Product marketing mix in driving customer satisfaction

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Statement of the hypothesis
Methodology
Research questions
Literature review
Results
Discussion and recommendations
References List

Introduction

The term customer satisfaction lies within the bigger discipline of marketing. It is fundamentally a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customers anticipations (Wirtz & Chung Lee, 2003, p.345). The dissertation paper appreciates that there are many metrics of measuring customers satisfaction, but the applicability and appropriateness of any metric depends on the industry under which a business is established.

In this end, the dissertation overrules the applicability of measuring the degree to which customers are satisfied within the pharmaceutical setting from the number and frequency of the complaints raised (Farris 2010, p.5). Rather, the paper proposes customers surveys as some of the most resourceful ways of measuring customers satisfaction. Crucial to note is that the focus of this paper is not on measuring customers satisfaction. Rather, it focuses on the determination of a factor that may influence customers satisfaction.

Marketing mix is one of such factors. Consequently, the dissertation seeks to scrutinise its relationship with customers satisfaction in the pharmaceutical settings by considering elements of marketing mix showing how they relate to the product image, quality, and services, which again affect customer satisfaction.

Additionally, the dissertation critically evaluates the role of quality, image, and service factors in influencing satisfaction levels in a retail pharmacy setting. This is done to analyse the levels of performance and variation in performance across different measures of quality, image, and service factors.

Furthermore, opposed to mean and standard deviation, a recommendation is given to the application of regression analysis in the determination of the correlation between independent variables (product image, quality, and services) to customer satisfaction. Finally, the paper recommends on how pharmacies can boost overall levels of customers service satisfaction by paying attention to their marketing mix.

Statement of the hypothesis

Various factors and variables may affect satisfaction of consumers depending on the industry within which a business operates. The focus of this dissertation is on pharmaceutical industry. It hypothesises that that independent variables such as products, which include services, quality, and image, offered in pharmacy affect perceived satisfaction and hence customer satisfaction.

Methodology

Research methodology is accomplished in four main approaches. These are qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods (pragmatic approach) and the emancipator approach (participatory or advocacy approach). In this research, pragmatic approach is utilised. In the words of Freshwater, Sherwood, and Drury (2006), pragmatic researchers grant themselves the freedom to use any of the methods, techniques and procedures typically associated with quantitative or qualitative research (p.295).

The freedom of choice of method depends on the researchers perception and evaluation of methods that best suit the particular kind of research he or she is conducting. This is inspired by the recognition of the fact that every methodology has advantages and disadvantages. The best choice is the one, which utilises methodologies that complement one another. The pragmatic approach deployed in this dissertation makes use of both aspects of qualitative research and qualitative research.

Quantitative research is associated with paradigms of post-positivists or positivist. According to Eisner, it involves collecting and converting data into numerical forms so that statistical calculations can be made and conclusions drawn (1981, p.6). The process of accomplishing this research begins with laying out hypothesis.

A methodology is then devised for garnering the information that is utilised in justifying the hypothesis. To arrive at the conclusions, statistical analysis is required to reveal the differences, relationships, and associations between the variables utilised in a study. On the other hand, qualitative research is usually associated with the social constructivist paradigm which emphasises the socially constructed nature of reality (Creswell 2008, p.45).

This type of research revolves around recording coupled with analysing and conducting an attempt to unveil the actual meaning and relevance of certain deeply ingrained human experiences and behaviours.

In this context, Rocco, Hatcher, and Creswell (2011) further inform that qualitative research is interested in gaining a rich and complex understanding of peoples experience and not in obtaining information which can be generalised to other larger groups (p.87). The focus of qualitative research is to come up with theories and or seek to look out for meaning patterns associated with the generated data in the research.

Essentially, the methodology adopted in this dissertation is inductive in nature. This is done by transgressing from specifics to generalised paradigms by using regression analysis to look out for the correlation between marketing mix and customer satisfaction in pharmaceutical industry settings.

Data is collected through customers surveys. However, even though the process of conducting this research is in-deductive, some perspectives of deductive reasoning are incorporated in the generalisation of the specific facets of the dissertation to arrive at the general recommendations on how pharmacies can deploy marketing mix to induce customers satisfaction.

Any research is conducted for the benefit of some particular groups of people referred to as the target population. The target population of this research is the pharmacies customers. However, it is critical to note that due to resources disadvantages associated with large population sizes, researches often cannot test every individual in the population because it is too expensive and time consuming (Castillo 2009, Para.2).

For this reason, this research relies incredibly on sampling in the attempt to make conclusions, which are then generalised to the entire population. The sampling technique adopted is convenience sampling. This decision is inspired by the fact that if a researcher has plenty of time, funds, and workforce, he can opt to conduct the study using a completely randomised sample, but if the time, money, and workforce is limited, the researcher can opt to use convenience sampling (Gauch 2003, p.12).

Coincidentally, the current research happens to be constrained by time and financial resources. For the pharmacies, the target population is valid along demographic lines. In the description of this population, the target group needs to be bided by some common attributes or traits. The attribute here is that all people considered in the surveys are customers of medical products offered by pharmacies. Hence, they would all need service satisfaction.

Research questions

In this dissertation, a number of questions were administered to extract data from the customers of various pharmaceutical products outlets. The customers were also required to choose either response A or B for each question. These questions are

Why do you buy at your preferred pharmaceutical products outlet and why do you prefer it?

Interactive sellers
Cost of the medicines

What makes you think that your outlet offers the best services?

Clear guidance on the use of the medicine
Reputation of the outlet received from the prior customers

If you were to choose an alternative pharmaceutical outlet, what would you look for?

Nearness to your residency
Speed in attendance of your prescription

Literature review

As researches on customer satisfaction experiences continue to develop, enormous evidences exist articulating utilitarian and hedonic benefits with the reasons as to why consumers buy goods and services. While hedonic benefits refers to experimental and sensory traits of any product offered for sale, utilitarian benefits of a product are associated with the more instrumental and functional attributes of the product (Batra & Athola, 1990, p.163).

In the pharmaceutical industry, the utility of a product is realised through the capacity of the product to produce positive impacts to the diagnosed condition. In most of the situations, in the pharmaceutical industry, consumers have little choices between the products that they are to consume.

This literally implies that the selection of a pharmaceutical product is not influenced by the consumers perceptions of the usefulness of the product especially where the product is meant for medicinal application. This means that customers satisfaction with products can only be expressed on some other alterative paradigms in case of medicinal products.

Westbrook (1980) in his work A Rating Scale for Measuring Product or Service Satisfaction published in the Journal of Marketing argues, The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables, which correlate with satisfaction behaviours such as return and recommend rate (p.69).

In this light, since it is not highly anticipated for consumers to return medicinal products for any other reason apart from negative body response, it is possible to argue that return rate cannot be deployed as a means of measuring customers satisfaction with pharmaceutical medicinal products.

The argument that the level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organisations products (Wirtz & Bateson, 1995, p.89) may not be valid for pharmaceutical products.

Essentially, if the product itself does not have significant impacts to the customers satisfaction in pharmaceutical products, then it implies that the services delivered during the processes of change of ownership on the pharmaceutical products between the consumers and the pharmacy owners may influence the satisfaction levels of the customers.

Various scholars have attempted to study the impacts and correlation of various variables associated with service delivery in pharmaceutical settings. One of such studies is the study conducted by Slowiak et al (2008), which claims that the waiting time at a pharmacy correlates negatively with customers satisfaction (p.516).

According to the same scholars, prescription and cost of medications are yet other factors that may influence the levels of customer satisfaction. On the other hand, Lothgren and Tambour (1999, p. 449) successfully depict the manner in which pharmacies in Sweden succeeded in hiking their customers satisfaction by merely altering the resources from focusing on production approaches to measures of enhancing consumption processes.

To achieve this, resources were principally allocated to activities that were thought to produce better perceptions of quality and image among the consumers (Forscht et al (2006, p. 31). These activities were considered to include service marketing mix and marketing. Additionally, Forscht et al (2006) demonstrates the contribution of relationship between marketing in hiking customer satisfaction with the services rendered in retail pharmacy outlets in Australia (p.32).

The results of this research indicated that strategic deployment of concepts and principles of relationship management could increase the perception of customers image and quality in the service rendered by retail pharmacies.

On the other hand, Gordon (1999) believes that the approach of marketing mix is essentially too limited for it to avail usable framework for assessing and developing customer relationships in many industries and should be replaced by the relationship marketing alternative model where the focus is on customers, relationships and interaction over time, rather than markets and products (p.336).

In this regard, relationship marketing can have a central role in the creation of short-term arrangements between the consumers and the pharmacies in the attempt to provide services that are more satisfying. This is achievable through enactment of tactics of post-buying exchange processes with a customer to make more truthful and richer contact by providing a more holistic, personalised purchase and uses the service to create stronger ties (Payne & Ballantyne, 1991, p.45).

In this context, arguably, relationship marketing can help to create customer satisfaction in pharmacy setting when it is interpreted as the application of philosophies of marketing to ease the consumers effort in accessing services.

Consistent with the adoption of concepts of relationship marketing in the field of pharmacy to influence customers satisfaction, it is relevant that practitioners in the field embraces the adaptive measures tied within marketing concept to woo and retain customers. Customers satisfaction is one of such adaptive processes.

With regard to Yelkur (2000), the realisation of this adaptive process is dependent on cute employment of elements of services marketing mix on the customers perception of the services (p.105). Customers may experience the quality of the services delivered in a number of ways.

Yelkur (2000) exemplifies one of such ways by claiming, the customer experiences the service through the marketing mix; the critical elements in the services marketing mix that influence customer expectations being place, physical evidence, participants, and process (p.106). In this light, it is vital to note that the perceptions and feelings of customers related to the experience of service are essential in attracting and influencing new clientele in a pervasive manner.

In any industry, it is critical that managers are able to determine the appropriate marketing mix to produce the appropriate customers satisfaction. Apart from attracting new customers, deployment of appropriate strategies for choice of the right combination of marketing mixes in the pharmaceutical setting can also foster improvement of the image of the services offered.

Marketing service mix here refers to people, physical evidence, process, and coherence and adaptability as opposed to the traditional 4 Ps- prices, product, place and promotion. Making this distinction is necessary since unlike products, which are consumed independently from the individuals responsible for creating them, people play an integral role in consumption of services (Breshears, 2007, p.67).

The centrality of people in influencing the satisfaction of customers rests on the idea that interaction with personnel providing services helps in improving the quality of services consumed by the consumers.

Consequently, a direct correlation between quality and image of pharmaceutical medicinal products with the degree of quality perception among consumers may exist. Such a correlation may result to more customer satisfaction with not only the product itself but also with the services offered in delivering these products to the consumers (process).

Consequently, as Schneider (1980) argues, this makes it clear that efficient and effective processes allow service delivery personnel to anticipate customer needs, identify and implement appropriate solutions, and respond to customer feedback in order to improve service delivery (p.53).

Therefore, the process of delivering services is critical in the improvement of satisfaction of customers coupled with retention of the customers while not negating increment of the value of the services offered. Another critical element of the product service mix is the physical evidence. Reichheld and Sasser (1990) claim that physical evidence refers to tangible and intangible elements that comprise the environment in which services are delivered (p.109).

Physical evidence presents itself in affecting consumer satisfaction through immaterial characteristics of services in the pharmaceutical setting that may affect the perceptions of the customers and hence their satisfaction. Lastly, in the determination of the capacity of pharmaceutical industry to leap maximally on these three aspects, the roles of adaptability and coherence are relevant.

According to Breshears (2007), Mix adaptability refers to a businesss ability to alter the marketing mix in response to changes in the market or service delivery environment while mix coherence means that each aspect of the marketing mix reinforces the others (Breshears, 2007, p.86). The roles played by adaptability and mix coherence in influencing customer satisfaction considered by Breshears (2007, p.86) is on a general business industry and it is possible that it could also play similar roles in the pharmaceutical industry.

Existing body of knowledge in the field of application of marketing mix in inducing customer satisfaction in pharmaceutical settings reveals gaps in the considerations of quality, image, and service delivery in affecting customer satisfaction. Many of the studies predominantly introspect medical and patient care factors among clinical professional that work in pharmacies besides how these factors contribute to the well being of the patients (McCaffrey, 2000, p. 43).

Researchers have continued to focus on this area amid the fact that image and quality of service perceptions among patients is a critical component of the service satisfaction in the pharmaceutical settings. Kneeland (2010) reinforces this argument by informing.

According to him, three main essential components may truncate to success of any pharmacy including customer service, satisfaction with career and deployed of appropriate patient care tactics (2010, p. 48). This argument is central to the focus of this dissertation in that it focuses on examining the roles that marketing service mix may have on customer in fostering customers service perceptions that may give rise to incredible satisfaction in pharmaceutical setting.

Results

Upon administration of the research questions compiled in survey forms, various results were evident. Irrespective of age and gender, 63 percent of people selected in the survey sample chose multiple choices A as the reason why they preferred pharmaceutical products outlet of their choice.

On the other hand, 74 percent chose multiple choices B as the reason why they thought their pharmaceutical outlets offered the best services. 90 percent of those who chose this option had chosen A for the first survey question. 57 percent choose multiple choices B as the main factor they would consider in choosing an alternative pharmaceutical outlet. 81 percent of those who chose this option had chosen B for the second question while 79 percent had chosen A for the for first survey question.

Discussion and recommendations

The quality of service delivery in pharmaceutical setting may be expressed in terms of waiting times for the customers to be served. On the other hand, service time is a function of the responsiveness of the people working in pharmacies to respond to customers needs by promptly answering to their concerns with high attention being paid to customer-server communication as opposed to server customer communication.

From the results of the study, the capacity of the people working in pharmaceutical organisations to address the needs of clients is critical in enhancing the clients preferred outlet choice. It is subtle therefore to conclude that, based on the definition of customer satisfaction, the characteristics of people working in pharmaceutical organisation is a key factor in contributing to customer satisfaction. Akin also to the choice of the preferred outlet is the consideration of the image of the outlet.

This image is based on the characteristics of the people who offer the service. Image here is the mental perception of the whole outlet created in the mind of the customer whenever he or she thinks of seeking services there. This image is enhanced by the process of offering service in terms of speed and efficiency.

This argument is well evidenced by the results for the third survey question. Service characteristics are also found as being critical in influencing the manner in which people talk about the outlet. This can be expressed in terms of physical presence such as the characteristics of the premises in which the pharmacies are established such as cleanness, order, and by the characteristics of people offering the services as evidenced by the results for the selection of the response to second question.

The manner in which the choice of the response to the first question determines the response of the subsequent questions indicates that there exist factors that bind and determine the choice of the three responses. Arguably, this marketing mix is the factor that binds the physical presence, process and people: marketing mix coherence and adaptability.

From the discussion above, it can be argued that a direct correlation exists between marketing service mix and customers perceptions of quality, image, and services in the pharmaceutical settings. Image, quality, and service perceptions have been found by other scholarly works discussed in literature review as the representation of customer satisfaction with services (Foscht et al., 2006, p.34).

Consequently, since these three aspects are impacted directly by service marketing mix, a direct correlation also exists between customer satisfaction and marketing service mix adopted by a pharmaceutical organisation. However, the exact correlation coefficients have not been determined by this research. Therefore, the dissertation recognises and recommends that a research opportunity exists.

Thus, a regression analysis can be deployed to determine the correlation coefficients between marketing service mix and customer satisfaction in pharmaceutical settings. Amid, the fact that the dissertation has not considered within its scope to determine the correlation coefficient, the hypothesis that independent variables such as product, which include services, quality, and image offered in pharmacy, affect perceived satisfaction and hence customer satisfaction has been confirmed.

Another recommendation is that, based on the results, pharmaceutical industry needs to organise its marketing service mix in a manner that ensures that the needs and concerns of its customers perception of quality, image, and service are central to its processes, people, physical evidence, mix coherence, and adaptability approaches.

References List

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