Research On Differences Of OTC Drug Consumers' Purchase Channel And Influence Factors Between Urban And Rural In Fuzhou

As special consumer products,OTC drugs are mostly marketed through retail mode.Compared with prescription drugs,consumers of OTC drugs have more autonomy.With the continuous deepening of China's medical system reform and the prosperous development of the pharmaceutical industry,the homogeneity of OTC drugs become stronger and stronger,consumers have more and more choices.At the same time,with the increasing awareness of self-care and self-medication,more and more consumers are buying medicines by themselves.Therefore,It will be the key for pharmaceutical enterprises to take the initiative in the competition to gain insight into consumers' behaviors and demands in selecting drug purchase channels and to accurately locate target consumers.This paper attempts to analyze the current situation of the purchase channel selection of OTC drug consumers in urban and rural areas of fuzhou city,and deeply explores the key factors affecting the difference between urban and rural selection,and It is hoped to provide reference for the construction of pharmaceutical marketing channels and the precise positioning of the population.Through stratified random sampling,this study conducted a questionnaire survey among 200 consumers in urban and rural areas of fuzhou city to understand the current status of purchasing channel selection of OTC drug consumers in urban and rural areas.Howard-Sheth mode theory is used to explain the special consumption behavior of purchasing drugs.To analyze the influencing factors of OTC drug consumers' choice of purchase channels from four major aspects:stimulus or input factors(input variables),external factors,internal factors(internal process),and reflection or output factors,and to establish a logistic regression multiple discrete choice model for empirical analysis and study the urban-rural differences.According to the research,taking village clinics/community hospitals as reference,the gender,residential area and monthly income have a significant impact on the selection of OTC consumer channels.Low price and quality guarantee are also factors affecting the purchasing channels of OTC consumers.At the same time,TV advertisements and other people's recommendations can also affect the choices of OTC consumers.Comparing the differences between urban and rural OTC consumers' purchase channel choices,it is found that the proportion of rural OTC consumers buying drugs through village clinics/community hospitals is twice that of urban OTC consumers.The proportion of rural OTC consumers buying drugs through private pharmacies/clinics is four times higher than that of urban OTC consumers.The proportion of rural OTC consumers buying drugs through health care pharmacy/hospital pharmacy is fewer than half of urban OTC consumers.According to the results obtained from the empirical analysis,compared with the white-hot competition of the first and second terminals such as hospital pharmacy and health care pharmacy,the third terminal market,which takes the rural pharmaceutical market as the main position,provides a broader development space for pharmaceutical enterprises,which need to pay more attention to the marketing strategy of developing the third terminal market.