Ride the Storm: Navigating Through Unstable Periods / Katerina Rudko (Belka G...
Anton van de Putte
1. Market Research on the Perception
of self-medication
in Germany
49th AESGP Annual Meeting
Lisbon, 6 June 2013
Anton van de Putte
Member of the Board, German Medicines Manufacturers‘ Association – BAH
2. “The trouble with market research
is that people don’t think how they
feel, they don’t say what they think
and they don’t do what they say.”
David Ogilvy (1911-1999)
3. Initial Position:
De-reimbursement negatively impacted OTC uptake
The BAH has most members of all drug
associations in Germany.
Traditionally it is committed to self-medication.
Since 2004 non-prescription medicines are not
reimbursed anymore, leading to a decline in sales.
3
4. Self-medication in German pharmacies since 2004
4
Sustaining decrease in sales and turnover
èDegree of image loss for OTC products
OTX
OTC
5. 5
Initial Position:
De-reimbursement negatively impacted OTC uptake
Therefore BAH asked:
§What do consumers feel and expect with regard to self medication?
§How can we improve communication of quality and benefit?
The BAH has most members of all drug
associations in Germany.
Traditionally it is committed to self-medication.
Since 2004 non-prescription medicines are not
reimbursed anymore, leading to a decline in sales.
6. 6
Method and sample of BAH research
The morphological (in-depth-psychological) study
uncovered sub-conscious perceptions, images
and emotions.
--> Results are psychologically representative
§58 participants
(one-on-one and group interviews)
§67% female, 33% male
§aged 18 -70 years
§4 categories of consumers
(from occasional to long-term medication users)
7. What do consumers think about Medication?
7
Consumers are ambivalent
§ On one hand, in Germany consumers admire
the progress of medicine and pharmacology.
§ On the other hand, they are also sceptical.
§ Reasons are:
− Germans’ anxious attitude (“German Angst”)
− Germans’ romanticize nature
− Germans’ perseverance & “willpower”
9. 9
Consumers are ambivalent
§ On one hand, in Germany consumers admire
the progress of medicine and pharmacology.
§ On the other hand, they are also sceptical.
§ Reasons are:
− Germans’ anxious attitude (“German Angst”)
− Germans’ romanticize nature
− Germans’ perseverance & “willpower”
What do consumers think about Medication?What do consumers think about Medication?
10. 10
Strategy in handling of medicines and illness
The consumption of any drug is an external intrusion.
It leads to an essential psychological problem without solution:
With the aid of “foreign powers” you are
meddling with nature.
Engagement has consequences
(guilt, fear, bad conscience, risks
and side-effects)
à Leading to strategy to avoid
these consequences
11. How do consumers perceive illness?
11
One‘s own
nature
Foreign
powers
Illness as
inescapable
destiny
Illness as
limitation of
everyday life
§ Result of stress or overexploitation
of one‘s own nature
§ External invasion
(germs, poison, “foreign powers”)
§ Inescapable destiny,
which you have to live with
§ Limitations of everyday life
Different perceptions
12. How consumers deal with medication?
12
§ Foreign Powers: Taking medicines only
when suffering
§ Natural: Consumers prefer medicines “close
to nature”
§ Legitimation of conventional authorities:
doctors / pharmacist recommended usage
§ Eternal Life: Internal framing of medicines
as “prolonging life”
§ Individual Dosing: Self-medication at one’s
own measurement
§ Science: More knowledge makes medication
more predictable
Foreign
powers
Eternal life
Science
Individual
dosing
Natural
Legitimation
Primary strategy: to avoid these consequences
14. How do consumers deal with self medication?
14
What do Consumers want?
§ Medication at individual dosage
§ Actions and drugs close to
“nature”
§ More knowledge & information
makes medicine better
understood
§ Peer recommendation
§ Internet, TV, customer
magazines
§ Generally doctors preferring
Rx medicine
§ Alternative practitioners,
osteopaths and homoeopaths as
alternatives
What do Consumers find?
15. How do consumers see self-medication?
15
§ Consumers becoming more independent, better
informed and more critical through Internet use
§ Consumers feel overwhelmed with the confusing
drug market, and react sceptically towards
pharmacists and producers
§ Consumers are both: emancipated and insecure,
they search for orientation in the market’s
complicated offerings
§ Dissociation from traditional medicine leads to
attention to natural drugs
Emancipation and proximity to nature as key trends
16. How do consumers see self-medication?
16
è Consumers generally do not understand these legal
definitions and groups
Consumers perceive a cloud of definitions
pharmacy
exclusive
medical device
drug
prescription
open sales
drugstore
medicine
food supplement
OTC
OTX
RX
self medication
17. Potential of self medication: Orientation and Safety
17
pharmacy
exclusive
cure
medical devices
medicine
Self medication
prescription
liable to registration
drugstore
drug
food supplement
OTC
OTX
RX
è To let consumers realise and use the intrinsic value of
OTC products
Pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacists can
strengthen the consumers’ own responsibility by providing
orientation and safety
18. 18
Conclusions & Recommendations
Need to build a partnership based on trust:
§ Trust Consumers to choose and use appropriately
§ Trust Companies to intend to promote responsibly and direct
communication with consumers is a key for responsible promotion
§ Trust Pharmacists to be First Line healthcare professionals for less
serious conditions
§ Trust Regulators to take into account the value of access and
efficacy of OTCs, as consumer products
§ Self-regulation in OTC advertising
ü a self-regulatory, post-publication control system for OTC
advertising brings more efficiency, independency and
responsibility for the industry
