DETERMINANTS OF CUSTOMER BASED BRAND EQUITY AMONG PHARMACEUTICAL PRESCRIBERS IN THE CASE OF ADDIS ABABA HEALTH BUREAU HOSPITALS

Abstract

Though the pharmaceutical market in Ethiopia is growing substantially and the mode the market operate and compete has changed rapidly over the past few years, to date there is no clear and efficient model available to assist pharmaceutical marketers in identifying and quantifying brand value in developing countries like Ethiopia. The purpose of this study was to determine the determinant CBBE among prescribers and assesses the impact of prescribers’ socio demographic characteristics on CBBE elements in pharmaceutical market of Addis Ababa. The study was conducted taking government hospitals as a case and one specific product Diclofenac which is available in 7 brands in Ethiopia market the study follow the conceptual framework of brand equity model developed by Aaker. Brand equity dimensions, which are Brand Awareness, Brand Association, Brand Perceived Quality and Brand Loyalty along with the question of how these dimensions are influencing brand building in prescribers’ mind was assessed in government hospitals of Addis Ababa. As to the methodology, this study was a descriptive study using self-administered questionnaires. Relevant sampling Techniques was used and study conducted on 124 prescribers as a sample to represent the populatio.Questionnaire adapted from previous researches related with the study was utilized to collect the data and SPSS utilized for data analysis.Thisstudy has revealed that Brand equity of Pharmaceutical products is directly made up of two dimensions, namely brand awareness and perceived quality. These two dimensions have shown a strong impact on brand equity with a mean of 4.02 and 4.03 respectively. Other dimensions i.e. Brand association and Brand loyalty have a very small impact on brand equity in Addis Ababa Pharmaceutical market with a mean of 2.87 and 3.12. Key Recommendation: Marketers in the Pharmaceutical industry should concentrate their efforts primarily on developing the Perceived Quality and awareness of their brand in the customer's mind.