Winning Submission: Beyond the ComfortZone: Packing a Punch with Dynamic Deliverablesand Behavioural Science. Cathy Haw, HRW and Dennis Engelke, Jazz Pharma.

3. Influencing Strategic Direction viaEngaging and Actionable Deliverables

This award focused on how results from a research project were delivered in such a way as toimmerse the brand team in the findings.

Cathy Haw & Dennis Engelke with Karsten Trautman. Read more about this winning paper on page 31

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Catherine Haw and Dennis Engelke presented theirEphMRA Award-winning paper demonstrating howmarket research influenced strategic direction viaengaging and actionable deliverables.

Jazz Pharma has a product, Defitelio, for the treatment ofsevere venous-occlusive disease (sVOD). Thecommunication challenge for Jazz and Defitelio was theneed for a disruptive, powerful communication campaignaddressing entrenched customer thinking and behaviourin the haem-oncology space. The team wanted to instilthe urgency of earlier product initiation when faced withsuspected sVOD and push the boundaries of customerinteraction from an emotional perspective. The idea wasmooted to develop a campaign featuring an sVOD patientcase study, with a fatal outcome, but there were concernsover customer reactions and whether this would beconsidered a “step too far”.

The project involved a deep dive into the emotionalresonance and impact of the campaign, including anexploration of the dynamic of “difficult conversations”about sVOD. The team needed to measure the fitbetween the creative concepts and the core story, as wellas identifying areas for improvement and fine-tuning.Ultimately, they needed to assess the overall viability ofthis approach and provide guidance for implementationby the sales force if this impactful approach was approved.The key objective was to create strong deliverables –it was considered essential to capture the attention,connect emotionally and communicationactionable insights.

In terms of methodology, interviews involved anexploration of the physician experience of managingsVOD, before presenting the case study and exploringreactions. Audio-clips were captured to be used in thefinal presentation. To address the need for guidance forthe sales force, the interviews included questions thatwould be posed to the doctors when they looked at thecase study, to make it as realistic as possible.

Analysis included identification of any local nuancesarising from the assessment of the case study to allow fortailoring in each market, as well as for key customersegments. The materials were assessed based on HRW’s“Sticky Ideas criteria” (six different criteria proven to belinked with motivation and behavioural change). HRW’sin-house Behavioural Science team (HRW Shift) was alsoconsulted to characterise the behaviours emerging fromthe reactions to the case study, which could then be used

to guide the strategic recommendations.

EphMRA Award – Influencing strategicdirection via engaging and actionable

deliverables Beyond the Comfort Zone: Packing apunch with dynamic deliverables and behavioural sciencelook at this important data collection methodology

Speakers: Dennis Engelke,Jazz Pharmaceuticals &Cathy Haw, HRW

Chair: Bernadette Rogers, EphMRA

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EphMRApost conference news

Catherine then described the deliverables whichcontributed to the success of the project, explaining thatthey included three different elements: practical advice forusing the material in the field; the science of behaviouralchange and some creative dynamics to enhance theimpact of the deliverables themselves.

1. Practical advice for the sales force:

When designing the report, the HRW team focused on thesales force who would ultimately be using the material inthe field. They included simple, straightforward advice onhow to use the material, including identifying the likelybehaviours that they might expect from customers andobjection-handling suggestions.

2. The science of behavioural change:

The report brought to life the emotional analysis of thecustomer mindset and response to the case study,including linguistic and emotional analysis of thecustomer approach to sVOD and how the case study tookthe existing anxiety to its ultimate conclusion. Catherinedescribed this is a dark and negative space but noted thatvery few respondents actually rejected the idea, with mostfinding they could relate to the experience. Reinforcingthe conclusion that the case study worked to support thecore messages for Defitelio, the behavioural science teamcharacterised some of the specific behaviours and traitsthat emerged, explaining how they supported the impactof the case study. Loss aversion, activating the power ofnegative emotion and both the backfire effect and choicesupportive bias were identified, not only providingevidence for the effectiveness of the case study butproviding guidance for the sales force on how to gentlychallenge physicians with aspects of the case study thatstood out from the current status quo.

3. Creative dynamics to enhance the impact ofdeliverables:

The final deliverable was a workshop with a senioraudience, and HRW wanted to grab their attention quickly,engage them emotionally and motivate the audience toact. They decided to begin with a five-minute animatedsummary of the research, incorporating audio clips fromrespondents, music, images, written verbatims and logosto tell the story in an impactful way.

The team found that coming up with the initial storyboardplan was the most important step as they needed to agreeon the key messages they wanted the audience toremember. They distilled the objectives down to threekey questions that needed to be addressed: did theapproach work? What was the potential impact? Whatdoes the sales force need to bear in mind in order toimplement it effectively?

Dennis summarised the reaction to the deliverables,explaining that the results from the market research andthe impact they were seeing in the field were fascinating.The case study brings physicians to an emotionally darkplace, but the product detail and clinical data providesthem with a solution which then makes sense to them.

Dennis reported that the field force experiencechallenging conversations with physicians, but that theapproach opens up considerable patient-focuseddiscussion and facilitates education about this rarecondition, raising awareness and placing the product as apositive solution.

The project has been very well received, and Dennis waspleased to report that there had been several senior-leveldiscussions at Jazz Pharma headquarters with far-reaching impact across the business, engaging theorganisation and motivating the sales force.

Catherine concluded with some final thoughts on whatcan be learned from the project.

From a research perspective, she noted, it was a valuableexercise for the team to challenge itself to deliver asuccinct and engaging deliverable rather than the multipleslides that are commonly seen. The process of achievingthe impactful deliverable proved to be an excellentanalytical exercise involving identification of the keyquestions and finding the most effective way to answerthem.

Dennis concluded that a key learning is that sometimesyou must test a bold idea, without shying away fromsomething that initially looks too different and risky. Healso urged us to think about the key stakeholder groupsfrom the outset, to ensure that the final deliverableengages each different stakeholder group and deliversmaximum value from the research project.