In the quantitative component of the study, a survey is used as a simple way to collect data, as it offers flexibility, versatility and efficiency (Alreck & Settle, 1985). The researcher aimed to simplify the survey to ensure a high level of focus and clarity. The quantitative component of the research was accomplished by collecting data from the survey shown in Appendix A. The survey was distributed to pharmacists to assess their perceptions of the marketing activities conducted for OTC products. The aim was to optimise the marketing decision making process for executives managing OTC medicines in an emerging market by exploring the perceptions of community, hospital and polyclinic pharmacists regarding different types of marketing activities. The reason for choosing pharmacists in the private sector was because pharmacists are the sole central stakeholder through which prescription flow, marketing activities and discount offers occur. For the past decade, the role of the community pharmacist has increasingly included involvement in things like customer medical counseling and services. With the community pharmacy as a key channel for the majority of pharmaceutical company
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activities, it was essential to assess the pharmacists’ perceptions of marketing and sales activities related to OTC medicines. This is due to the fact that pharmacists are believed to be uniquely qualified to serve the public interest in assisting with OTC product selection. The first component of the research was of an explanatory nature and was aimed at measuring pharmacists’ motives for making favourable recommendations. This component measured 18 influential items categorised under medical, social and marketing forces. Since the aim of this study was to look at the return on marketing investment, it was recommended by the researcher’s sales team to ask about the ranking of non-prescription analgesic product sales at the pharmacy. The last section of the questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data on the characteristics of the respondents, as well as on the setup of the pharmacy. Chapter Five explores the study sample selection, survey design, results and data analysis in further detail.
4.2.1 Sampling method
The study population consisted of pharmacists licensed in the state of Kuwait to practice pharmacy in the private market. The reason for excluding governmental sector pharmacies from the study was due to the regulations prohibiting any marketing activities in governmental pharmacies. A pharmacist database was obtained from the Ministry of Health, Pharmacy Licensing Administration. The total number of pharmacists licensed for the private market was 1,042 as of December 2013. The number of private market pharmacies listed with the Pharmacy Licensing Administration was 534 and the number of active pharmacies in terms of operation was around 390. The pharmacies were sorted by their practice setting, based on a market survey conducted by the researcher’s sales team in December 2013. There are three different known practice settings in the private market: the private hospital pharmacy,
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the private polyclinic pharmacy and the community pharmacy. The following table shows the distribution of pharmacies according to the different practice settings:
Table 2: Distribution of pharmacies according to practice setting
Practice setting Number of
pharmacies Private hospital pharmacy 11
Private polyclinic pharmacy 55
Community pharmacy 324
Total 390
Determination of the necessary sample size was done using the Macorr© Research Solution sample size calculation tool. A confidence level of 95% and a confidence interval of 5% were used in order to gain a clear observation of the impact of different marketing activities on the sales of analgesic OTC products. The same significance level of 5% was also used for the study of Awad & Abahussain (2010), which assessed the health promotion and education activities of community pharmacists in Kuwait. In that study, the sample size was determined using Java applets to be 186 pharmacists in order to achieve a 5% significance level. Based on the Macorr© Research Solution sample size calculation tool, the necessary sample size in the current study was determined to be 194 pharmacies. Each pharmacy was asked to have one staff pharmacist answer the questionnaire.
4.2.1.1 Inclusion criteria
To determine eligibility for participation in the study, the following criteria were set for pharmacists in the private sector:
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Licensed in the state of Kuwait as a pharmacist for the private market. Active practitioner in a private sector pharmacy in the state of Kuwait.
Working as pharmacist at a hospital pharmacy, polyclinic pharmacy or community pharmacy.
4.2.2 Survey design and approach
The survey was designed based on a study by Kotecki (2002), which aimed to investigate what factors influence pharmacists’ over-the-counter (OTC) recommendations. Kotecki’s (2002) study extended the research of Benrimoj (1991) on the factors that influence pharmacists’ purchases and recommendations.
The decision to design the survey based on the work of Kotecki (2002) was mainly because the author explored the factors influencing pharmacists’ OTC recommendations. Pharmacists are considered to be vital in the area of the OTC product selection. The pharmacist also has the best view of the factors that influence the purchase of OTC products, since the prescriptions, promotions, direct consumer feedback, OTC product procurement and product displays are all present in the pharmacy under the pharmacist’s supervision. Kotecki (2002) measured pharmacists’ motives for making favourable recommendations using 19 influential items categorised under medical, social and marketing forces. For this study, the number of influential factors was reduced to 18, using the same groups: medical forces (3 items), social factors (6 items) and marketing factors (9 items). Some of the influential items were redefined based on recommendations from the sales team at the researcher’s organization and from selected pharmacists currently practicing as community and hospital pharmacists. Since the aim of the current study was to look at the return on
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marketing investment, it was recommended that the pharmacists be asked about the sales ranking of non-prescription analgesic products in the pharmacy. The last section of the questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data on the characteristics of the respondents as well as on the setup of the pharmacy. The researcher worked on collecting the data for the study.