The point-of-care (POC) industry has experienced exponential growth over the past few years, averaging 15% to 20% annually.
Programs that were once an afterthought for brands are now central to their strategies and budget. With this growth comes the need for a reliable way to evaluate POC programs.
Amid its dynamic metrics and tactics POC can be difficult to measure, and evaluation is often performed incorrectly.
The following are four keys I see to POC measurement:
1. Allow adequate time.
Most POC programs are educational—not promotional—and require continued efforts over longer periods of time (minimum six months) to see effectiveness.
2. Challenge traditional marketing mix models.
POC programs are typically a sustained effort with little change from day to day, making it difficult to evaluate in traditional marketing models. Spending variance from month to month is required for marketing mix models.
3. Remember that not all tactics are created equal.
Too often POC programs are evaluated together as a group. POC tactics vary from paper brochures to touchscreens and from posters to mobile videos. It is critical to look at each POC tactic individually and recognize that success or failure in one does not necessarily apply to another.
4. Leverage HCP-level data for overall performance.
In-office POC programs touch all patients and HCPs in a given office. Because patient-level data tends to be a “sample” of patients, it is important to measure the overall performance where virtually ALL data is available: At an HCP level.
The appropriate way to evaluate overall performance of programs in the POC channel is to measure programs over the long term using rigid pre-post/test-control analysis and HCP-level data. Media mix models and patient-level data can provide valuable insights into segmentation and how certain tactics are working to optimize spending allocation by channel.
Want to learn more about POC measurement? Download our Measurement Glossary, your personal cheat sheet for better understanding the terms and research methodologies behind POC measurement approaches.
This post originally appeared in PM360.