Impact of Country of Origin on Consumers' Evaluation of the Anti-malarial Remedies in Tanzania

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of Country of Origin (COO) on consumers' evaluation of anti-malarial remedies in Tanzania. An exploratory research design was adopted which helped to discover ideas and insights underlying consumers' evaluation of anti-malarial remedies as far as COO was concerned. Purposive sampling was used to select 13 participants in this study. The findings from the study revealed COO have an impact on evaluation of anti-malarial remedies to certain groups of consumers. For instance, educated consumers, younger consumers and urban consumers were shown to consider COO cue while purchasing the anti-malarial remedies. This is due to exposure to different brands of anti-malarial remedies and easy accessibility of different anti-malarial brands. On the other hand, older consumers, rural consumers and illiterate consumers were shown to base on opinion leaders (pharmacists and clinical officers) advises. This is because, most of them are unfamiliar with different foreign anti-malarial brands, hence opinion leaders' advices are trusted by them and are totally satisfied. The findings of this study are expected to provide health professional bodies with knowledge about the impact of COO on evaluation of anti-malarial remedies. This will help them to boost the standard of the different domestic medical products and hence encourage Tanzanians to value the domestically produced medical products.