Influence of Social Media Marketing in Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract

Social media marketing is entering in every prospective field and results are beyond imagination. Mckensey Co. has predicted Indian pharmaceutical industry will touch 55 billion USD by 2020. Social media is definitely going to change the market dynamics. On 12th Feb. 2014 facebook celebrated its tenth anniversary with $134 billion revenue. Many pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, GSK etc.(Beth Synder Bulik, 2011) had realized the potential of social media and therefore, a huge chunk of money is involved which is resulting into a wide shared network of consumers (i.e. doctors and patients), hospitals, healthcare portal and pharmaceutical companies. It enables pharmaceutical companies to gain market intelligence, obtaining real time customer feedback, spreading disease awareness and engage in brand promotion. This study is an attempt to understand the implication of social media marketing in Indian Pharmaceutical Industry and also to analyze the reason behind the acceptance of social media marketing in pharmaceutical area. The outcome of the study is that social media marketing had created a synchronized platform for doctors, pharmaceutical companies and patients (consumers) in more meaningful and coherent way. It not only creates the awareness about the disease but connects the patients of similar disease profile.