, regulations imposed by the government, technological challenges, inefficient leadership, legal requirements and competition when implementing the marketing strategies. The study found that the common challenges among the pharmaceutical companies were resistance to change and competition. The least faced challenges were inefficient leadership and legal requirements.