Abstract
The Indian Pharmaceutical sector is highly fragmented with more than 20,000 registered units. It has expanded drastically in the last two decades. At least as many as 250 pharmaceutical companies share lead of this market and are constantly challenged by severe price competition and government price control. In order to sustain competitive advantage, pharmaceutical companies have to develop and build brands that meet real needs and are differentiated in the minds of our customers. Brand equity is a set of brand asset and liabilities linked to a brand that includes brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and associations. The brand loyalty of the customer base is often the core of brand’s equity. Building awareness is much easier over a longer time period because learning works better with repetition and reinforcement. Perceived quality is the customer’s perception of the overall quality or superiority of a product service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives. Much research has been done on whether or not branding plays a role in consumer purchases. In case of pharmaceutical industry in India, creating good enough brand awareness, loyalty and communicating compelling quality for good perceptions amongst numerous generic environments is a key challenge to increase brand equity. The above original article focuses on three brand equity parameters (loyalty, awareness and quality) attribute of brand equity model of David Aaker. Primary research is conducted in India by the author in order to supplement information learned through secondary research, in order to answer specific questions to gain a perspective on consumers. Perceptions of branded versus generic drugs on the aspect of three parameters are studied here. Results are discussed, followed by recommendations about how to effectively increase brand parameters to impact brand equity of pharmaceutical products.
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