Editor’s note: Sam Sabrin is senior market research manager at Celgene, a Summit, N.J., biopharmaceutical company.

With the most recent and persistent consolidation cycle in the pharmaceutical industry, the role of the market research professional has become precarious. The need for quality market research endures, especially as large and small pharma companies scramble to find ways to develop valuable and effective life-modifying drugs. Yet timelines are shorter and demands are greater to produce actionable insights for line business partners, usually brand managers. Further, these brand managers are faced with myriad challenges and do not always share their business plans with their partners. So it is often unclear what decisions will be made with the research once the insights are obtained.

The challenge then, is to develop a strategic alliance between the market research function and the business partner making the business decision. In order to establish this partnership we need to start from the end and ask, “What decisions will be made with the outcome of the research?”

Working backwards like this requires a thoughtful discussion with the line partner and a strong consideration of the business needs. When we start with the decisions, we are better able to determine the necessary market research inputs to generate the desired insights that will inform the strategy. In addition, this sets the scope and limitations of the research design. It also allows the researcher to better manage timelines, leaving room for synthesizing insights with previously-conducted research and filling in potential information gaps from secondary sources.

By contrast, when the researcher starts with a simple request, without the decision included in the forethought, there can be a disconnect between the insights generated and the business decisions needing to be made.

For example an in-licensing opportunity might be presented for research to garner insights into a target product profile in a disease area of high unmet need. The emphases of the research are the scientific end points from clinical trials. However, no consideration is given to the potential third-party reimbursement hurdles the product may have relative to other cheaper products used off-label in the same category. Payors (HMOs, Medicare, etc.) are therefore not considered as part of the market research. Moreover, the clinical data of competing therapies presented to physicians may not be believable given the personal clinical experience of physicians.

Another example is conducting quantitative market research in emerging economies where multiple methodologies may be required to reach a desired sample size. Using multiple methodologies inherently biases the data collection process and may introduce anomalies in the data. Usually the insights garnered from this research are difficult to interpret and the projects may be best served by conducting a qualitative market research study instead.

Typically the business questions in these emerging economies follow very similar forms as in developed health care systems. Yet, critical pieces may be missing from the equation, like the effects of an underdeveloped distribution channel on physician and patient access or price manipulation by a distributor that cuts into the bottom line. Or even more serious are counterfeit products that find their way into the distribution channel. These phony products result in poor patient outcomes and adverse events that discourage physician prescribing and patient compliance. Taking these and other market realities into consideration when developing the research process can result in a richer overall context for the business decision-making.

Deeper answers are needed

What a brand manager thinks s/he needs may actually require a different research outcome that will help make a decision about a brand or a competitor. Usually, deeper answers are needed to provide a fuller picture of market events that help drive decision-making.

Probing a brand manager, as a customer might be probed in market research, usually results in improved research design and outcomes. Fruitful areas for digging deeper with the brand manger are usually related to the customer experience. For example, asking them to consider issues and opportunities related to the patient’s journey, from symptoms and diagnosis through treatment follow-up, can provide for an added understanding of various touchpoints of value creation. Similar results can come from asking about the physician mind-set and experience with a particular disease state as well as other related disease states that may influence general physician behavior. This is especially useful when physicians use their general experience in one disease area to treat a rare disease.

Restating the business question also gives a chance to decide on who should be included in the research. For instance should we include caregivers, patients, nurses, office managers or pharmacists? And, it helps with identifying an underlying business concern that was not immediately apparent in the initial market research request. Probing identifies gaps between the core business question for the research and how the business question fits in with the overall strategy of the brand.

Lack of tailored insights

When the business question is not clearly defined upfront, the team cannot collectively analyze the outcomes of the research and the business decision suffers from the lack of tailored insights. The underlying unknowns driving the business go unanswered and the key findings needed to drive strategic decision-making are lost to the surface question or request initially made by the line partner.

Whenever possible all market research activity should be designed and geared toward a business decision that the marketer must make to grow the business. When market researchers ask their partners the right and necessary questions they get a better understanding of the key drivers that move the business and the underlying assumptions that may or may not need to be questioned during the execution of the research.