The Influence Of Naming Methods On Purchasing Intention Of Chinese Medicine

Consumer behavior researches show that consumer's purchasing intention could be affected by many factors,such as product name,brand name,advertisement,product packaging,environmental of purchasing,sales promotion,which are irrelevant to consumer's real needs and even could be harmful.This raises questions when it comes to purchasing medicine as goods of a special kind:Could those factors affect consumer's drug buying intentions? If they could,in what conditions such affection would take place,and in what condition it would not? Answers for these questions are of significance,because they would offer insight not only for understanding medicine purchasing behaviors,but also for health administration to make more knowledge-based measures in order to prevent marketing conducts which may endanger consumers.This study presents an experiment that observed the influence of naming methods on purchasing intention of Chinese medicine.Among three methods for over-the-counter Chinese medicine,namely,(1)ingredients,(2)ingredients + ill targeted,(3)ingredients + ill targeted and over-embellishment,the study found that(2)produced highest choice frequency,and the(3)did the second.Also,interactions of the naming methods with information sources and drug store types,that adjusted the influence of the naming methods,were observed.For example,in the scenario of national chain drug store,which were often perceived being more creditable,the distribution pattern changed,and(2)and(3)generated similar choice frequencies.The findings of this study indicate that medicine names that contain ill targeted will likely generate buying preference under various conditions.The implications of such finding is that,for the purpose of protect buyers' interest,health and drug administration should monitor such kind of medicine names and punish the conducts of Chinese medicine makers and marketers who use the ill-target to mislead consumers.