| Abstract | In Thailand, the market of Aspirin is very promising due to its indication. In general,
Aspirin is widely recognized as an analgesic product, which mean chemical substances, which
indicated, for relieving pain. Long used to relieve pain, reduce fever, lessen stiffness, and
inflammation, Aspirin is now widely used to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Even low doses
of Aspirin can reduce the incidence of these cardiovascular events as it contains acetylsalicylic
acid, which acts as platelet aggregation inhibitor (makes it more difficult for the platelets to
accumulate and thus reduce the risk of clot formation). In order to market this drug
successfully, an accurate preliminary plan is needed. Medical doctors play a crucial role as the
major initiators in purchasing decision. As a result, their prescriptive behaviors are vital in this
study.
The problem of this research is to prove if the positive side effect of aspirin in being
prescribed for the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease in order to analyze the
findings and give suggestions on product attributes and promotional campaign for marketing
this drug.
Personal and mailing interviews with one hundred and thirty-five senior doctors were
conducted. Ninety-four of the respondents in the sample size are cardiologists, which is
accounted for seventy percent of total sample size. Twenty-one of total sample size are
neurologists, occupies fifteen percent of overall sample size. The rest twenty of them are
general practitioners, which is accounted for fifteen percent of total sample size.
Personal interviews with pharmacy supervisors/purchasing department of hospitals
also were conducted for additional information in terms of organizational buying behavior as
well as (drugs) buying criteria.
According to the survey, doctors (who are practicing as cardiologists, neurologists, and
general practitioners) agreed with the indication of aspirin on anti-platelet therapy. As a result,
most of patients suspected with coronary heart disease are recommended to take aspirin once
daily.
In terms of product attribute, aspirin as the indication of anti-platelet therapy should
have faster mode of action and faster solubility. It might be possible that a cert~in substance
should be contained in those aspirin. Large quantity of this drug, for example the bottles of
1,000 tablets should be provided for the hospital channels. For promotional campaign,
symposium should be considered in order to provide medical proof/data on the particular drug.
Price discounts should also be taken into accounted for aspirin against coronary heart disease
as almost all patients (except contradiction is found) suspected with this particular disease are
recommended to take this particular drug once daily. Such sport tournaments as aspirin-heart
mini-marathon, aspirin-heart tennis tournament, or aspirin-heart golf tournament should be
sponsored in order to build product and brand awareness. |