Bad habits, take a hike!

How market research can get to the heart of a habit and help change customer behaviour

The dreaded habit. We all know what they are and we all have our own, and whilst some may be positive everyone will definitely be able to say which habit, or habits (!) they would like to eradicate.

But I have a secret for you: habits cannot be destroyed.

Don’t lose hope though. There are ways to alter those pesky habits that strike at the heart of your good intentions.

Science has shown that habits are stored in the brain, and as we now know, the brain can be re-programmed. Which means whilst they cannot be destroyed, changing a habit is possible.

Firstly, you have to understand a habit. In Charles Duhigg’s book ‘The Power of Habits’ he shows that habits have 3 core components:

In order to change a habit, Duhigg postulates, you have to identify the routine (that’s the behaviour, for example walking to the food point to steal a biscuit). Next, experiment with rewards to find out what’s driving the habit (are you going to the food point because you want to satiate your hunger?), and also isolate the cue (is it hunger pains you’re experiencing?).

Working with Brand Teams within Pharmaceutical companies, we often get asked to help our clients understand why their customers (Physicians, including GPs, specialists, pharmacists) prescribe a product over theirs, even though their drug has ‘better data’, and how they can change such behaviours.

What they’re essentially asking us is: How can we change our customers’ habits?

Well, that is where market research comes in.

We work with physicians, asking them to describe their prescribing practice (the routine), why they prescribe a particular product (the cue) and what outcome they are looking to achieve (the reward). We can do this by having in-depth conversations with physicians, either individually or in a group, or map these behaviours out through online surveys, looking at perceptions of drugs and patient numbers.

As a result, we provide our clients with direction on how to change prescribing behaviours, by giving physicians new cues and rewards that lead them to alter their original habits, helping our clients to position themselves as the brand of choice.

So as you can see, there is hope for you quitting sugar and eating healthy yet! You just need to work out how much you want those cookies, or if there is some other reason you are craving them, and how to break that routine!

Email us at info@branding-science.com to find out more about how Branding Science can help you understand and change your customers’ habits.

Live Storytelling: the impact #pharma can make in front of their customers

Trying to pinpoint when the first story was told would be impossible. Some of the most famous stories – Gilgamesh, Beowulf and even Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare - began life as fireside spoken tales.

It would be fair to assume that we started telling stories when we first devised language, but I guess that’s more about how stories were able to spread from one culture to another so prolifically – Homer’s Iliad was first told in Greece and it’s now been read on every corner of the globe. How’s that for impact?

Of course, written stories are very impactful in their own right. The bestselling book, according to Wikipedia, is the ‘The Bible’ – but even that began life through word of mouth.

Written stories cannot surpass the impact of live storytelling.

It’s why YouTube is so successful, and Ted Talks are watched by millions of people each year. There’s something powerful yet intimate about the presenter-audience relationship; relaying a story directly to others, watching their faces fly up in surprise, disgust, feeling the emotions of a tale.

The brain has a dedicated region – the Limbic system – to process emotion. What’s more, it has specific cells – mirror neurons – that are activated when another individual acts or shows emotion. These cannot be readily activated through reading a story; they are the brain’s response to viewing another human acting and mirroring their actions internally. All this in order to process information more efficiently.

Therefore, the impact of live storytelling can, in many cases, far surpass the effect of reading an article online, or, for example, a detail aid. Though the story has been carefully devised, structured and tested to fit physician’s expectations - even covering the emotional charge of treating a certain therapy area - it in no way negates the need for direct contact with your customers.

This makes the sales call – and most importantly the story you tell during this call – the best opportunity to convince your customers of your brand. So don’t forget this.

The question remains then: how will you come up with the killer story to tell your customers in that face-to-face situation? Well, the Branding Science Group specialise in helping you not only construct your story, but practice the execution. Get in touch with our team to find out more!!

This article was written by Sofia Fionda Senior Research Executive at Branding Science

Accidental Blockbusters: Warfarin

“Of course, that’s how life is. A turn of events may seem very small at the time it’s happening, but you never really know, do you?” Tom Xavier

Warfarin is an anticoagulant currently prescribed to prevent blood clots. However it was originally introduced to the consumer world as a rat poison due to its haemorrhaging abilities.

In the early 1920’s a bizarre number of cattle in the US kept spontaneously bleeding profusely. Food sources in the area were scarce and so the cattle were being left to eat the damp, mouldy hay that was no good to anyone else. A Canadian vet twigged that the link between all of these haemorrhaging cattle was that they had consumed this unsuitable hay, and discovered that by removing the hay from the cattle’s diet, they returned to full health.

Thirty years later, the compound in the mouldy hay was finally characterised and was launched into the US market as a rat poison, proving an instant success. However a US soldier, unsuccessfully, tried to commit suicide by overdosing on this new toxin. Having been rushed to hospital, he was treated with vitamin K, the antidote, and made a full recovery, yet this started an investigation into the potential therapeutic use of the poison. And three years later, it was approved for use as an anticoagulant, with one of its first recipients being the US president at the time; Dwight D. Eisenhower.

One conspiracy theory, highlighting the dangers of warfarin and the complexity of its dosing regimen, suggests that Stalin was murdered using warfarin. As warfarin is tasteless and odourless, making it such a good rat poison, Stalin could have easily consumed it without knowing so, and he exhibited many of the symptoms commonly found in a warfarin overdose when he died.

This post was written by Graduate Research Exec Becky Geffen.
For more weird and wonderful pharamcetuical facts follow us on: @brandingscience

Accidental Blockbusters: Viagra

“What is luck', he said, 'but the ability to exploit accidents?” Jeanette Winterson

Viagra is a well-known name. It is used to treat over 90 % of patients with erectile dysfunction but in fact was developed for an entirely different condition.

Viagra was originally developed in Kent as a treatment for hypertension. Phase 1 trials in patients in Swansea showed that whilst it had little effect on angina, it did induce marked penile erections. And so Pfizer decided to market it for erectile dysfunction rather than hypertension.

The drug inhibits an enzyme leading to dilation of the veins increasing blood flow in certain areas. In the penis, this causes an erection. However Viagra is also used in an area linked more towards its original research field; pulmonary arterial hypertension. In this condition patients suffer from constricted blood vessels causing shortness of breath, as oxygenated blood cannot reach the heart. Viagra is used as one of the treatments for this condition to help relax the blood vessels allowing efficient blood flow to the heart.

 

Viagra, interestingly, has been documented as a drug of abuse in sports, as athletes believe that opening up blood vessels will enrich their muscles with oxygen, an especially useful feature in endurance events. In fact it has already been a point of controversy when the Italian cyclist, Andrea Moleta, was found with 82 Viagra pills on the Tour of Italy, hidden in toothpaste bottles. This bizarre incidence, seeing as doping on Viagra would be very unsubtle in such tight lycra, led to confusion at the time. Although no doping allegations could be made, seeing as Viagra is yet a banned drug, he was nonetheless excluded from the tour on suspicions of attempting to bypass blood doping tests.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is currently investigating whether to ban Viagra in sport, by testing in possibly the least likely bunch of people to need the drug; collegiate athletes. Lacrosse players at Marywood University are taking part in a study to look at whether an increased blood-flow, and hence oxygen capacity, can really benefit athletes. If this is found to be the case, it will be added to WADA’s extensive list of banned substances.

 

So long as the fridge is full: a day in the life of a market researcher

If you work in the market research industry I’m sure you are already very familiar with the early morning starts, the delayed trains, cancelled flights, and stuffing your face on the move – not to mention the long hours spent holed up in a dark room, so oblivious to the outside that the apocalypse could happen and you would be none the wiser.

But for those of you who don’t work in market research and wonder what goes on behind the glass – no wild parties here, unfortunately – allow me to elaborate.

We conduct the majority of our research in a viewing facility. Think of those detective dramas, like CSI: New York, when they are interrogating a suspect and they are observing it from behind a huge one-way mirror. Our team, including clients, watch the research as it’s happening live.

Almost all respondents accept that they will be observed. Some even wave to our team behind the glass. And for our moderators, it’s quite daunting to conduct an interview with so many colleagues and clients present. But for the moderator, and I’d imagine the respondent too, after 5 minutes you forget about that fact entirely.

The viewing facility staff are almost always pleasant. They show you to your room. They point out where the limitless supply of snacks are (my favourite part of the induction) and the nicely stocked fridge (from water to wine), the air conditioning controls and the audio control. The essentials of fieldwork. Tea and coffee are offered and ALWAYS accepted. Overall, it’s like being shown around your hotel room.

 

If the travel was difficult, the first thing you want to do is collapse into a chair, with some facility chairs being more comfortable than others. You might be wondering why I mention this. Well, when you are expected to sit on a chair for fieldwork days from 10am to 10pm, the chair often becomes your best friend. And best friends should always be a comfort.

Our moderators have to be on the ball – you are there to take notes, but also to identify and interpret respondent insight, which takes a great deal of intellectual concentration. However, the most rewarding part of fieldwork can be the dialogue you have with your clients. You can debate their business objectives in the backroom after particularly insightful interviews and formulate a strategy alongside them. It’s an extremely productive way of working and we always encourage our clients come to central location days for this reason.

Setting up the interview room is all about asking where the respondent should sit so that the camera (we use to video them for analysis purposes) can capture them, and the size of the table in terms of how many respondents you are interviewing and the nature of the materials you are testing.

With room set up it’s all about the atmosphere you want to create between you and the respondent. You want them to feel sufficiently relaxed so that they are more willing to open up when asked questions. You want to be close enough to show them materials whilst not invading their personal space. And ultimately you want them to enjoy the experience.

And then there are the subtle touches you have to think about with regards to the topic of the discussion. If you are interviewing patients with diabetes it would not be prudent to have a big plate of biscuits etc. There are obviously many more examples.

Each respondent is different, of course. And the most exciting part is understanding how best to approach an interview based on their personality and engagement levels. No two interviews are ever the same, which is what makes the job both unpredictable and fascinating.

Sofia Fionda is a Research Executive in the Branding Science London office.

Accidental Blockbusters: Disulfiram

 

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” Winston Churchill

Disulfiram is a drug used to support the treatment of chronic alcoholism. It came about after a strange occurrence in the 1920’s; men working in a rubber factory suddenly found that when hitting the pub after work, they had lost their tolerance to alcohol. This was largely ignored at the time until 20 years later Dr Erik Jacobsen investigated the use of disulfiram to treat intestinal worms. He ingested some of the drug before attending a dinner party, where he proceeded to become violently sick. This led to the connection between disulfiram and alcohol intolerance which further explained why the workers in rubber factories faced similar effects, as disulfiram is a product of chemicals used in their factory.

When you drink alcohol, it is normally degraded by the body into a substance called acetaldehyde. When you drink too much, acetaldehyde builds up in the body and this is what causes you to have a stonking hangover. An enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase clears acetaldehyde out of the body but not necessarily as rapidly as you drink.

Disulfiram blocks this enzyme meaning that if you even have a sip of alcohol, you will immediately feel the same effects as if you had had a 3 day bender.

Disulfiram is sold in tablets where the effects last less than a week. However in Russia, where there is a long, destructive history with alcohol, you can have a procedure where a Disulfiram capsule is implanted into your buttocks and remains there for three years. In Moscow alone there are dozens of clinics where you can get this procedure done. In fact up to 80 % of alcohol addiction treatments in Russia are from this capsule procedure. Drinking alcohol with this tablet implanted in you is thought by Russians ‘to kill you’. Of course this would in fact be entirely unethical, but the symptoms may suggest as such to the patient. An antidote for these effects can be bought for $300 which renders the drinker back to full health.

The Invisible Monsters Return - Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

 

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria seem like they belong in a Stephen King novel rather than the news, with headlines threatening a return to pre-modern healthcare, when the mildest infection could threaten your life. In a BBC article, Professor Neil Woodford from the Health Protection Agency gives us a worst case scenario example: "You could be gardening and prick your finger on a rose bush, get a bacterial infection and go into hospital and doctors can't do anything to save your life. You live or die based on chance.” He hastens to add "But for many infections that wouldn't happen."

unfortunately, this problem isn't fiction

 

There are a number of reasons why antibiotic resistant strains have developed in recent years. Not only have antibiotics been overprescribed, but animals have also been given antibiotics in mass farming routines. As one of our team members explained, "livestock is injected with antibiotics that stay in the meat. Therefore, eating meat is like taking a low dose antibiotic that will only slow down the sensitive bacteria, forcing them to learn how to break it. This is how resistance strains evolve, through constant exposure to low doses of antibiotics from food."
There is also the problem of drug development. There have been no major breakthroughs in antibiotics since 1987 and, according to Professor Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, only four pharmaceutical companies work on antibiotic development today compared to 18 companies 20 years ago. The World Economic Forum attributes this to the lack of incentives for pharmaceutical companies to research and develop new antibiotics, especially compared to the rewards of other diseases and conditions that have seen more investment recently.

 

While researching this blog entry, Branding Science discovered that we have an in-house expert on antibiotic resistant bacteria. Becky Geffen wrote her masters dissertation on antibiotic resistant bacteria and has kindly agreed to answer a few of our questions for the blog today:

BSc: Can you give us more of an idea of how the situation stands right now?

Becky: There are hundreds of different antibiotics out there, with a number of different mode of actions, and so even with the more severe infections, there is a vast range of antibiotics on hand ready to fight the bacteria.

The odd case where people die from bacterial infections are from really unfortunate circumstances where the bacteria have developed a different way of breaking down the antibiotic. These are firstly very rare, and secondly there is generally at least one antibiotics that will work, even if it will present the patient with unpleasant side effects.

BSc: How do you see things improving in the future?

Becky: The main issue surrounding antibiotic development is that we need to first understand how these resistant bacteria are degrading the antibiotics before we can find new drugs to overcome this, and this is where academia comes in. So even if new antibiotics are not at the forefront of pharmas mind, there is research going on in the background surrounding the mechanism of action of these pesky bugs. Until this is done, we almost want pharma focusing on other therapy areas rather than churning out ‘me-too’ antibiotics.

BSc: Do you know any interesting facts about antibiotic resistant bacteria that you’d like to share with our readers?

Becky: I cheated and looked these up as I don’t think anything from my own research would be that interesting to anyone but me! In an Egyptian study, Dr Mervat Kassem showed that green tea could boost antibiotics antibacterial properties by 3 times. So the next time you get ill, start chugging back the green tea. And antibiotics have a sinister side as well; penicillin is the number 1 cause of anaphylactic shock.

Thanks Becky!

 

Written by Alexandra Zaleski in our London office.

Further reading and sources:

http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2013/view/risk-case-1/the-dangers-of-hubris-on-human-health/#read

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21702647

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21737844

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24957090

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24957090

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25654112