Will consumers still go for your product after they consult their healthcare professional (HCP) about it?

In markets where consumers consult HCPs for advice on products - as for many OTC, nutritional products or cosmeceuticals - the success of your product depends on multiple players' preferences. Identifying the key influences and understanding to what extent different players influence each other is crucial to accurately predict consumer choices and build a strong marketing strategy. How to tap into this insight?

Health products: a complex decision making process

Nowadays, consumers are increasingly well informed about health and wellbeing products and often challenge HCPs' advice and prescriptions. But usually they are not fully independent in their decision making, and often still request HCPs' opinions.

This complex decision making process creates numerous challenges for marketers:

• Is consumer preference for your product strong enough that they will buy it without professional endorsement?
• What triggers physicians to recommend your product actively and to what extent are they influenced by consumer preferences?
• Which segment of your target group is most vulnerable to endorsement by HCPs?
• Which products do consumers ultimately chose after consulting several HCPs?

How to find out who is really driving the choice?

And how can you make use of this information? Our three-step integrated choice analysis tells you who is really driving consumer preferences, accurately predicts stakeholder final choices and helps fine-tune the marketing approach:

1. We first interview all relevant players in the decision making unit and measure their preferences, not only for different products but also for various components of the offerings (i.e. brand, efficacy level, pack size, price).

2. We evaluate how likely they are to be influenced by preferences of the other players e.g. to what extent pharmacists will change their endorsement behavior for product X based on consumers' high or low willingness to buy this product. Or, to what extent a diabetic's preferences will change if a diabetes nurse recommends a certain blood glucose meter.

3. We integrate all perspectives in our analysis to replicate the decision making process,enabling us to estimate the impact of recommendation or preference of one party for a certain product on the choice of another party. We use this knowledge to accurately forecast the final purchase decision for your product (see simplified example below).

Deliverables

By realistically replicating the decision making process for your product, we will show you:

• How strong the preference for your (new) product is amongst consumers and HCPs
• Which aspects of your offering are driving the preference amongst the different players
• Who are the most important influencers in the decision making for your product
• To what extent the different (DMU) parties influence each other
• The barriers in the DMU and how to best overcome them
• How to best segment your consumer target group and help HCPs convince consumers.

This allows you to optimize marketing and communication activities for your product.

Tap into our Consumer Health expertise

We are an expert in choice modeling and have vast expertise in the Consumer Health area. We can integrate consumer and HCP choices in order to boost the potential of your product. 

Want to know more? Don't hesitate to give us a call or drop an email!