Economic considerations for dispensing pharmacists: the impact of price-quality evaluations on brand categorization

This paper examines consumer brand categorization in view of price-quality evaluations. In particular it examines the relationship of the Brisoux and Laroche (1980) brand categorization process and the Bliemel (1984) conceptualization of consumers' price-quality evaluations, in a pharmaceutical marketing context. The findings suggest that: the Brisoux-Laroche conceptualization is supported in a pharmaceutical/industrial marketing scenario; and, the pharmacists' categorization of brands (i.e., into the evoked, hold, foggy, and reject sets) can be partially explained as an outcome of a price-quality evaluation process.