Business Challenge
A leading Pharmaceutical company, launching a niche product into an already saturated treatment area, lacked sufficient understanding of the drivers of choice and how to disrupt prescribing behaviour through their communications and sales strategy. Without this knowledge they were unable to forecast product uptake or understand how to maximise message cut through.
Forethought Approach
Forethought’s specialised Healthcare team designed and implemented a mixed methodology research approach to understand drivers of choice in Health Care Providers’ (HCPs) prescribing behaviour and test messaging for a new product launch.
The quantitative phase applied a range of techniques including-trade off analysis to understand HCPs’ inferred hierarchy of needs for prescribing decisions, followed by in-depth interviews to probe these reactions, explore the competitive landscape and scope the opportunity for a new product launch.
Initial reactions to messaging uncovered an immediate need to pivot away from the intended campaign and address the drivers of choice more effectively with different tonality. Messaging was revised and tested, measuring alignment, credibility and differentiation.
Outcomes
Our client was provided the insights needed to optimise the effectiveness of the product launch, adjusting their communications and sales strategies prior to launch.
The directly actionable nature of our insights meant our client was empowered to pivot with a clearer understanding of where the opportunity lay for their product launch. They had the confidence to work with their agencies and internal stakeholders to redesign both the sales and creative strategies to better align with the market needs.
Optimising and leverage communications has led to a more effective product launch and greater efficiency of the sales team.