ИСТИНА

The global pharmaceutical industry is activelygrowing both in terms of sales and spending on advertising. The competitive market environment stimulates pharmaceutical companies to look for new ways to attract the consumer's attention. Despite the fact that pharmaceutical advertisingwas previously considered to focus on conservative rational appeals, recent drug advertising campaigns start to use various creative and emotionaltools such as humor, animation, and celebrity endorsement. This paper contributes to a growing body of research that discusses new approaches to marketing communications in the pharmaceutical market. In our study, we aim to test the applicability of Schmitt’s experiential marketing approach to the over-the-counter (OTC) drug advertising. Based on a consumer choice survey (N=277) followed byregression analysis, we found that respondents tend to prefer OTC drug advertising posters that use the traditional “features-and-benefits” approach. Among the “experiential-based” posters, respondents are more likely to choose cognitive appeals than emotional appeals. Our analysis also identifies factors influencing consumer choice: female respondents significantly more often prefer “experiential-based” posters than males, while age, income, and purchase frequency had a negative impact on theprobability of “experiential-based” posters’ choice.