Branding: The Panacea for Patronage of Pharmaceutical Drugs among Patients in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria

Nowadays in developing countries, the purchase of pharmaceutical drugs seems not to depend solely on physicians prescriptions. Most patients buy their medicines over the counter. Branding of products becomes pertinent for pharmaceutical firms to adopt in their operation to create awareness and trust and to improve their image. The study used descriptive research design to enable the researcher use a questionnaire to obtain data from 246 respondents that constituted the sample size of the study. The sample was drawn using a purposive non probability sampling techniques, and the responses obtained from the sample were subjected to statistical analysis using multiple regression. The result of the analysis revealed that branding helps pharmaceutical companies in communicating the tangible difference of their products, thereby enhancing their corporate image, and the patronage of their products. The study concluded that branding and its elements such as brand awareness, brand trust and brand image have a positive effect on the patronage of pharmaceutical drugs by patients. The study recommended that pharmaceutical firms should intensify their market communication effort in order to raise awareness, trust and image of both pharmacist and the public about the existence of drugs and the overall universal proposition of their industry.