In the advertising classic A Technique for Producing Ideas, James Webb Young lays out a systematic, five-step process to generate ideas. It begins with the gathering of raw material and eventually leads to that “eureka moment” we’ve all experienced.
If creativity is the combination of disparate thoughts, concepts or information, it stands to reason that the more information (or what Young calls “raw material”) one has to combine, the easier it will be to come up with new ideas. This is sometimes referred to as “kaleidoscope thinking.” A further exploration of this concept can be found here.
At Intouch, we focus on providing customer-centric ideas for our clients. And the only way to provide value to our clients’ target audience is to know as much as we can about them. We collect the raw material by immersing ourselves as much as possible in the lives of the audience. In fact, we’ve learned immersion in the category is the surest way to get the insights necessary for breakthrough creative.
A wonderful book, Hitting the Sweet Spot, by Lisa Fortini-Campbell explores a variety of tools and techniques to immerse yourself in your customers’ lives. She writes:
“Immersing yourself in the lives of other people means you have to get out there with them, into the places they live, work, shop and play. . . . It’s a lot of work and it’s not for the faint-hearted. But the simple fact is you can’t learn enough to connect with your consumers by locking yourself away in your office reading the results of a marketing research study.”
Replicating customer experience is difficult—especially in pharmaceutical marketing—whether that customer is a patient, caregiver or health care professional. Except in rare cases, the marketer isn’t living with the disease they are asked to represent, nor are they a health care professional who treats the condition daily.
Replicating customer experience is difficult—but not impossible. Below are some techniques we use to get deeper customer insights.
Observe Your Customer
As Jane Goodall painstakingly observed chimpanzees, so you too must observe your audience. Watch a person with diabetes check his blood glucose level. What preparation does he go through? Is it a laborious process or second nature? How about the insulin injection? Is it a more or less considered action? What insights can come from observing these procedures? If your target is pharmaceutical sales reps, what better way to get insights into their challenges than to accompany and observe them on sales calls?
Pick the Brain of Someone Close to Your Audience
For example, ask a husband how his wife talked about herself before she went for a cosmetic procedure. How did she look at herself in the mirror? How would he rate her confidence in social situations before the procedure? How about afterwards? Did her self-descriptions, time in front of the mirror or confidence change?
Who knows more about what factors an HCP will respond to than the sales rep that services that HCP? What insights can we learn from these types of conversations that would lead to compelling, benefit-oriented copy and meaningful design?
Put Yourself in Your Customer’s Shoes
Again, this is tough in pharma. Many of the people that work on pharma brands don’t have personal experience with the diseases they are asked to represent. But our teams get creative in their attempts to understand a patient’s lifestyle. At Intouch Solutions, copywriters have smeared petroleum jelly on glasses to replicate the lens-clouding effect of cataracts. Graphic designers have worn ACE bandages around their wrists to get a feel for the motion-impairing effects of rheumatoid arthritis. All of these have given us a better perspective leading to more valuable copy, tools and visuals—more impactful creative.
Our goal is to get past the disease itself and attempt to understand the attitudes of people living with these diseases. And we’ve found that there is no substitute for actually spending face-to-face time with patients, their families, and health care providers.
Read What They Say
Intouch copywriter Kevin Wohler has written about insights that have come to him by poring over the personal accounts of patients’ blogs and message board entries. Online communities covering every imaginable group exist. For example, following threads on Sermo gives unique perspectives into the thought processes, needs, challenges and desires of HCPs.
The More You Know
The better you know your customer—her behavior, attitudes, interests and opinions; what she goes through on a daily basis—the more likely it is you’ll find the insights that lead to identifying her true needs. And therefore, you’ll be able to better satisfy those needs through messaging, services and products.
While reams of market research may exist (and sometimes it doesn’t), there are many creative ways to immerse yourself in the customer’s experience. And if you and your teams are determined to obtain that deeper understanding, the creative outcomes will be well worth the effort.