INVESTIGATING THE MEDICINES CUSTOMERS’ BEHAVIOR

Abstract

The main goal of this article is the investigation the influence of factors, preferences, particularities of medi-cines consumers’ behavior in pharmacies, as well as creating a simulation of the consumer’s behavior with nasal medications as a primary example. The investigation methods were used in this article: documentary and logic, grouping and market investigation methods, questionnaires, comparing and generalization methods, economic-statistical method. As a result of such market's investigations it was found out, that Ukrainian market of nasal medicines can offer a wide spectrum of medications and can indeed satisfy the consumers’ needs. The analysis of dynamic of the main market's values in 2016 – 2020 years was also conducted. The profile of the average nasal medicines customers was created based on the developed questionnaire and the interviews done inside pharma-cies. The factors of influence on the consumer behavior and consumers’ choices are reviewed in this article. It was shown, that the consumers' behavior and their choices inside pharmacies depend on many different factors. It was proven, that, among the consumer properties of nasal medicines, therapeutic effectiveness, the quality of the prod-uct, its safety and price had made the most influence on pharmacy’s visitors, while they were making their decision to buy the drug, that they were needed. It was demonstrated, that traditional, well known products based on the chemical substances in the form of sprays and drops, are the most popular among customers. It was shown, that most customers (72%) plan their purchase in advance, though considering how many other customers (28%) make spontaneous purchases, it was recommended to take this information into account while planning the shopping room’s infrastructure, the moving flow of customers and the positioning of showcases with nasal medicines inside them. Such investigations made it available to simulate the behaviors, which are specific to nasal medicines cus-tomers, based on their purchase planning, motivation, pricing sensitivity, their thoughts on new products, their inclination towards specific medicines and trademark, the source of advice. The segmentation of consumers of nasal medicines was done according to the behavioral patterns. The simulation of the pharmacy visitors’ behav-iors as they are deciding on whether to buy specific nasal medicines was carried out. A source of advice was cho-sen on the basis of the simulation as a classification feature. Three simulations of nasal medicines consumers’ behavior were distinguished based on the doctor’s advice, pharmacist advice and independent decision. It was proven that to raise the quality of the service and the effectiveness of the pharmacy in general, specialists should know the customer behavior, their preferences towards medicines and understand the motivation behind custom-er’s purchase. Keywords: customer, behavior, pharmacy, nasal medicines, pharmaceutical service.