Multichannel Marketing 2014

Sep 17, 2014 - Sep 18, 2014, London

Drive Customer Value Through Digital Transformation

Don’t Leave Love to Luck: Designing to Influence With Health Apps

Mobile technology possesses a number of unique attributes to become a powerful behavior change agent in the transformation of healthcare, but designing an effective behavior change platform requires insight into not just the patient’s motivations but that of their influencers.



Harnessing the power of healthcare apps to increase awareness, engage and educate and ultimately modify behavior is an area in which pharma companies will need to become increasingly adept, yet a critical consideration is often overlooked - the power of influencers. Engaging individuals more effectively by taking advantage of new insights from behavioral psychology and behavioral economics and using the power of influencers will become increasingly important to drive the long-term sustainable behavior modification required to achieve healthier outcomes and deliver impact.

Engaging the Influencers

70% of women were really influenced by their partner’s opinion on birth control. Therefore, we knew if we were to have any impact on increasing the use of contraception, we had to target their influencers – the men, by tapping into their motivations and triggering an emotional response that would engage them and change their mindset".

When it came to designing their “Don’t Leave Love to Luck App”, Bayer’s Pelin Icil, Marketing Manager, Women’s Health, speaking to eyeforpharma ahead of her presentation at the Multichannel Marketing Conference, claims that to successfully drive behavioral change, you need to look also at the motivations of the target’s influencers and engage them in the process. “A mere 32% of Turkish women use reliable contraception and when we set out to change this, we investigated why that figure was so high. A number of determinants came to light – lack of education on safe contraception, socio-economic class etc. but a key determinant was their husband’s/partner’s favorable opinion about using contraception versus the withdrawal method which is the most common method used. According to our survey, 70% of women were really influenced by their partner’s opinion on birth control. Therefore, we knew if we were to have any impact on increasing the use of contraception, we had to target their influencers – the men, by tapping into their motivations and triggering an emotional response that would engage them and change their mindset. Young men are interested in women – obviously - but the platform allowed them to track their partner’s mood and emotions throughout their menstrual cycle and receive notifications and “warnings” to be more sensitive at certain times. This really captivated men and triggered a strong emotional response as they want to know how to treat their women and it opened up the conversation around contraception as a responsible choice. Men need to be informed so that they can be closer to their partners and by tapping into their motivations, you can create real impact in terms of behavioral change”.

Sustained Approach: Key Learnings

Bayer Healthcare met the challenge of increasing birth control and menstrual cycle awareness in a discreet and socially acceptable manner with their Don’t Leave Love to Luck app which became the number one healthcare app in Turkey with more than 35,000 downloads in three months and a 5/5 rating. It now achieves 250 daily downloads on average. But what are the key learnings for pharma companies looking to create a platform that delivers behavioral change that is sustainable in the long term?

We are looking to launch Women’s Health TV in July of this year, which will see up to 70 doctors available online with 2 live chats daily where women can ask health-related questions in real time. It’s about making knowledge accessible and creating an open forum for the exchange of information".

“In order to drive behavioral change in the long-term, you need to have a sustained approach as opposed to a campaign-based approach that lasts only a few months and moves on to something else. It’s a long-term commitment but when you look at what’s achievable, you can really deliver impactful results. Currently, 1 in 4 women in Turkey will have an unwanted pregnancy due to using the withdrawal method which they believe is an effective method of birth control. Changing these misperceptions takes time and a long-term approach, and we won’t see the results for years. Don’t waste money on short-term campaigns, 95% of which don’t work. Secondly, do your research. Get to know your target audience and be prepared to continuously learn and iterate based on those new learnings. Thirdly, it’s not enough to launch an app and leave it at that. For us, this is only the start. The next stage is live webcasts with the doctors where young people can ask questions related to women’s health which encourages women to take ownership of their health and receive the information they need in a convenient and private way. Following on from that, we are looking to launch Women’s Health TV in July of this year, which will see up to 70 doctors available online with 2 live chats daily where women can ask health-related questions in real time. It’s about making knowledge accessible and creating an open forum for the exchange of information”, asserts Icil.

An addictive app

Mobile technology possesses a number of unique attributes to become a powerful behavior change agent in the transformation of healthcare. According to a recent report by Mobiquity, “Designing an Effective Behavior Change Platform”, the following are the three best practices for creating behavior changing mobile health apps:

1. Create an individualized solution

A one-size-fits-all model with constant reminders will ultimately fail as a result of “reminder fatigue” or boredom. A combination of techniques, as well as variation in the timing and ordering of how they are applied, is critical. Examples may include self-logging, gamification, social feedback, self-measurement, auto-analytics, notifications, alerts and reminders.

2. Analytic models that trigger the appropriate interventions and outcomes for each user

These models should integrate context, personal profile, and short- and long-term behavior patterns to determine the appropriate intervention approach and timing. Cognitive psychology and behavior-economics techniques may lead to more sophisticated incentive models.

3. Personalized communications to increase engagement

It should be the individual who determines which means of communications (email, SMS, social, voice, etc.) is used instead of a generic approach.

 

The ultimate indicator that an app is influencing is if it becomes “addictive”. “When we see users reaching for the app multiple times a day or first thing in the morning, we know we have achieved something special and we have captured their imaginations. It’s important to take the right approach: appeal to people’s motivations and personal triggers – never try to be didactic. The platform allows young men and women to converse on women’s health issues and opens up conversations on birth control and that can only be a good thing”, concludes Icil.

Mobile is a powerful force when marketing especially to millennials and will play an intrinsic role in changing individual behavior. Behavioral change programs need to engage individuals and those close to them and are most effective when they address the root causes and barriers to behavior change.


Bayer Healthcare, Turkey, ‘Don’t Leave Love to Luck’ App was the winner of eyeforpharma Barcelona's award for "Most Valuable Patient Initiative or Service".

Pelin Icil will be speaking at the Multichannel Marketing Summit in London, 17-18th September 2014. 

 



Multichannel Marketing 2014

Sep 17, 2014 - Sep 18, 2014, London

Drive Customer Value Through Digital Transformation