Case study: How we helped our client maximise uptake and fine-tune the marketing strategy for their vaccine product in China

They needed to build a complete picture of how consumers are influenced, such as whether they are more influenced by HCP advice or online forums and social media. Furthermore, they needed to develop an understanding of other out-of-pocket (OOP) competitor vaccines and what the future healthcare initiatives mean for vaccination in general.

The solution
Given the need for both exploratory and forecasting information, a mixed methodology approach was adopted to ensure our findings could provide an overview of the current healthcare environment in China (with a focus on adults aged 50 and over), whilst also guiding our clients on the size of the opportunity including ‘where to play and how to win’.

Phase 1: Research was conducted to allow our client to understand who the target consumer is in China and key sources of influence. We used a combination of English and Mandarin resources in order to provide an accurate overview of the current market.

Phase 2: We partnered with an external statistician who was able to apply specific data filters to their existing database in order to tell us the proportion of patients who (and in which cities) could realistically afford the vaccine (based on estimated cost at the time of the research). This information would allow our clients to make ‘well-informed’ targeted decisions over the coming months to help accelerate the launch.

The outputs
We provided our client with a detailed report regarding Healthcare Consumer aattitudes to health, well-being and ageing, HCC perceptions of healthcare / vaccination and the sphere of influence around vaccination. In addition, a database was also provided which included statistics for all key cities of interest to help our clients establish the opportunity and more importantly decide ‘where to play and how to win’.

Our findings enabled our client to better understand the target consumer in China and to also gauge which cities should be prioritised for the programme launch. This information was also used to circulate within the pharma company itself to ensure that the thinking behind the vaccine was standardised within the company. The data file that was provided could also be easily manipulated (to reflect future data changes) – our findings were therefore both actionable and flexible.