The Challenge
Our client, a leading pharmaceutical company, was preparing for the launch of a new indication and needed to define a clear, meaningful position in a crowded, complex market without significant clinical differentiation. In prior new indications, this brand’s impressive efficacy data and first-to-market launch made it quickly become the standard of care, meaning there was less of a need for strong positioning. However, in this more challenging environment, it was critical that the team deliver compelling positioning that set the brand’s indication apart, while potentially tapping into established existing brand positioning to drive success. There was also a huge need for speed and efficiency, as this project was happening on the tails of drivers and barriers and message testing, and nearly overlapping with fielding of whitepaper testing as well.
The Solution
Knowing that the client team had already conducted a large amount of market research over the prior year, we
started with an in-person workshop to draw out the team’s hypotheses. The goal of the hypothesis workshop
was not to rearticulate known drivers and barriers, but rather let drivers and barriers serve as a launch pad for
hypothesizing deeper, non-clinical ‘ways in’ for the new indication. To prepare for this hypothesis workshop, the
S+R team synthesized historical learnings from the prior research (drivers and barriers, message testing, etc.).
We kicked-off the workshop by grounding the client insights and marketing teams, as well as their creative
agency, in what was already known regarding physicians’ drivers and barriers and unmet needs in this space.
As a full group, we then prioritized the top drivers that we can leverage to support larger platforms, i.e.,
certainty, confidence, and collaboration.
At S+R, our research team is complimented by a team of strategists skilled in translating insights into crisp,
inspiring strategy materials that resonate with brand teams and agencies alike. Guided by our unique
perspective on creating truly game-changing positioning we closely partnered with the creative agency to
translate the insights from the workshop into four distinct positioning territories or “hooks” designed to
differentiate the brand’s indication and make physicians care.
We then conducted a mix of 1:1 interviews and dyads with community oncologists and surgeons to achieve
three key objectives: 1. discover an ownable and differentiated indication positioning informed by market value
drivers, patient types, and clinical / non-clinical physician decision making, 2. determine the best way to
articulate that positioning in order to raise the value of the brand point of difference in a way that makes
physicians care, and 3. ensure positioning fits with and amplifies the other indication’s co-positioning and aligns
with overall brand goals.
The research fielding and reporting was an extremely iterative and collaborative process, as we regularly met
with the client team and creative agency during fielding to discuss emerging insights, the performance of each
territory, and ways to refine the territories. As a result, over the course of fieldwork, we tested two new versions
of the positioning territories, with optimizations informed by physician feedback. Since the team was in a time
crunch to quickly prepare for the upcoming launch, we co-planned and facilitated a combined research readout
with a second market research agency, in order to synthesize learnings and recommendations from our
positioning research and their whitepaper testing research. Our research and strategy teams seamlessly
collaborated with our main client and the other research agency to ensure that our final recommendations were
aligned and factually based on our research insights.
The Outcome
The client team walked away with a clear understanding of the most compelling and least compelling aspects of
the brand positioning, as well as recommendations of how to bring together critical parts of two of the territories
to create an optimized premise and promise for the brand. They also had actionable guidance on the critical
language to emphasize with each of the key physician segments, in order to drive brand choice. Importantly,
the S+R recommendations swayed the team away from one specific territory they had been considering, to a
different direction, in order to focus on the stronger “hook” for physicians.