Analysing the digital behaviour and communication method perception of groups (personas) of Belgian general practitioners

Abstract

The aim of the In-Company Project at MSD Belgium is to investigate what (open source) data is available in the market place about MSD Belgium’s three personas of general practitioners (GPs) with a relatively high degree of digital affinity in order to improve MSD’s digital communication with these important customer groups via various digital channels. MSD Belgium recently conducted a market study together with the consultant firm IQVIA which resulted in the categorisation of Belgian general practitioners in seven personas. Whilst these personas give an insight in different behaviours of the company’s targets, MSD Belgium is dissatisfied with the quality and the outdatedness of the digital parameters (Kruijff, 2018a). MSD Belgium would like to gain a deeper understanding of the digital affinity and the online behaviour of its personas, particularly the personas which were identified to have a high digital affinity, namely persona 0 (Dutch Speaking Digital Growers), 5 (Multi Channel Sita Lovers), and 6 (Young Online Females) (MSD Belgium, 2018d). In order to answer the above outlined management question, we used a number of different methodologies. On the one hand, we conducted desk research by consulting literature and analysing secondary data. On the other hand, we conducted primary research, inasmuch as we conducted an email survey as well as interviews with healthcare professionals, employees of MSD Belgium, and external consultants. The digital affinity of GPs is of high importance for MSD Belgium’s digital marketing due to the company’s client segmentation. MSD Belgium currently has potential customers which are in target (‘blended target’) or out of target (‘digital target’). Only blended targets are subject to visits from medical representatives, as the prescription volumes of digital targets are too low to warrant visits from representatives in a cost-efficient way (MSD Belgium, 2018d; Meijer and Meir, 2018). However, 78.7% of all Belgian GPs constitute digital targets. Whilst their prescription volumes are predominantly low, and MSD already captures a considerable market share, there is room for expansion. If MSD Belgium successfully launches well targeted digital marketing campaigns ultimately convincing GPs to switch to the MSD’s diabetes products Januvia or Janumet, the company can generate a significant amount of extra revenue. Beyond that, sales to digital targets are subject to a higher profit margin than to in target customers due to the lack of medical representatives involved. The market research conducted by IQVIA gives first insights about the digital behaviour of GPs in terms of channel preference, clicking behaviour and MSD meeting attendance, as well as online presence. However, data on the channel preferences was subject to large extrapolation, with insufficient back-testing, which impairs the credibility of the results. Also, data on online presence can be considered inferior, as IQVIA’s methodology was flawed due to a lack of identity verification. Research on social media, namely LinkedIn and Facebook, has shown that the online activity of the digitally affine GPs is limited, providing slim grounds for profiling. However, we managed to identify trends providing psychographic insights on the personas. Persona 0 has strong commercial characteristic. Persona 6 is a truly humanistic group. Last but not least, persona 5 appears to be a cross-over of persona 0 and 6 demonstrating commercial, scientific, and humanistic traits. Whilst the personas’ activity on social media was limited, the analysis of their open and click behaviour for the diabetes campaigns demonstrated a higher digital receptiveness compared to the other personas. Through our primary research, we could verify the popularity of communication channels amongst GPs, which only differ insignificantly between the personas. We identified face-to-face meetings with medical representatives, scientific meetings/reunions, and e-learnings to be the most popular channels. On the other hand, physicians strongly dislike call centres, social media communication, live tele-conferences with medical representatives, virtual representatives, and apps. This demonstrates that even the most digitally affine physicians have a strong tendency towards offline communication. In terms of content, all personas showed scientific interests, with a high emphasis on scientific studies and updates on treatments. Also, commercial attitudes are present as tips on management of a practice as well as information sources enjoy general popularity. The content preferences are mostly in line with the psychographic profile identified through social media. MSD Belgium is able to implement persona-specific actions based on the psychographic profile of the personas created throughout our analysis. Beyond that, our primary research enabled us to recommend more general actions to MSD Belgium related to the communication channels, content used in its digital channels, as well as the accessibility, structure, and content of MSD Now. Processing of personal information in order to build a profile of an individual’s personality and behaviour is affected by the EU General Data Protection Regulation. MSD Belgium’s data processing needs for the personalisation of marketing campaigns can be based on either consent or legitimate interest. As current profiling activities at MSD Belgium do not lead to automated decisions which have a legal effect on the data subjects, consent is not a premise for the intended profiling exercises. In conclusion, it is possible to build a profile of the personas based on (open source) data available in the market place to aid the development of person-specific communication strategies. We identified channel preferences, preferred information sources and content, thoughts on MSD’s online platform MSD Now, and the receptiveness to MSD Belgium’s diabetes email campaigns per persona. However, due to the limited activity on online networks, further primary research and other profiling efforts are required to build a reliable picture of the personas