Development of the Concept of Relationship Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry of Prescription Drugs

The processes of globalization and increased market competition in the pharmaceutical industry have necessitated the development of technologies and marketing and management tools to strengthen the company's market position. The concept of relationship marketing seems relevant and promising specifically for the segment of prescription drugs in the pharmaceutical industry, since for such drugs the use of classical marketing tools to promote pharmaceuticals is legally limited. Large pharmaceutical companies promoting medicines with a long sales cycle are aware of the value of a relationship marketing strategy to involve all types of stakeholders in interaction, but it seems that such efforts are still insufficient, which determines the relevance of the topic of this study. The development of a digital society and the processes of digitalization are changing the classical tools of marketing and relationship marketing, in particular. The aim of the work is to develop a model for optimizing communication processes between a pharmaceutical company and its stakeholders of various types based on the concept of relationship marketing to promote prescription drugs and strengthen competitiveness using the example of Merck.