(11) Current/Desired Perception

Insight based Brand Plan

1. Pts journey: Quantitative analysis
2. Pts journey Qualitative analysis
3. Pts journey : Qualitative research, dr interview
4. Pts journey: Qualitative research, patients
5. Pts journey : To-dos before quant research
6. Pts journey; Quant market research
7. Pts journey: Pts Quant Research
8. Quantify Pts Journey by Market Research Results
9. Pts Journey based Forecast Model
10. Insight for Pts Journey
11. Current/Desired Perception
12. Let's try Insight Workshop
13. Segmentation, Easy to Say, Difficult to Use
14. What is Brand Strategy? CSF?

In the previous article, we provided insight into key stakeholders (doctors and patients) at high priority moments for the success of the Pts Journey. The moments related to the success of product X are

1. Seek treatment: If you feel symptoms, visit a doctor for hay fever.
2. Brand Choice: Doctor prescribes product X among antihistamines
3. Taking frequency: Number of times you take the medicine/hay fever season (once or twice)
4. Pts acceptance: Patient acceptance of product 

I think it would be a good idea to list all of the above and create insights and barriers/derivers for all of your key stakeholders, but I also feel that due to volume constraints, you should only be able to document one to three important items and include them in the brand plan presentation.

Today's theme is current perception and desired perception, but these terms themselves are not commonly used and are just my own personal use. (sometimes, referres as "as is" "to be" 

Current perception

(Business-related hints) Key stakeholders’ true opinions ≒ insight

Desired perception

If key stakeholders think this way, they will take the actions we aim for ≒ positioning

"Desired perception in product X formulation" often translates to positioning. However, talking about concepts alone is not very clear, so let’s try doing current/desired perception for the moment of (1) seek treatment: going to the doctor for hay fever if you feel symptoms. There are three types of key stake holders:

• A patient who visits HCP every year for hay fever
• Patients who have symptoms but do not visit HCP (but buy OTC)
• Patients who have symptoms but do not visit HCP (do not buy OTC)

In the previous article, "Insight into PTS Journey!", the word "insight" can be thought of as "current perception."

At this moment, the action we would like the patient to take (and from the perspective of pts' outcomes) is to "visit a clinic to relieve the symptoms of hay fever," but the insight of "patients who already visit the clinic every year for hay fever" provides a valuable hint for the desired perception of "patients who do not visit the clinic."

Let's consider the current/desired perceptions of a patient who has symptoms but does not visit the hospital (but purchases medicine at a pharmacy). It is different if product X has not yet been launched and pre-launch activities are carried out on an extensive scale, but in most cases pharmaceutical companies will not take active action against "patients who do not visit the clinic" until "after product X is released," so let's consider desired perception assuming that product X has been launched. (When conducting pre-launch patient activities, it is better to think of the opposite: desired perception before product X is launched, i.e., when product X does not exist.)

Taking inspiration from the insights of "people who visit the clinic every year," I tried to create a desired perception like this.

"Whenever I had symptoms of hay fever, I would buy OTC , but apparently there is a medicine that is effective for a month after taking it once. It seems like the cost wouldn't be that different from buying OTC medicine, and if I do not have to take it after the symptoms appeared, I can feel "Huh? I don't have any hay fever symptoms! I can forget that I have hay fever!" So I'd like to go to the hospital and try the medicine."

Ideally, I would like to reduce the wording about Product X and focus more on "seek treatment," but given that OTC drugs have become so widespread and the line between them and prescription drugs in terms of effectiveness is becoming blurred, without information about Product X, it would be difficult to get this patient group to visit the clinic, and that is why the wording related to Product X has been included. The insight for this patient group is that they take medicine when symptoms appear, don't really like taking medicine, and find it troublesome, so why not take advantage of that and push them to say, "Just one dose and you'll be free of hay fever! If so, why not come and see us?" As for the actual situation, I recommend that the Brand Team think about and create the desired perception in an insight workshop, which I will write about in the next article, but will customers actually visit the product if they truly believe that? This will be confirmed in future qualitative and quantitative surveys, and we will continue to refine the desired perception so that it hits home even more and resonates with customers before it goes to market.

Once the current perception and desired perception of the target customers, in this case "patients who have symptoms but do not visit HCP (but purchase OTC)," have been determined, the action or key messages are to fill that gap. In this case, the key message that needs to be conveyed is the element that is needed to achieve desired perception.

• Aware drug that lasts for a month after one dose exits.
• Free from the hassle of both symptoms and medication, you can forget you have hay fever = Hay Fever Free
• Medical costs are not much different from OTC

I think this is something that needs to be conveyed.

In Japan DTC using the brand name is not possible, all of these are quite difficult, and it seems that nothing can be done before the product is launched... It would be effective if patients who have used product X spread the word on social media, but pharmaceutical companies cannot orchestrate this, so we considered current/desired perception, but it seems difficult from a compliance perspective to take effective "action"...

Let's change our mindset and think from the perspective of the key stakeholder (doctor) in the Brand Choice moment of "selecting product X among antihistamines." In particular, doctors whose perception we want to change are those who are reluctant to prescribe product X.

Current perception was created based on the insights of doctors with a low intention to prescribe product X, while desired perception was created based on the insights of doctors with a high intention to prescribe product X.

When we put current and desired together like this, the elements to achieve desired perception are

1. Understand Product X profile, benefits (effectiveness lasts for one month after one dose + safety, reduced medication burden, price, etc.)
2. Side effects may last for a month = Safety concerns dispelled
3. Patients who are satisfied with their existing antihistamines also want to be prescribed product X (less medication = hay fever free, they forget they have hay fever!)

1 is essential for the launch, as it is necessary to disseminate the product's characteristics, so this should be done through sales reps and digital, but to what extent can data be used to dispel safety concerns? Since the doctor's experience is important, shouldn't we consider doctor-to-doctor? 3, how do we convey the voice of patients who want product X? Perhaps there is patient QoL data from the Phase 3 trial and we can use this to create a visual or a short movie like a TV commercial that highlights the comfort, feeling and psychological benefit of not taking medicine = hay fever free = being able to forget that you have hay fever? And so on... When you get to this point, I think you will come up with various ideas to change current to desired. The next step is to organize these ideas, put them together in the form of a strategy, and decide on your actions.

I often conduct 1 full day workshop about insights (current perception) and drivers/barriers for each moment and key stakeholder in the pts journey, and also consider what key messages and actions should be taken based on the current/desired perception in this article. When brand team members gather in a workshop and spend a day thinking about their insight, current/desired perceptions, and even actions to fill the gaps, it not only deepens the brand team members' understanding of the market and customers, but also deepens everyone's understanding of "what they need to do for whom, and how they need to change their customers' current way of thinking," which is a huge plus for creating a brand plan and formulating an action plan.