(7) Pts journey: Pts Quant Research

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?

I love patient quantitative (web surveys), but I think it's not often conducted due to budget constraints, physician surveys should be prioritized. In the case of oncology and rare diseases, the number of patients is small to begin with, and it is often difficult to recruit, and patients often have little decision-making power in choosing treatment, so it tends to be put off, but in the pts journey era, as the name suggests, the unmet needs and true feelings of patients are important to the success of the brand = maximization of pts outcomes, and I think everyone who reads this blog understands this. Therefore, if possible, it is best to conduct at least one specificity survey before launching a new product.

Many patient surveys are conducted by public institutions, private companies, and pharmaceutical companies, so you can find a lot of information by searching for "disease name patient survey." We recommend that you put all of this information together in Excel before creating your Pts journey and before conducting your survey, but you should also look up publicly available patient survey and questionnaire information in order to design a survey that asks questions about things other than what is known from public information.

In the case of Product X, there are 50 million hay fever sufferers nationwide, so it is easy to gather subjects for a quantitative survey, and the reward for responding to a patient survey is significantly lower than for doctors, so the cost will not increase that much even if the sample size is increased. In this hay fever survey, we will quantitatively clarify the pts journey and quantify the thoughts and needs of each moment, so we will set n at around 500.

• People with hay fever who don't go to the doctor despite having symptoms
• People who go to the doctor every year
• People who used to go to the doctor but stopped

Because patient patterns are divided like this, the number of patients is inevitably large, and questions must be created for each patient group, i.e. a questionnaire that branches out along the way like a tree diagram must be created.

The target of pts are "people who are aware of the symptoms of hay fever and believe that they have hay fever." We will ask a group that reflects the Japanese population (excluding children and the elderly) to respond to the survey so that we can expand the survey results to the whole of Japan as much as possible.

First of all, let's ask everyone in common.

• Basic information such as age and employment status
• Severity of hay fever (degree of interference with daily life)
• Previous medical visits, current medical visits (

by their behavior, we segment pts as,

1. see a doctor every year for hay fever
2. see a doctor for hay fever sometimes and sometimes not depending on the year
3. have hay fever but never seen a doctor.

There may be differences in employment status and severity. From this point on, the questionnaire is divided into three parts, which makes it difficult.

see a doctor every year for hay fever

In what month of the year (in one hay fever season) do you visit the doctor for hay fever?  We quantitatively ask this question and, like the doctor survey, ask 1-7 consent questions about your thoughts on hay fever treatment quantitatively;

• I visit drs for hay fever just to get medication.
• I get prescription medicine instead of OTC because hospital-prescribed medicine is more effective.
• I get prescription medicine is because it's cheaper (National Health Insurance covers).
• I get prescription medicine because I feel reassured knowing that it is effective every year.
• I don't care which drs I visit as long as I can get the same medicine.
• I sometimes hesitate to visit drsfor hay fever because of the burden of going to the hospital (time to go to the hospital, waiting time, etc.)
• …

We will create questions based on the answers to these questions so that we can create a persona based on the patient's true feelings.

After asking about their thoughts on hay fever treatment, the next topic is antihistamines. If you ask patients about "antihistamines," they won't understand, so ask for basic information in "About oral medications for hay fever."

• types of medications
• how many days' worth of medication will be prescribed per visit

Regarding oral medication, we will ask you consent questions 1-7.

• I am satisfied with the effectiveness of the prescription medicine
• I am satisfied with the side effects of the  prescription medicine
• I am satisfied with the price of the  prescription medicine, amount I have to pay out of pocket.
• Taking medicine every day is a hassle and I sometimes forget to take it.
• I know it's better to take medicine every day, but I only take it when symptoms appear.
• I save on medicine by taking it only when symptoms appear.
• I have no major complaints about the medicine I'm currently taking.

Let's continue to ask questions based on the findings from qualitative research. In fact, many patients (especially those with mild symptoms) take the medicine as needed, so there may not be much need for it to be effective for a whole month.

The questions for people who "sometimes go to the doctor for hay fever and sometimes don't" are similar, but it would be better to ask the additional question, "Why don't you go to the doctor every year?" If these people start coming to the hospital every year, it could lead to increased sales of Product X in the future.

• I plan to get checked every year, but it's such a hassle that I always forget.
• I often have enough medicine left over from the hospital, so I don't need to go back every year.
• If I'm busy, I don't have the medicine I got from the hospital and I just buy over-the-counter medicine instead of going to the hospital.
• The medicines I can buy at pharmacies have gotten better and are reasonably priced, so I don't think I need to go to the hospital as often anymore.
• ...

Think carefully about questions that will reveal the true reason why the patient does not undergo annual checkups.

have hay fever but never seen a doctor.

Even a roughly quantitative Pts journey created through a web search suggests there are more than 10 million people. Some people among these people use over-the-counter medications, so be sure to take them in quantitative amounts.

Q：Please select all the things you did last season to reduce your hay fever symptoms.

□ Pay attention to your diet

□ Take supplements that are likely to be effective against hay fever.

□ Purchase oral medication at a pharmacy (not prescribed by a hospital)

□ Purchase nasal sprays at a pharmacy (rather than medicines prescribed by a hospital)

□ Purchase eye drops at a pharmacy (not prescribed medicine at a hospital)

□ Pay attention to exercise and sleep

・・・

You may want to ask them to evaluate the "things they have done" above in terms of effectiveness, burden (cost, effort), and satisfaction.

Q: You answered that you take supplements that seem to be effective against hay fever. Please rate the effectiveness, burden (cost, effort), and satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10.

efficacy

1 = not at all satisfied - 10 = very satisfied

Burden (cost and effort required)

1 = a big burden to 10 = no burden at all

*For reference, it is customary to use the questionnaire

Multiple choice: □, MA (multiple answer)

Single answer: 〇, SA (single answer)

Let's ask these people their thoughts on hay fever treatment using the 1-7 consent questions.

• It's a hassle to go to the hospital for hay fever
• I don't go to the hospital for hay fever because it costs money.
• I was given medicine at the hospital in the past, but I don't have a good impression of it because of its effectiveness and side effects (drowsiness).
• I know I should go to the hospital, but I keep putting myself off it.
• While I was thinking that I should go to the hospital, the hay fever season ended and the symptoms went away.
• …

Why don't people go to the hospital? What are their true feelings? Let's quantify this.

Thoughts on Product X

I think this is basically the same as qualitative research. First, we ask them to look at the information about Product X and the comments from patients and then answer their questions.

【Product X profile】

• MoA: Antihistamine (most prescribed oral medications for hay fever are antihistamines)
• Dosage and Administration: Once a month (Effect lasts for one month with one dose)
• Indications: Allergic rhinitis (same as most antihistamines)
• Safety and side effects are comparable to existing oral medications
• The drug cost per day is 100 yen (patients are responsible for 30% of the cost, or 30 yen per day = 900 yen per month)

Look at the product information for Product X and ask the patient for consent from 1-7. I will ask this question to everyone, but I will need to adjust some of the questions.

• I would like to try X because it lasts for a month after one dose and I don't forget to take it.
• I think it's good, but it's 1.5 times stronger than the existing drug, so I don't think I'll try it.
• I'm not having any problems with existing medications, so I'd like to try product X.
• One month of effectiveness = one month of side effects
• I'm afraid that the effect lasts for one month, and the side effects will also last for one month, but if my doctor recommends it and explains it to me, I think I might give it a try.
• Since I take medicine when symptoms appear, the idea that it will be effective for a month after one dose is not particularly appealing.
• …

If we ask this much, I think we will be able to quantify the Pts journey and quantitatively analyze the insights of doctors and patients, and this will provide us with the information we need to create personas for each segment we will create in the future.

Comparing the results of quantitative surveys of doctors and patients can sometimes provide useful information. For example, when comparing the prescription (use) intentions of doctors and patients for product X, in the doctor > patient case we can see that "the doctor needs to be persuaded to get the patient's consent," while in the patient > doctor case we can also see that "the patient requests the drug from the doctor" or "the doctor needs to understand the patient's needs = the need to raise awareness." As I wrote before, it is indeed difficult to make a decision by conducting a significance test, but I believe that the members of the Brand Team, who have been thinking for a long time about "the true feelings of hay fever patients and doctors" through interviews with doctors and patients, can make a judgment. I think this is the artistic part of marketing, rather than the scientific part, and I believe that the essence of marketing is that it has both artistic and scientific aspects.

BY 4 four articles, we have explained in detail how to design market research. If you are a pharmaceutical market representative reading these articles, ask yourself, "Have I achieved this much?" and if you realize that you are lacking, make good use of what you have learned in your next research.

The content may be a bit technical and difficult for marketing and brand managers at pharmaceutical companies, but since market research is like information or evidence that forms the basis of brand strategy, it doesn't hurt to know the purpose of the research and how to design it.

During the days of SoV push marketing, market research mainly consisted of ATU surveys and tracking surveys (=visualizing what happened as a result of activities), and there was a clear division of labor between marketing and market research staff. In the age of insight marketing, brand managers and market researchers have placed increasing emphasis on asking, "What do customers really think?" and "Finding out what customers really think through research and then planning strategies and activities." Therefore, brand managers need to adopt the researcher's perspective, and conversely, researchers need to have a better grasp of the overall picture of brand strategies and activities when designing research.