Blog articles about Decision Journey Mapping

The context for decision-making in the healthcare industry has been thoroughly disrupted – from patients navigating the world of telehealth to HCP’s increased reliance on online channels for knowledge gathering.

Despite this rapidly evolving environment, your mission as a pharma marketeer, continues: to enable value creation and product differentiation and empower both physicians and patients for improved outcomes. However, to do so effectively today, you need to understand how patient journeys are changing, and what new needs have emerged. Only by understanding the nuances of these shifts, will you be able to effectively adapt your marketing, communications and/or innovation strategies for greater impact now and in the long term.

The digitalization of pharma was slowly underway pre-COVID, but there’s an immediate sense of urgency to make this shift now. As face-to-face sales calls are still a no-go, pharma companies are racing to accelerate their online sales and marketing strategies.

HCPs’ habits have been radically disrupted. Their attitudes, practice behavior, decision-making processes, and prescribing habits have changed. New needs are emerging.

As a pharma marketer you know you need to revise and reshape your multichannel strategy to these behavioral shifts, but restructuring to a digital-first communications strategy is much easier said than done.

How pharmaceutical brands Analyze patient needs to maximize your impact on treatment success

Emotions affect our behavior, what we do and how we do it. In the same way, as the patient voice grows more influential, their emotions also affect decisions about their care and satisfaction with treatment. Yet patient research shows, particularly in the case of chronic conditions, that many of their emotional needs remain unmet. Frustration with progress, stress from the burden of taking more medication, or a sense of isolation are common, making them less likely to commit to their treatment or gain the maximum benefit. All of which could be bad news for your brand.

Conventional research approaches to understanding prescribing behavior lack the insights required today

A physician’s decision – or reluctance – to prescribe your drug over the competition has long been influenced by a number of factors, such as clinical efficacy, sales rep touchpoints, marketing materials etc. However, the proliferation of online medical information, social media referrals and wellness apps have added more considerations to the mix as patients take more control over their health. Now physicians, and other healthcare professionals, are assuming more of a “listener” role during consultations vs. solely the “adviser” role.

This shift in interaction between prescriber and patient, coupled with mounting time and cost pressure from the payers, places more importance than ever on accurately understanding why and when physicians make their prescribing decisions.

eCommerce success in the consumer goods category doesn’t happen overnight — it’s a journey

Defining a set of marketing guidelines that drive a measurable increase in sales is an incredible feat, never mind doing so for 2.5 billion smartphone users across the globe.

Yet that’s exactly what our client, and consumer goods giant, Unilever is tackling with the challenge of developing a consistent and cohesive set of mobile ready hero image guidelines for all brands, in all countries to follow with all retailers. When co-presenting with us at the OmniShopper International Conference, Oli Bradley, Unilever’s global e-commerce experience design director, shared details on his eCommerce journey. Here’s what we learned:

Remind yourself why the right customer decision journey framework matters—and which one you should be using.

Today’s consumer path to purchase has evolved a great deal. To succeed in the omnichannel world, you can’t afford to rely on outdated assumptions regarding your consumer’s decision journey.

Every customer’s decision journey is unique, especially in an omnichannel world.  Customer journey mapping allows marketers to understand the different stages customers go through before, during, and after purchase. It also examines how to influence customers at the various stages of their journey.

Whether you’re a CPG brand manager or a B2B marketer, your customer’s decision journeys are complex, dynamic, and easily disrupted by new options and inputs – online and offline. Today’s omnichannel world has created a new path to purchase for consumers, business professionals, and healthcare decision makers. Their decision journey is influenced by technology and media that didn’t even exist a few years ago, but do you know how, where, and when?