Pharma DTC marketers love market research — but too often they ask questions that confirm assumptions instead of uncovering the truth. Instead of focusing on awareness, recall, and intent, brands should ask what patients are really trying to solve, what emotionally prevents them from acting, what success means in their own words, what they don’t trust about pharma, and why many choose not to treat at all. The future of effective DTC isn’t more data — it’s better, braver, more human questions.
Pharma marketers love research.
We commission surveys. We run segmentation studies. We build personas. We assess whether the sample size is sufficiently large to justify a font change for a banner ad.
We collect mountains of data. And yet… many brands still struggle to move the needle. Not because they don’t have enough research, but because they’re often asking the wrong questions.
Most pharma market research is designed to make us feel confident, not to make us uncomfortable. It confirms what we already believe instead of challenging our assumptions about patients, doctors, and how people actually make decisions.
If you want research that actually changes outcomes, here are the questions pharma DTC marketers should be asking — and usually aren’t.
1. “What problem is this patient actually trying to solve?”
Not: “Are you aware of Brand X?”
Not: “How likely are you to ask your doctor about Brand X?”
But:
“What’s bothering you enough in your life that you’d even care about a drug in this category?”
Patients don’t wake up wanting a brand. They wake up wanting relief, normalcy, control, dignity, sleep, energy, or the ability to function without fear or pain.
If you don’t understand the emotional and functional job your brand is being hired to do, every message becomes shallow and interchangeable.
2. “What’s stopping you from taking action — really?”
We love to ask about barriers like:
- Cost
- Insurance
- Side effects
Those matter. But they’re not the whole story.
You also need to ask:
- Are they afraid of being judged by their doctor?
- Do they feel their symptoms are “not bad enough” to deserve treatment?
- Do they distrust pharma altogether?
- Are they overwhelmed by the healthcare system?
- Do they fear being seen as weak, broken, or dependent?
Many of the strongest barriers are psychological and social — not logistical. If you don’t surface those, your messaging will never feel relevant.
3. “What does success look like in their words?”
We measure endpoints. Patients measure life.
You track:
- Symptom reduction
- Adherence
- Persistence
Patients think in terms of:
- “Can I get through a workday?”
- “Can I be a good parent?”
- “Can I stop thinking about my illness all the time?”
- “Can I feel normal again?”
If your brand promise doesn’t connect to their definition of success, not yours or your clinical team’s, it won’t emotionally land — no matter how strong the data is.
4. “Where did you go before you ever saw our ad?”
Most pharma still treats DTC as the first touchpoint.
It isn’t.
Patients usually:
- Google their symptoms
- Read Reddit threads and patient forums
- Watch TikToks or YouTube videos
- Talk to friends or family
- Read horror stories and miracle stories side by side
You should be asking:
“What did you find online before you found us?”
“What scared you?”
“What reassured you?”
“What confused you?”
Because whatever story patients hear first becomes the lens through which they interpret everything else — including your brand.
5. “What do you not trust about us?”
This is the question most pharma brands are terrified to ask.
And it’s the most important one.
Patients are skeptical. Sometimes rightly so. They worry about:
- Profit motives
- Hidden side effects
- Overmedicalization
- Being sold to instead of being helped
If you don’t ask what people don’t trust, you can’t build credibility. You can’t design honest messaging. And you can’t reduce friction.
Trust is not created by saying “trust us.” It’s created by acknowledging doubt and meeting it with transparency.
6. “If you chose not to treat, why?”
Non-users are more valuable than users.
They tell you:
- Why does your category feel unnecessary
- Why do people tolerate symptoms instead of treating them
- Why inertia wins
- Why awareness doesn’t convert
Understanding inaction is often more powerful than understanding action.
The Real Problem With Pharma Market Research
It’s not that pharma doesn’t invest enough in research.
It’s that much of it is built around validating commercial decisions instead of deeply understanding human ones.
We ask:
- “Did you like this ad?”
- “Did this message resonate?”
- “Would you talk to your doctor?”
Instead of:
- “Does this feel real?”
- “Does this feel helpful?”
- “Does this feel respectful?”
- “Does this feel like it was made for someone like me?”
The difference is subtle — but everything depends on it.
The brands that will win aren’t the ones with the biggest datasets. They’re the ones with the deepest understanding of what it feels like to be a patient in a complicated, emotional, expensive, and often dehumanizing healthcare system. That’s not just better marketing. It’s better business. And frankly, better behavior.
