Abstract

Pharmaceutical companies have adopted a pull marketing strategy of prescription drugs as part of their marketing mix. This approach referred to as Direct-To-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) where drugs are directly advertised to the consumer through mass media, has been the topic of an ongoing debate. While advocates of DTCA defend its educational value, opponents question its safety, especially when addressing a market segment presumed to be vulnerable (i.e., the elderly).
Based on previous research that demonstrated the dependence of advertising message persuasiveness on a number of individual factors, this thesis investigates the elderly’s responses to DTCA, across variations in their prescription drug use, health status, and cognitive abilities. How do users (vs. non-users) of prescription drugs, and older consumers with high (vs. low) cognition, differ in their post-exposure attitudes towards the ad and advertised brand, in their ad recognition, and behavioural intentions?
The findings suggest that prescription drug users are more receptive of DTCA and more willing to act in response to it. However, all participants regardless of their health status were resistant to changing their doctor, if he/she refused to prescribe the advertised drug to them. Also, consumers with a high cognition level better recognized the ad’s claims, engaging in a benefit/risk trade-off in their processing of the ad information. The results further suggest that sufferers who do not use a prescription drug do not differ in their post-ad-exposure attitudes and behavioural intentions than non-sufferers. Finally, managers are advised to carefully design their ads taking into consideration the elderly’s cognitive deficiencies.