Abstract
A direct-to-consumer website (DTCW) is defined as a brand-sponsored website that offers prescription drug information to the general public. As such, it is a promotional effort by a pharmaceutical firm, similar to direct-to-consumer advertising in magazines or on television. Increasingly, Americans search online for prescription drug information; 33% of American adults and 45% of Internet users have looked online for drug information (Fox and Jones 2009). Thus, pharmaceutical firms are putting enormous resources into developing brand-specific websites. Also, DTCW has become a vital and ideal source of drug and health information for consumers (Davis 2010). With the growth of DTCWs, several concerns regarding the efficacy of these sites have been raised. For example, studies show that information presented in a DTCW is not highly reliable (e.g., Huh, DeLorme, and Reid 2005). However, past studies largely focused on the website design and its features. Prescription drug information is also disseminated by non-commercial third-party websites. For example, PubMed Health’s website, produced by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, offers exhaustive facts about drugs. This website often appears near the top of search engine results for most prescription medications. Yet, despite the growing importance of DTCWs, relatively little is known about differences in consumers’ evaluation of pharmaceutical brands and information found on DTCW versus third-party websites. It is unclear whether a non-commercial third-party website produces more favorable consumer evaluations than a company-sponsored DTCW. In addition, research has yet to examine the influence of consumer characteristics (e.g., risk perception and product knowledge) in such evaluation. Thus, the current research attempts to address these issues by examining consumers’ evaluations of a third-party versus a brand-sponsored website. It also investigates the moderating effects of perceived risk and product category knowledge.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Beatty, S. E. & Talpade, S. (1994). Adolescent influence in family decision making: A replication with extension. Journal of Consumer Research, 21, 332-341.
Brucks, M. (1985). The Effects of Product Class Knowledge on Information Search Behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 12, 1-16.
Coyle, J. R. & Thorson, E. (2001). The Effects of Progressive Levels of Interactivity and Vividness in Web Marketing Sites. Journal of Advertising, 30, 65-77.
Davis, J. (2010). The effect of placement and modality on the recall of information from pharmaceutical web sites. Journal of Medical Marketing, 10, 99-114.
Fox, S. & Jones, S. (2009). The Social Life of Health Information. Washington DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Gemünden, H. G. (1985). Perceived risk and information search. A systematic meta-analysis of the empirical evidence. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2, 79-100.
Gaziano, C. & McGrath, K. (1986). Measuring the Concept of Credibility. Journalism Quarterly, 63, 451-462.
Huh, J., DeLorme, D. E., & Reid, L. N. (2005). Factors Affecting Trust in On-line Prescription Drug Information and Impact of Trust on Behavior Following Exposure to DTC Advertising. Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, 10, 711-731.
Kamins, M. A. & Marks, L. J. (1991). The perception of Kosher as a third-party certification claim in advertising for familiar and unfamiliar brands. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences, 19, 177-185.
Kelley, H. H. (1973). The process of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107-128.
Putrevu, S. & Lord, K. R. (1994). Comparative and Noncomparative Advertising: Attitudinal Effects under Cognitive and Affective Involvement Conditions. Journal of Advertising, 23, 77-90.
Rains, S. A. & Karmikel, C. D. (2009). Health Information-Seeking and Perceptions of Website Credibility. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 544-553.
Srinivasan, N. & Ratchford, B. (1991). An empirical test of a model of external search for automobiles. Journal of Consumer Research, 18, 233-242.
Stone, R. N. & Gronhaug, K. (1993). Perceived Risk: Further Considerations for the Marketing Discipline. European Journal of Marketing, 27, 39-50.
Sussan, F., Gould, S., & Weisfeld-Spolter, S. (2006). Location, Location, Location: The Relative Roles of Virtual Location, Online Word-of Mouth (eWOM) and Advertising in the New-Product Adoption Process. Advances in Consumer Research, 33, 649-650.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Academy of Marketing Science
About this paper
Cite this paper
Limbu, Y.B., Huhmann, B.A. (2016). Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Websites: The Moderating Roles of Perceived Risk and Product Category Knowledge. In: Plangger, K. (eds) Thriving in a New World Economy. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24148-7_35
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24148-7_35
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-24146-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-24148-7
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)