The effects of advertising on sales in the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria - A survey

Although advertising accounts for a major share of promotional expenditure of most companies in the pharmaceutical industry, most of them manifest considerable ignorance about how advertising works. This study aimed at determining the effect of advertising on the sales of pharmaceutical products bearing in mind the uniqueness of this market. Data collection was achieved with the use of questionnaire administered on the respondents by stratified sampling technique. Data analysis was done with the SPSS software package. The result showed that there was a positive correlation between advertising and sales in the industry. The study concluded that even though advertising influenced sales, there was a limit to which a positive correlation could be expected and hence, advertisers should be wary of this phenomenon. The study also showed that, there was no difference in the way advertising influences sales in this industry and in any other industry.