Social Media Marketing by Pharmaceutical Industry: Perception and Attitudes of Key Stakeholders

The purpose of the study is to assess the perception, attitudes and behavior of the key target consumer groups – doctors and patients, regardingsocial media marketing by pharmaceutical industry. It is a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study done in 2 groups – 50 general practitionersand 250 patients, in Navi Mumbai (India) area, selected by random sampling. The results highlighted that the awareness and acceptance of theconcept of social media marketing was high amongst both the doctors and the patients. Amongst doctors, it is positively and significantlyassociated with young age and having a postgraduate degree after MBBS. Amongst the patients, a high proportion take self medication based onreference to the internet, most common ailments for use of self medication being aches, respiratory illnesses and gastrointestinal illnesses. Theincreasing positive response of the key consumer groups, especially in the young age group, makes social media a powerful marketing tool, whichcan be explored by the pharmaceutical industry.