Understanding The Post-COVID Health Consumer

There can be little doubt that COVID-19 has changed consumer health behavior, perhaps for good.

Some changes we know, for example the shift to e-commerce, an increased awareness of the importance of dietary supplementation with vitamins and minerals, as well as specific trends for probiotics and naturals.  (Also see "Post-COVID Strategy: Invest, Don’t Save, Even If There's A Second Lockdown" - HBW Insight, 17 Aug, 2020.)

But what about the changes in habits we don’t know? How can consumer health companies find out about the less obvious shifts in behavior and adapt their innovation and marketing strategies to get ahead of the curve?

For Paul Wardle, founder and principal of Beacon Associates LLC, it’s all about the data. “The data tends to say where the overall trend is,” he told HBW Insight, in an exclusive interview.

With the right technology, people and business strategy, companies can tap into this wealth of information and extract “beacons of insight” to create the consumer health brands of tomorrow, he insisted.   “It’s about finding innovative solutions to advance healthcare availability, access and adoption”.

“On a day-to-day basis, you know where you’re trying to get to and that’s where the strategy comes in,” he continued. “But by understanding the consumer journey and the data you can figure out what you need to do to move forward.” 

The shift to e-commerce, for example, provides firms with a unique data resource in the form of shopping habits, product searches and consumer reviews, Wardle pointed out.

“E-commerce is not just a sales function,” he said. “It’s really an ability to understand consumer behavior.”

“There are brands that have thousands of reviews,” he continued. “If you analyse those reviews, you find interesting correlations between what is in the comments and the number of stars given.”

“If you understand the things that lead to a positive review, you can start changing your messaging,” Wardle explained. “If you can do that, you’re more likely to get purchases. But you’ve got to understand what got them to the point of purchase in the first place.”

Switch Experience

Wardle’s approach of drilling down into the data comes from, on the one hand, his 20+ years’ experience of leading high-profile Rx-to-OTC switches at Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline and on the other, his training in mathematics.

Despite the many unknowns related to switching, Wardle said that “with a creative look at all the data – clinical, behavioral, real world etc – most things can be forecast or framed in a way that puts them in an evaluable perspective.”

When it comes to advising firms with regards to Rx or OTC innovation, Wardle’s experience at Pfizer – particularly working on the Rx-to-OTC switch of Viagra Connect – has been particularly useful, he suggested.

By looking at the data, Wardle said he came to realize that the individual who has erectile dysfunction is not usually the one who talks about it.

“The person who talks about ED is generally not the one who has the problem,” he noted. “Doctors talk to patients about the condition, but they rarely have the time to listen to them and make a diagnosis very quickly.”

In the case of Viagra Connect – which was switched in the UK in 2017 – Wardle said it was a matter of convincing the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency that the best way of addressing consumer need was actually to give consumers the right information to self-direct their own choice about whether to take Viagra. (Also see "How Pfizer Achieved 'Switch Success' With Viagra and Nexium" - HBW Insight, 13 Dec, 2018.)

“Consumers generally care about their own health and are actually more astute and more willing to follow instructions than doctors realize,” he added.

With the many switches Wardle has been involved in, the key was always finding the “beacon of insight” that could help a company understand why consumers behaved in a certain way, and turn this into a convincing case for OTC approval by regulators.

Real-World Data

Another technique that Wardle has used to drive switches, which has influenced his current work with Beacon, is to go back into the clinical and pharmacovigilance data for Rx versions of products to identify potential regulatory blockages for OTC approval.

“Really understanding that full journey on the Rx side allows you then to figure out which pieces of the puzzle you need to address,” he suggested. “That’s the approach for me and I’ve often been surprised at the results.”

Looking, for example, at the ways in which doctors recommend products for conditions or populations not intended by the original Rx approval can lead to interesting insights, he pointed out.

“They may have had good reasons for doing this. It may have been intentional, it may have been accidental, there may have been many factors,” he said. “But you’ve got to go in and look at case studies.”

“That’s where some of the art of switch comes in," he noted. “Switch is really about the people that weren’t on the label for the Rx product or about the additional warnings which were included because there wasn’t a lot of information at the time.”

What this “real world data” with regards to off-label use can show, Wardle suggested, is that in some cases the risk is exaggerated or not present at all. “I’ve been able to do this with a number of products and actually get warnings adjusted or removed,” he revealed.

Risk-Benefit

Switch success is all about finding the right position along the risk-benefit spectrum, Wardle explained.

“There is an art to that,” he said. “Every product has side effects. Somebody is going to experience them when they use it even if they’re in the intended population.”

“The balance should be about whether the benefit of increased access outweighs the potential for unintended consequences,” he continued. “It’s not black or white.”

The key to switch success is for companies to go into switch projects and application processes “with open arms” and show knowledge and understanding about what risks there may be and how they can be minimized. “This is how you get to the point of being able to have a discussion,” he noted.

With regards to business strategy, switch success will only come to companies that put the investment and commitment into understanding the consumer journey, he said.

Today, where switch opportunities are fewer than in the past, companies have to be “really curious to challenge the status quo,” Wardle warned. Nevertheless, “there’s a lot more freedom then we realize.”

“Switching is clearly a driver of business growth,” he concluded. “It’s risky, there are many challenges, but the opportunity is very real and has put the big companies on the map.”