BOHR International Journal of Computer Science 2022, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 56–67 https://doi.org/10.54646/bijcs.010 www.bohrpub.com Effective Determinants of Consumer Buying Decision on OTC Medications: Digital Marketing, Brand Experience, and Reference Groups Narjes Alarsali and Iman Aghaei ∗ Department of Business Administration, Cyprus International University, Nicosia, North Cyprus, via Mersin 10 Turkey ∗ Corresponding Author: iaghaei@ciu.edu.tr Abstract. The growing Over-The-Counter (OTC) medication sector within the pharmaceutical industry gains com- petitive advantages through digital marketing where the companies must re-evaluate their infrastructure and their marketing techniques to get through this evaluation. This study aims to analysis the influence of developing pharma- ceutical marketing on consumer purchase decision of OTC medication. An empirical online survey was conducted based on a self-administrated questionnaire to assess the impact of pharmaceutical digital marketing, reference groups, and brand experience towards consumer decision of OTC purchase. Primary data was collected using that questionnaire from 158 pharmacies’ consumers in North Cyprus (Famagusta, Nicosia, and Kyrenia) and SPSS soft- ware is used to analysis the data. Eventually, the findings indicated that consumers in North Cyprus are aware of the use of over-the-counter medications for common ailments, and that pharmaceutical companies, the government, and other health stakeholders have a responsibility to increase consumer knowledge and awareness about the safe and effective use of OTC medications, particularly through the digital channels. Keywords: Consumer buying behaviour, OTC medication, Pharmaceutical digital marketing, Reference groups. INTRODUCTION In today’s marketing world, the consumer is regarded as “The King” (Ting et al., 2019). Manufacturers managed to sell anything to consumers during the increase of the era of marketing. However, it is now the consumer’s purchasing preferences that determine what should be produced, in what amount, and what the quality of product should be. As a result, a marketer must consider a variety of factors when deciding how to market goods because consumers’ preferences vary. Analysing customer behaviour is riskier in the pharmaceutical industry because it involves health and medicines (Sehgal and Mittal, 2019). Developing of pharmaceutical marketing nowadays affects the consumer purchase behaviour of OTC medi- cation widely and that influence will be studied where the aim of the study is to determine the influence of marketing and costumer behaviour on consumer buying decision making of OTC drugs. The pharmaceutical indus- try is heavily regulated and organized compared to other industries. In the battle for consumers’ interest, loyalty, and attention, firms are spending a fortune on OTC medica- tion promotions in the market, despite numerous statutory limits and rivalry are fierce, mainly when multiple similar pharmaceutical medicines with the same impacts on health may be found in the market simultaneously (Batraga, 2018). As a result, it is critical for businesses to comprehend consumer behaviour in the purchasing decision-making process of OTC drugs, as well as their potential that affect this procedure. Over the counter drugs are the medication that can be given to consumers directly without prescription. Non- prescription medications are most commonly used form of medical treatment worldwide, and their sales have grown faster than prescribed drugs since 2008 (Wube Temechewu and Gebremedhin, 2020). The OTC drugs typ- ically include painkillers, cold/flu/cough, vitamins, gas- trointestinal, supplements, dermatology and miner. These medications are harmless for short time use and are effi- cient for slight and ordinary common illnesses. 56