Testing promotional messages with physicians

What is shaping pharmaceutical

Pharmaceutical and medical-device companies need evidence from doctors, pharmacists and patients, gathered with verified respondents, strict confidentiality and careful questionnaire design.

• Prescribing behaviour is shaped by evidence, experience and access
• Pharmacies influence brand substitution and adherence
• Patient journeys reveal unmet needs between visits

A pharmaceutical brand team, working in United States, United Kingdom, Germany & Japan. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A pharmaceutical brand team

Sector

Pharmaceutical

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Healthcare panel, Quantitative research, Qualitative research

The brand team had several candidate messages for a new product and needed evidence on which were most credible and relevant to physicians.

• Deliver on the brief: testing promotional messages with physicians.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of physicians.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 4 weeks.

The work focused on 300 physicians.

• physicians300

Audiences we typically reach in pharmaceutical

Physicians and specialistsPharmacists and chemistsNurses and allied HCPsPatients and caregiversHospital procurement teams

Coverage: United States, United Kingdom, Germany & Japan. Markets: United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Germany
• Japan

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Online message test
3. 3Follow-up interviews
4. 4Insight

Physicians rated messages on clarity, credibility, relevance and differentiation in a monadic design, then follow-up interviews explored reactions in depth.

Healthcare panelQuantitative researchQualitative research

physicians

300

• Healthcare professionals and patients were screened on specialty, setting or condition, and professionals were verified before taking part.
• Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

interviews

15

• The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
• Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
• Review of open-ended answers
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Verification of healthcare professionals
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Comparison of concepts, messages or products against each other
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Messages based on specific patient outcomes outperformed general efficacy claims.

Physicians respond to specifics backed by evidence.

• Build on the core insight: physicians respond to specifics backed by evidence.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: messages based on specific patient outcomes outperformed general efficacy claims.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The team built its launch materials around the strongest messages.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: how do pharmacies influence brand choice?