Experts share perspective on the role of Market Research in organizations and best practices

1. Market Research
Taren Grom
Owning the CUSTOMER
With the long road from R&D to the point of sale, pharmaceutical
market research is integral in making the journey a success.
arket research impacts every in-
M tersection along the healthcare
continuum. Data-driven in-
sights impact a multitude of de-
cisions from which drugs make
it to the clinic to how those drugs are pro-
“Market researchers have to move
away from being analysts, and move
toward being strategic consultants.”
moted in the marketplace.
Some analysts say while market research is
very important, some pharmaceutical com-
pany executives still treat the function as an af-
terthought. In today’s complex ecosystem, it is
imperative that market researchers not only
bring value to the organization but carve out a PMRG Coming Events
seat at the corporate table.
According to Amy Marta, a ZS Principal, Evolve and Thrive — The New World of the
the fact is that pharmaceutical products rarely Healthcare Marketing Researcher is the theme
sell themselves, and market research is essen- of the Pharmaceutical Market Research
tial to ensuring companies have the right Group’s (PMRG) upcoming annual meeting in
strategies and tactics to develop and market
March.
their products.
“The need for better research comes against The content of the conference reflects the
a backdrop of increasing pressure to perform changing landscape in which market re-
while research budgets are squeezed,” she says. ELIZABETH JEFFORDS searchers find themselves professionally and
“Pharmaceutical market research is both cru- Genentech organizationally.
cial to success yet sometimes underappreci- According to Elizabeth Jeffords, president,
ated.”
of PMRG, and senior director, strategic pricing
“Our primary focus as market researchers is
the customer,” he says. “Having a deeper un- and contract management, Genentech, ad-
Creating Value for the vancement — in career and craft — is one of
derstanding of these stakeholders gives us a
Organization very unique place within the organization. By PMRG’s three main pillars: community, ad-
According to Dev Das, director, strategic being able to bring forth the voice of this cus- vancement, and advocacy.
insights and analytics, at Auxilium Pharma- tomer, we can bring a lot of added value to
“Transforming market researchers is a huge
ceuticals, market researchers must gain a every discussion.”
deeper understanding of the customer if they Patricio Casillas, marketing manager at focus of PMRG’s 2013 offerings, including the
want to provide value back to the organization. Johnson & Johnson Medical, believes that the 2013 PMRG Institute October 20-22, 2013:
“By having a hand on the pulse of the cus- customer view is so important that he suggests Influence, Inspire, Ignite: Champions of the
tomers, market researchers have the potential changing the name of the market research de- New Age,” she says.“Training in areas such as
to be better versed on what drives customer partment to that of the customer insights de- advanced storytelling, insights generation,
behavior than anyone else within the organiza- partment.
influence, etc. have been added to our
tion,” he says. “This along with an aca- “This better reflects the important purpose
demic/objective bent of mind, provides them of the work being conducted and would im- traditional curriculum of methodology-based
with the unique ability to see and tell it like it prove the brand image of the group,” Mr. sessions to ensure we grow our community
is — the good, bad, and the ugly. This per- Casillas says. into consultants of the future.”
spective can pertain to assessing the potential Beyond improving the nomenclature, he
of a new product or the effectiveness of a mar- says to increase the value of market research For a full list of PMRG events as well as more
keting strategy.” requires simplicity, relevance, and actionabil- information about the association, visit
Mr. Das defines the customer as being the ity. pmrg.org.
physician, the patient, or the payer. “For instance, identifying the top drivers of
44 March 2013 G PharmaVOICE
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3. Market Research
“Increasing the value of market
research requires simplicity,
relevance, and actionability.”
“Market research is only
valuable if it drives a business
decision or choice.”
LISA RICHARDSON Johnson & Johnson
a particular customer segment requires testing “Market researchers should over communi-
many different factors and isolating the few — cate to cross-functional partners,” he says.
one to three — that explain a significant “Frequently publishing, for instance, via email
amount of variance in customer behavior,” he or digital newsletter, insights and research re- PATRICIO CASILLAS
says. “Market researchers run the risk of confu- sults and tailoring the content for specific in- Johnson & Johnson
sion by presenting too many variables that ternal stakeholders would increase the visibil-
aren’t significantly relevant, i.e., highly corre- ity of the work and help hold people
lated to customer behavior and ultimately rev- accountable, for example, if the data published “Many of the best researchers bring that
enue. Less is more. Often, market researchers is a diagnostic performance dashboard.” consulting approach to their work — they
can get lost in measuring a myriad of variables start with problem definition, they map out a
and confusing lots of activities and data with Solidifying a Seat at the table hypothesis, work their proofs, and then tell a
real insights. The insights and recommenda- compelling story with the answer,” she ex-
tions generated from market research should Certainly, accountability is one way to plains. “Since not everyone starts their careers
be actionable and easily implementable. Often bring value to the role of market research and at a big three strategy consulting bootcamp,
there’s a disconnect between market research gain recognition throughout the organization; organizations such as PMRG, PBIRG,
results and the specific actions required to ad- another is bringing value to the business. CASRO, or other relevant society meetings
dress the gap. If the variables being tested or “Market researchers can get a seat at the can provide a good alternative. Without hav-
the customer are vague then the subsequent table by proactively providing relevant and ac- ing the broader consultant skill set, it’s easy to
results will be vague and hard to action.” tionable insights, in other words bringing slip into the box of being a data monkey. Mov-
Mr. Das agrees that insights are not of value to the business,” Ms. Richardson says. ing from analyst to consultant can be hard, but
much value unless they can then help benefit “Everyone talks about deep market and cus- it’s possible by bringing value repeatedly until
the business in some way. tomer insights, but uncovering a meaningful the broader team feels like it can’t make a
“Very often market researchers derive a lot insight is difficult. Sometimes it is just one move without market research. This doesn’t
of intellectual satisfaction from completing comment made by a respondent that is the mean that senior-level executives will invite
complex projects, but there is little value if true insight. Market researchers need to be market researchers to the table the first time.
the insights don’t have a business impact,” he able to sift through the noise and focus in on But if every email and deck that is sent starts
says. those learnings that will make a difference for with problem definition, and ends with the ‘so
Lisa Richardson, senior manager, market the brand. This requires that market research what,’ they’ll start to need the market research
research, global commercial strategy organiza- be a full business partner, completely inte- function there. Once someone is part of the
tion, Johnson & Johnson, concurs that there grated and immersed into the brand team and conversation, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy to
needs to be a clear purpose for doing any mar- business. If market researchers know what the solidify that seat at the table.”
ket research. challenges are, they will be able to identify Mr. Das agrees that great insights are of lit-
“The objectives need to be clearly articu- those insights and bring value.” tle value if they don’t get effectively commu-
lated, so that the research answers the relevant According to Elizabeth Jeffords, senior di- nicated to the appropriate decision makers.
business questions, clarifies a problem or situ- rector, strategic pricing and contract manage- “Market researchers can sometimes be more
ation, or uncovers an opportunity for the ment at Genentech, and president of the Phar- analytical and introverted and less able to pro-
brand,” she says. “Market research is only valu- maceutical Market Research Group, a mote their work, this can sometimes result in
able if it drives a business decision or choice.” nonprofit trade organization, market re- others choosing to present their work, or
Mr. Casillas adds that market research can searchers have to move away from being ana- worse, valuable learning doesn’t reach those
further increase its organizational value by lysts, and move toward being strategic con- who need to hear it,” he says. “Either way, this
being used as a visible, accountability tool. sultants. gets in the way of solidifying market re-
46 March 2013 G PharmaVOICE
PDF created for: Dev Das (ddas@expleoinsight.com) 3/12/2013

4. Market Research
searchers’ seats at the corporate table. One of their assistance in implementing some of the vide insights that probably would not be un-
the big things that companies can do is train recommendations that would help tear down covered in traditional market research. But
members within the function to be better the corporate business silo mentality.” there are patient privacy and compliance chal-
communicators.” lenges that need to be fully addressed and un-
To ensure a at seat the table, Mr. Casillas Research techniques: tried, derstood related to social media type research.”
suggests that market researchers integrate Mr. Casillas is experimenting with simula-
with brand teams as much as possible. true, and New tions that mimic the customer environment.
“Market researchers need to be seen as inte- Technology is impacting market research “For instance, we can rent out a ‘physician
gral team members and accountable for driv- just as it is playing a part in other aspects of office’ and hire actors to play the part of pa-
ing revenue and profit,” he says. “This helps to the industry. New market research techniques tients while the market researchers are observ-
change the perception from market research are being used to uncover new data alongside ing closer to real-world behavior behind a glass
being a support function to it being a revenue tried-and-true methods. panel,” he says. “This provides a great alterna-
driver or growth opportunity generator. Mar- “New techniques are being developed and tive to the traditional technique of asking
ket researchers should try to build strong cus- implemented all of the time,” Ms. Richardson physicians how they behave in certain situa-
tomer relationships to strengthen their expert- says. “A lot of focus lately has been on mining tions. There’s no substitute to seeing them act
ise and credibility among senior leaders and to insights and data from social media sites, par- it out. While a simulation isn’t exactly the
make their recommendations more practical ticularly patient-focused online communities. ‘real world’ it’s much closer than the tradi-
and achievable. Researchers also should offer Tapping into the voice of the patient can pro- tional alternative and provides cleaner insights
minimizing inherent customer biases.”
Mr. Das says the industry is using innova-
BEST PRACTICES FOR COMMUNICATING COMPLEX DATA tive new primary research methods such as re-
spondent profiling and Webcam-assisted on-
Experts offer their best practices for using the cloud in clinical trials. line research. Companies are also tapping into
As with most business processes, good share the insights; everything else is best new secondary data sources such as social
communication is the key to success, and this is included in the appendix to be referenced in the media, EMR, specialty pharmacy data, and so
particularly true when it comes to relaying future on an as needed basis. on.
complex market research data. Our experts
“Within primary research, respondent pro-
In the summary of learning, pick a maximum
filing and using new technologies such as We-
provide their best practices for translating data of three key insights; if you have too many, they
bcams, make it very efficient to do research
into results. are probably not true insights. and get the maximum value for the invest-
Well-thought out visuals can also help in ment,” he says. “When working a tight
PATRICIO CASILLAS explaining complex ideas; however, there is budget, the Webcam is a win-win situation.
Marketing Manager always the risk of going too far here. Getting too A company can send out cameras to partici-
Johnson & Johnson Medical cute can be distracting and can hurt the pants all over the country, which allows it to
credibility of the presentation. get a better, more nationally representative
Create a PowerPoint story board of the sample and reduce travel costs. The market re-
potential results before beginning a market LISA RICHARDSON searcher can thus watch from the comfort of
research exercise. Visualize what the results Senior Manager, Market Research his or her own office, without compromising
could look like and shop it around to internal
on the quality of the research.”
Global Commercial Strategy
In terms of secondary data, he says there is
stakeholders to ensure there is alignment in Organization
a wealth of new data sources that’s are now pre-
terms of how the data will be presented. This Johnson & Johnson senting themselves to researchers.
extra work up front is worth the investment “We’re all going up the learning curve in
and ensures that the final market research data Focus on the things that are most important to terms of understanding how to use these re-
report will have the optimum impact. the audience. What is it that they need to know? sources, including social media,” he says.
What information will help them with their “There’s just so much data available, the chal-
DEV DAS business issue? What key questions was the lenge is how to use it effectively. Nobody’s fig-
Director, Strategic Insights and research designed to address? Communicate ured out the magic bullet yet. From an analy-
Analytics those key takeaways first, and what the sis standpoint, it’s very exciting because it
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals implications are for the business. Then follow presents so much potential.”
From an information technology stand-
with more detailed data and analysis. I try to keep
point, Mr. Das says there are some interesting
First, it’s important to know your audience and in mind that the audience is likely seeing the
new platforms that can be leveraged to build
communicate accordingly. information for the first time, while I have been libraries, to manage archive learnings, to
Next, have a concise summary of the key working on the project for weeks or months. I try search huge data sets, etc.
insights and selected detail slides that provide to step back and see the findings with fresh eyes, “Now, instead of repeating research, we can
the basis for the insights. Some audiences and from the audience’s perspective. What is it go back into the archives and efficiently look
prefer you start with the summary, some prefer that they really need to know, with enough detail, for learning that might already exist,” he ex-
you walk them through the basis before you but not too much? This is my approach. plains. “All of this is now more readily possi-
ble because of technology.” PV
PharmaVOICE G March 2013 47
PDF created for: Dev Das (ddas@expleoinsight.com) 3/12/2013

5. Market Research
VIEWPOINTS
CHARU CHATURVEDI and brands, pharmaceutical companies can graphics that illustrate the key message, not the
Senior VP, Client Services allocate their advertising dollars in a particular abundance of data at one’s disposal; complex
Affinnova Life Sciences geographic area across most media channels to charts belong in the appendix, copious notes in
better optimize their spend. footnotes. Lastly, hone-in on business implications
Behavioral Economics to make complex research data relevant,
The old science of asking is out; Marking Changes in Behavior memorable, actionable, and impactful.
behavioral economics (BE) is in. The same anonymized patient-level data can be
Monadics and focus groups often deliver biased used to measure changes in patient behavior LAURA QUINN
outcomes and are not well correlated to actual after exposure to a campaign while comparing it President
decision making. BE uncovers the complex and with a control group. Positive results have been PJ Quinn Inc.
irrational nature of customers. Heuristics and seen as a result of reaching the right audience
evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are BE-inspired through targeted promotion. Different types of Honesty is the Best
approaches that latently identify motivators and analyses can show new patients acquired as a Policy
create optimal campaigns proven to maximize result of the promotion as well as compliant It’s important to remember that you can be
success. Just as Pandora and Google have patients remaining on therapy. brutally honest without brutality. To solidify your
transformed how we enjoy music and the Web, seat at the table, don’t fear being honest with
heuristics and EAs are transforming how brand BRAD DAVIDSON clients about bad news as well as good; in addition,
teams go to market. General Manager, Ogilvy don’t sugarcoat the downside or overhype the
CommonHealth Behavioral upside. Imagine you are a personal stakeholder in
TIM EDBROOKE Insights — part of Ogilvy your client’s business.
President CommonHealth Worldwide Tell the complete story in a fair and balanced
Healogix way, because that is what you would want to hear
A Seat at the Table if you were making critical business decisions
Uncovering Blind Spots Market researchers have to strive to answer the based on the data.
Historically, marketers have bigger marketing or business question that led to
assumed that a rational, deliberative process the research in the first place. They need to make JIM O’DEA
underlies medical decisions. Behavioral sure their findings are grounded in the specific President
economics informs us otherwise: many decisions research question; the process of defining Rx EDGE Pharmacy Networks,
are made quickly using heuristics or mental habit research deliverables is necessary but can create a business unit of
without any trade-offs between pros and cons. distance from the original driver of the work. It is LeveragePoint Media
Uncovering blind spots and identifying incumbent upon the researcher to provide
situations where habits drive decisions in favor of answers that can be used by the larger team. Quantitative Analytics
speed and ease allows interventions to be When it comes to marketing activities, the use of
developed that can change barriers to IYIOLA OBAYOMI quantitative analytics helps pharmaceutical
habit-based decisions and improve the Senior Director of Analytics, companies refine their plans, validate their
opportunity for success. Ogilvy Healthworld — part decisions, and be more accountable for
of Ogilvy CommonHealth marketing investments. And I would emphasize
HEATHER ALBA Worldwide the word “quantitative” because that is where
Engagement Manager, IMS marketers are going to get the most value. Every
Health Communicating Complex major effort in the marketing portfolio should be
Data for Impact approached with the end-result in mind, namely:
Optimizing the Spend Some best practices to communicating complex did it have a measurable impact on what really
Anonymized, patient-level market research data for maximum impact matters — prescription volume, patient behavior,
behavior has advanced to the point where include setting clear expectations, using and outcomes.
patients and their prescription activity can be message-oriented graphics, and drawing The key is to have a plan in place up-front so
aligned to media markets — and even linked to business implications. that strategies and tactics are linked with an
de-identified lists of media consumers — Market researchers need to start with the key appropriate measurement device. Applying this
revealing where an advertiser’s target audience is business questions to secure interest and frame kind of analytical rigor will support future
most concentrated and of value to a brand. With their storyline. decisions and help brands achieve a higher
such breakdowns of behavior across categories Another best practice is to use simple return on investment.
48 March 2013 G PharmaVOICE
PDF created for: Dev Das (ddas@expleoinsight.com) 3/12/2013

6. H Market Research
IMS improves the efficiency and value of clients’
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Ogilvy
CommonHealth Annual Showcase Features
Worldwide
400 Interpace Pkwy.
Parsippany, NJ 07054 JANUARY: Social Media
Phone: 973-352-1000
Fax: 973-352-1500
FEBRUARY: Outsourcing
www.ogilvychww.com Laura Quinn MARCH: Market Research
President
An Overwhelming Advantage APRIL: Publication Planning
Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide, representing APRIL: Patient Protection
the largest assembly of creative talent in the “We established our company MAY: Training
world of healthcare communications with 65 based on the belief that our
offices across 36 countries, provides marketing clients have the right to our full
JUNE: Clinical Trial Solutions
services including brand identity and develop- attention, one project at a time.” SEPTEMBER: Marketing
ment, clinical trial recruitment, digital/interactive OCTOBER: Regulatory Affairs
services, direct-to-consumer, direct-to-patient, Your partner for qualitative
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market research and analytics, medical advertis- research, delivering: NOVEMBER/DECEMBER: E-Solutions
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Contact your sales rep to discuss
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Lisa Banket • lbanket@pharmavoice.com •
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The organization also houses and maintains Cathy Tracy • ctracy@pharmavoice.com •
individual Ogilvy CommonHealth and Ogilvy www.pjquinninc.com (203) 778-1463
Healthworld brand identities within the marketplace. Phone 877-811-5030 Trish Kane • tkane@pharmavoice.com •
(484) 412-8596
PharmaVOICE G March 2013 49
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