Performing market research to provide the key elements to design a go-to-market strategy for the branding and launch of an innovative dermatological product in Belgium

Abstract

Acne vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that affects 9.34% of the globalpopulation. The impact is both clinical and psychosocial, resulting in a considerable burden on people suffering from this disease. It has been described that the microbial skin flora consisting of C. acnes and S. epidermidis plays a large role as constituent in the development of inflammatory acne lesions. Consequently, current treatment guidelines include topical antibiotics to treat acne. As an R&D-driven innovation focused company, Flen Health developed Faceme, a medical device that has antimicrobial properties with a lower risk for development of antibiotic resistance in the treatment of acne vulgaris. The product creates an ideal wound healing environment for the acne lesions to reduce in both number and severity. Next to that, other ingredients contribute to lower sebum production and faster skin renewal. The anti-acne product market is extremely scattered with a very strong competitive landscape. This market consists of three types of products, including cosmetics, topical drugs sold without a prescription and topical and oral treatments available only on prescription. Globally, the cosmetics and anti-acne drug market combined, amount to over 6.5 billion USD in sales. Different sales channels and the very strong market positioning of competitors result in a fragmented market to enter for Flen Health. This report aims to provide the key elements in order to develop a product positioning and goto-market strategy for Faceme. This was done by means of the different steps described in the STP model. First of all, a generic product positioning was put forward based on the product properties and results of pre-clinical data. Secondly, patient’s experienced on suffering from acne and their search for a solution were researched. To design a patient journey pathway, both qualitative and quantitative interviews with patients were conducted. Based on these data, key stakeholders in the decision process of acne patients have been determined. The three main stakeholders are the patient, the pharmacist and the dermatologist. This necessitated the need for a qualitative semi-structured interviews with pharmacists to construct a pharmacist decision journey about recommending a certain anti-acne product. This has resulted in three decision processes for pharmacists i) starting with patients having an acne ailment ii) patients asking for a specific product, and iii) The main drivers for pharmacists to add a product to their in-house portfolio. Based on this research, it was observed that in order to create market disruption for Faceme, the pharmacists would be one of the main stakeholders to focus in order to be able to create large sales volumes. Before pharmacists can be convinced to recommend Faceme for patients, it is recommended to conduct additional clinical research on the efficacy of Faceme, next to a comparison with the main competitors. These have been selected based on usage by patients as well as pharmacy sales volumes. Finally, additional clinical data could also be useful to approach dermatologists and convince them to endorse usage of Faceme. A Rogers 5 factors analysis to determine the market disruption potential of Faceme was performed. This indicated that the strongest attribute for innovation adoption is Faceme’s relative advantage, which can be translated into a USP “Treating acne lesions as a type of wound”. Observability, on the other hand, proved to be the biggest inhibiting factor. Patients, pharmacist and treatment pathways were analyzed to define leverage points. These points were assigned a score based on multiple criteria. This model confirmed the importance of marketing efforts to drive large sales volume but was unable to provide insights into priorities because of a lack of specific data. This did however confirm the need for additional clinical testing. It is strongly advised to conduct additional clinical testing before launching Faceme, as this will clarify which leverage points to focus on and will help to refine how big the relative advantage of Faceme is.