BOBI Award winner 2007: Excellence in Communication Research “Success from listening and understanding” - Development of a Communications Campaign

A DFU on this established product highlighted that the current sales campaign had been unable to successfully identify a clear market position for the product amongst key customers. The award winning campaign this research helped generate enabled the product to maintain market share and grow volume sales.
Successful outcomes/Impact on the UK business
The revised sales campaign was well received by the sales force (partly due to their early involvement in the research)
Detail follow up testing of the sales campaign showed above industry average retention of sales messages
The same study showed healthcare professionals recognizing specific advantages, whereas before the launch of the new campaign this was less certain
Furthermore the campaign was recently recognized at the recent Best of Healthcare Awards (previously HAAG) receiving an impressive four separate awards

Impact on sales
The brand has been able to defend its market share post competitor launch despite a massive spend by the new product
This led volume sales to grow by 16% in the first 12 months after the campaign launch despite this increased competition

"In the development of the brand identity and campaign, market research (conducted by Synergy) was the compass that enabled us to define our course and evaluate and make corrections to it, until we were nailed-on the right direction. Once we were on the right track, market research enabled us to shape our story simply, into the right order, include only the relevant details and talk the customer's language.   Once launched, the market research enabled us to monitor how the campaign was received in the real world, and to continue making the course corrections so imperative to maintaining alignment with our customer's needs.  In summary, the market research was like a powerful beam illuminating the journey." Abbott UK Marketing

BHBIA Award winner 2007:  Best Sales/Marketing Effectiveness Research “Standing out from the biological broth”

 

An exciting new brand, first in class, fulfilling a real need and being promoted by motivated representatives to an eager audience. 

But, was it doing as well as it should?

Evaluation of the communication chain from marketing through to the customer revealed that despite a clear understanding and buy-in to the key messages and rationale for use of the product, there was still something missing. 

How could we ensure this new brand stood out from the biological broth?

Judges comments:

“A solid piece of research, which generated clear recommendations and which had good evidence of follow-through…firm evidence of the business having benefited from the research findings.., leading to increased motivation among the sales force, improved sales and marketing materials and ultimately a growth in sales”

 

‘Improving the management of PHN:  Patient voices and GP perspectives’  (Shortlisted for Best of Business Intelligence Awards 2007)

 

Currently, many GPs use amitriptyline first line for the management of PHN although specialists are more keen to use newer treatments, suggesting the need to encourage GPs to consider whether reliance on older treatments first line is always appropriate.

Alongside this it was also necessary to understand the attitudes of PHN patients to existing treatments and how this potentially differed from the attitudes and perceptions of GPs, so that the mismatch between GP and patient perspectives could be identified and addressed.

The combined approach of understanding both the GP perspective and patient voice allowed Grunenthal to understand fully the gap between GP and patient perspectives.

The outputs of research were integrated into the customer launch of Versatis and have been a key aspect of developing a medical education campaign to help raise awareness among GPs around the impact of PHN on patients’ lives and the limitations of existing treatments such as amitriptyline for the management of PHN.

Research outputs in terms of levels of dissatisfaction with current treatment options for PHN, was also released to the lay press to increase public awareness of the need for new treatments for PHN. As a consequence of this, patient requests for Versatis became a key driver of awareness among GPs.

At 6 months post launch the medical education campaign has led to 66% of GPs being aware of Versatis and 21% of GPs having prescribed Versatis for PHN patients.