Vol. 7, Issue 9 (2018)

Author(s):
Alagala MB, Bagbi BM and Shaleye AB

Abstract:
This study investigates the role of pharmaceutical packaging on consumer buying behavior of over-the counter (OTC) drugs in Port Harcourt. The research is based on consumers visiting community pharmacies within Port Harcourt. A well structured questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale was designed and used for this study to obtain primary data from respondents. Section A of the questionnaire includes questions pertaining to respondents demographic data such as age, sex and educational qualification while Section B contains questions on packaging color, background image, packaging material, design of wrapper, and other innovations which are all pharmaceutical packaging dimensions (independent variable) and consumers buying behaviour (dependent variable). Due to changing consumers’ lifestyle the interest in package as tool of sales promotion and stimulator of impulsive buying behavior is increasing. The result showed that pharmaceutical packaging has a great influence on consumer buying behavior. As such it can be concluded that packaging has an important role in marketing communications, especially at the point of sale and could be treated as one of the most important factors influencing consumer’s purchase decision.