Insight: Conran Design Group measures human emotion to discover which brands make the strongest emotional connections with their audiences

Brand design agency Conran Design Group has collaborated with emotion analytics company Adoreboard in a study of the Pharmaceutical industry, to measure how emotionally connected Pharma brands are to their audiences through social media and the impact of these interactions on customer experience.

Adoreboard’s advanced emotion detection platform, Emotics (mathematical algorithms), unlocks emotions expressed in social media content (inbound and outbound tweets) so that feelings expressed by both patients and pharma brands can be measured. By measuring the emotions displayed and understanding the themes driving those emotions, we can provide pharma companies with valuable insights on how to take action to improve the customer experience.

The study analysed 44,800 interactions on Twitter between patients and 14 global pharmaceutical brands with a combined market value in the last year of $46.7 billion.

The research reveals:

• 43% of pharma brands are failing to align with patient needs online and this is negatively impacting customer experience.
• Pharma brands that are emotionally disconnected to patients generate 15% more anger and 10% more disgust compared to the industry benchmark.
• Pharma brands that are emotionally ‘connected’ to patients generate 8% more trust from patients compared to the industry benchmark.
• The study suggests that pharma brands need to become more emotionally connected to patients to build longer-term customer relationships.

The study findings point to a real disconnect between the intended objective of the messages delivered by pharma companies and the way that they are being perceived by consumers. Data reveals that while outbound tweets are overtly positive messages, the reality of the emotional response by patients is counter to what was intended; in many cases, there are high levels of anger, sadness and grief being surfaced.

The study pinpoints the scale of anger and sadness related to the impact of the cost of treatment and the impact of treatment on the lives of patients, whereas emotional responses to educational outreach activities explaining medical conditions and treatment generated both joy and trust. By analysing the emotional responses to pharma brands on social media, the data can help businesses build more meaningful and positive relationships with their customers.

Conran Design Group CEO Thom Newton, said: ‘If meaningful interactions between brands and consumers are created, then far better outcomes are achieved for both. This relationship relies on fulfilling a functional need but also building a powerful emotional connection.  This research helps us identify where work needs to be done for those Pharma brands involved in the study and in which areas that focus is likely to achieve the greatest impact’

Chris Johnston, CEO of Adoreboard added: ‘By starting with human emotion and understanding this across a patient journey, pharma brands can offer more relevant content, products and digital experiences. Ultimately, this brings the brand closer to the needs of its patients. This study shows that attaining such alignment can create emotional responses like trust, a cornerstone of customer loyalty.’