Country-of-origin versus brand: consumers’ dilemma when choosing between generic and branded drugs in emerging countries

Purpose Taking an emerging country perspective, this paper aims to investigate consumers’ preferences for over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, regarding three attributes: country-of-origin (COO), brand status (branded versus generic) and price. The second purpose is to test the effect of COO and brand status on consumers’ perceptions of quality, trust and purchasing intentions. Design/methodology/approach After a preliminary qualitative study, consumers answered a follow-up questionnaire to evaluate eight product combinations (COO/brand status/price) for three categories of OTC drugs. Conjoint analysis allowed assessing the importance of COO compared to brand status and price, while ANOVA was used to test the effect of COO and branding status on consumers’ responses. Findings Findings show that, in an emerging countries context, COO is less important than brand status in consumers’ preferences. COO and brand status have a greater effect on consumers’ perceptions of drug quality and trust than on purchasing intentions. Research limitations/implications The limited number of factors (brand status/COO/price) could have amplified their relative importance. Practical implications Pharmaceutical companies from industrialized countries, exporting generic drugs to emerging markets, can benefit from the favorably perceived COO of their drugs and thus help the acceptance of generic drugs in these markets. Originality/value The study has two major contributions. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of consumer behavior in the pharmaceutical field. It also transposes the framework on COO to the context of an emerging country: Tunisia.