Digital Marketing and its Effect on Consumer Purchase of Pharmaceutical Products in Delta State of Nigeria
Abstract
The motivation that prompted this study emanated from poor adherence to customers’ life time values, issues of website traffic, lack of control on social media platforms and high customer acquisition costs which have posed serious challenges on consumers of pharmaceutical products in Nigeria. To address these challenges, the need for empirical study on digital marketing becomes imperative. Therefore, this research examined the digital marketing and its effect on consumer purchase of pharmaceutical products in Asaba, Delta State of Nigeria. Accordingly, the specific objectives of the study aimed to determine the effects of e-mail marketing, mobile marketing, social media marketing and online affiliate marketing on consumer purchase of pharmaceutical products in Delta State. The study was anchored on uses and gratification theory. A survey research design was adopted. The population of this study was the customers of pharmaceutical products in Asaba, Delta State. The sample size was three hundred and sixty-eight. Face as well as content validity was used to establish the soundness of the measuring instrument. Test-retest reliability method was employed to establish the internal consistency of the measuring instrument. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the formulated hypotheses at 5% level of significance. The study found that e-mail marketing has a significant positive effect on consumer purchase of pharmaceutical products in Delta State. The findings revealed that mobile marketing has a significant positive effect on consumer purchase of pharmaceutical products in Delta State. The study found that social media marketing has a significant positive effect on consumer purchase of pharmaceutical products in Delta State. It was also found that affiliate marketing has a significant positive effect on consumer purchase of pharmaceutical products in Delta State. The researchers recommended that pharmaceutical firms should continue to invest on digital marketing channels for sustained patronage since they are significant enhancers of consumer purchase of pharmaceutical products.
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