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Insight

Using consumer’s intuitive logic to influence OTC buying behaviour

The consumer’s belief regarding ailments and how medicines work influences their buying and
consumption of medicines. Susan Josi – Managing Partner, Sorento Healthcare and Anil Khanna
- Business Head, CubeX analyse some common examples and advocate building these learnings
into the strategic management of OTC brands

When it comes to communicating to the consumer, over-the-counter

(OTC) medicines communication largely follows a uniform formula:

Show the problem (in a realistic or exaggerated manner) or the consumer’s

pain or agony due to the problem , then introduce the product, show how it
works (scientific method), then the relief, ending with the brand benefit.

The end result is that, more often than not, nearly all the brand
communication for most OTC medicines looks quite similar if not exactly
same. This approach, while rationally correct, fails to create a strong and
lasting impression among the consumers. The reason being, while it does
correctly depict the consumer’s anger or frustration with the relevant
problem, it lacks in creating empathy. For consumers, when it comes to
everyday problems and ailments, have a ‘very good idea’ of the nature of
the ailment, what happens in the body when the problem occurs, and what
should be the ‘nature’ of the remedy to cure it from the root cause.

This, ‘very good idea’ about the ailment and the remedy, is nothing but
consumer’s ‘intuitive logic’. It is created over a large time span and quite Susan Josi is
often is passed from one generation to another. And this ‘intuitive logic’ of Managing Partner,
Sorento Healthcare
the consumers needs to be understood well and then leveraged intelligently and Anil Khanna is
to create a favourable disposition towards OTC medicines in general and Business Head,
CubeX. They can be
specific brands in particular. contacted at
sjosi@sorentohealth.com
What is consumer’s intuitive logic? and
akhanna@cubex.co.in
Every consumer has a mind of his/her own – a conscious mind and a
sub-conscious mind. And when it comes to the consumption of OTC medicines, consumers
usually deploy both of them. On the external front, when somebody probes them, they project
to the world that their decision to buy and use a specific OTC medicine was a conscious decision
based on some rational reasons. However, what has been observed and seen (over many years
of experience) is that consumers have their own internal intuitive logic and they use it to make
the final choice. It can also be termed as consumer’s ‘mental shortcuts’.

Few instances of this ‘intuitive’ logic are:

‘I feel as if my chest is quite heavy because of a thick layer of phlegm is frozen all around
it’
‘During a gas and acidity attack, my stomach gets filled with gas and then it starts moving
up to reach the head and causes trouble there’
‘My headache feels like someone is continuously punching and hammering inside my head’
‘My joints feel dry and stiff and make a creaky sound … it’s like they need mobile oil’
‘My stomach makes a grinding sound regularly during lose motions, as if there is a volcano
inside’
‘During constipation, I feel as if someone has put a cork at the opening’

Similarly, consumers also have their own logic (internally generated over the years) of
how medicine, once it goes inside, works and gives relief. A few examples:

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Thick cough syrup, once it is taken, forms a layer around the internal throat lining to give
soothing effect and relief from irritation
Similarly steam inhalations break and dissolve the hard phlegm
Subsequently, when the cough syrup reaches chest area then it breaks the frozen layer of
the phlegm and make it come out…once phlegm starts coming out, the relief begins to
happen
Liquid antacid gels after reaching inside the stomach, coats its internal lining and hence
reduce the burning sensation
Ointments or creams actually go inside and lubricate the joints
Heat generated after rubbing the balm on the painful area, opens the pores and helps
balm get absorbed faster into the body
Skin ointments or gels, open the skin pores to enable the gel to go inside and make the
skin soft

It’s very much possible, and indeed is true as well in many cases, that consumer’s perspective
may not entirely or even partially represent how actually the medicine works. Also there are
geographical or socio-cultural variations in this consumer’s belief – or shall we say, consumer’s
‘native intelligence’.

Additionally, it varies across ailments as well. We do see it around us that for some category of
ailments consumers are able to articulately define the ‘physiology of the ailment’ and ‘how the
medicine works for that ailment’ and for some they can’t define it well. For example, consumers
have relatively speaking, better internal understanding of cough, acidity/gas, while they may
not have similarly good understanding of fever.

Connection between intuitive logic and OTC medicines

The beauty of it all is that in whichever ailments consumer’s internal logic is strong there is
more self-confidence among them to take a decision on their own rather than depending upon
‘expert advice’ and vice-versa. In other words, weaker the internal logic, more reliance on the
external ‘expert’ opinion

This obviously impacts their buying behaviour as well as the consumption of OTC medicines

There appear to be at least two explanations for this:

In categories where this logic is strong or very strong, the decision is single mindedly
driven by this logic and hence consumers tend to buy the product (and brand) which offers
to deliver the benefits in sync with this logic. It could be specific expectations from the
product or may be its action on the body (for example,. ‘choose a balm that stings’
because stinging=stronger action, or ‘buy a cough syrup which is thick and has cooling
effect’, as thickness and cooling = faster relief). Hence in whichever area, this logic is

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weaker, consumers find it difficult to judge a product on their own, and thus depend upon
‘expert opinion’ or ‘sticking to what works’ (foe example, . use what is being used in home
for decades, or go by expert opinion – could be chemists or doctors in some cases).
Strong intuitive logic, more often than not, becomes a rational explanation for a certain
decision which helps in reducing post-purchase dissonance as well, especially when there
has been a switch of brand. In the absence of intuitive logic, the role of reducing the ‘post-
purchase dissonance’ is played by the expert.

Strategic implications

Taking these points into a strategic framework may make the task of connecting strongly with
the consumers to induce a behavioural change relatively easier. It’s pertinent to say that it
definitely does not ensure that change will happen. However, it makes immense sense to tap
into this, or go to the extent of ‘creating and planting’ one where it does not exist. This is a
route to engaging consumers better and getting them into a listening mode.

Brands that leverage this existing intuitive logic in their communication mix would, by this
argument, be well placed to establish a stronger consumer connection. Specifically, use of
‘product demonstration window’ in the communication, using this logic, does enhance receptivity
to the message. Consumers tend to think:

“They have shown exactly what happens to me”

“That is how my stomach feels when I have acidity … they have shown it correctly”

For example, a recent ad of Saridon (a leading Analgesic in India) says “no more dimaag mein
ghanti (No longer, high decibel bell in the mind)”…as quite a few consumers get such a feeling
(or echo such a feeling) during a headache attack. Or ENO in their earlier communication using,
‘burp’ as an audio device in their communication as ‘key brand promise’. Similarly, last year
Dabur repositioned Hajmola candy brand as ‘Audio Candy’, especially among children. The
reason being when people eat spicy food, they do make a kind of a ‘tangy, lip-smacking’ sound.

It seems, the age-old saying of ‘seeing is believing’ works well here. Seeing and knowing how
something works leads to a kind of reassurance that it does, in fact, work.

“When I watch this (ad) I feel like it is happening to me…the fizz must be going into my stomach
and blasting the acidity and gas away like this”

“I also feel like someone is massaging the balm and unknotting my muscles”

Relationship between higher prevalence of home remedies and strength of intuitive

logic

There is a strong correlation between the prevalence of home-remedies (or traditional medicine)
and the strength of intuitive logic for a given ailment. The stronger the logic, the more the
reliance on home remedies. While presence of this logic leads to confident decision making, the
absence of it leads to cautiousness even for non-serious ailments.

So the task for the marketers is either to identify the intuitive logic or create and plant a new
one.

Various ailments and intuitive logic matrix

Cough & cold and acidity are ailments with strong intuitive logic. Consumers have very clear
ideas about what is wrong with the body and what will work to set it right. A variety of home
remedies are used for problems in both these categories in combination of branded OTC
medicines. And consumers have, in their mind, tangible indicators that tell them whether
something is ‘right’ or not. In contrast, headache seems to have strong intuitive logic when it
comes to describing what a headache feels like, and are also able to talk, to some extent, about
the type of action they want from a topical remedy (a cooling effect, an ice pack, a sharp /
cooling balm …), but there is a striking absence of the ‘logic’ of how a headache pill works. . As a
result, there is low confidence in independent decision-making and, hence, less inclination to
change the brand or experiment with a new brand, though headache lies in the ‘consumer

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domain’.

Learnings for OTC marketers

For OTC marketers, it is extremely important to ‘un-earth’ this intuitive consumer logic and then
use it to their advantage by piggy-riding it to connect with the consumers more intimately. And
if, after comprehensive research, it is found that there is absence of this logic, then ‘create’ one
by doing further research with the same consumers! This holds good for any brand and any
company across the globe.

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