Experiential perception of value: A field research on the social media activities of pharmaceutical companies

With globalization, it can be said that the importance of being accessible for every individual in the world we live in is increasing day by day. It can be thought that with accessibility, consumers get different experiences and a value concept emerges through experiences. It is necessary to mention the existence of technological developments in the access of individuals to products, services or offerings. In an increasingly digitalized life, it is necessary to talk about the digitalization of the experiences of consumers. In this context, it is important to emphasize the importance of social media. Social media marketing has become a marketing model with the rapid acceptance of social media, which is stated to have emerged with the birth of Web 2.0, and its widespread use in the field of marketing. It can be said that social media plays an active role in the formation of experiential value as a result of the effort to provide different experiences to the consumer at every moment with social media marketing, which is frequently preferred by businesses. In this sense, it can be mentioned that social media marketing can be used in addition to the traditional marketing model, which can be used to a limited extent in the pharmaceutical industry. The aim of this study; is to test whether pharmaceutical companies have an impact on the experiential values of physicians in the target customer group through their social media activities. 388 physicians participated in the study. In the questionnaire applied to the physicians, there are statements that measure Social Media Marketing Activity Perception and Experiential Value Perception. In the last part of the questionnaire, there are questions about demographic variables. Descriptive statistics, reliability and normality tests were used in data analysis. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Path analyzes of the study were carried out using the IBM AMOS 24 package program. In the study, the fit of the data set to the model was tested with CFA and it was seen that the model fit values of the data set were at an acceptable level. In addition, the hypotheses established by creating path analyzes were tested and the study findings were evaluated. According to the results of the research, it has been determined that the informing and word of mouth (communication) factors from the social media marketing activities of the pharmaceutical company have an effect on the experiential value perception of the physicians in general and this effect is positive.