Eight years ago, in 2016, I wrote an article about how patients didn’t care about supplement brands. What they cared about was what their healthcare professional (HCP) recommended. At that time, patients were practitioner loyalists not product brand loyalists. As someone who has been managing a chronic personal health condition for most of my life, I have built immense trust in my integrative healthcare provider. When he tells me that a particular product can improve my health, based on his clinical experience and diagnostics, the last question on my mind is, “What brand makes that?” For me, the practitioner is the brand, and I have trust in whatever he tells me to take.
The average new patient comes into their first visit with an HCP not only with a bag of supplements they’re currently taking but also with self-education and their own perspective on supplements.
However, a lot has changed since I wrote my original article. I still take the brands my practitioner recommends, but I am an outlier.
It is time to update the old bias.
I’ll start with the spoiler: patients today do care about supplement brands and they care about what their practitioners recommend.
What changed?
Today, the average new patient comes into their first visit with an HCP not only with a bag of supplements they’re currently taking but also with self-education and their own perspective on supplements. They expect their HCP to have an educated opinion about the products and the brands they’re considering or using. So where did the consumer collect this bag of supplements?
- The number of information sources, people, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisers influencing their supplement awareness and perceptions has grown tremendously.
- In our 2024 Supplement Consumer PureSegmentation research, we found that COVID-19 created a more critical and informed supplement consumer. Whether they actually are more knowledgeable or not, they think they are.
- Most “pro” brands have become “prosumer” brands, hybridizing their business model but leveraging the halo of being a clinical-grade, doctor-recommended product.
- Online supplement personalization became a disruptive factor beginning in 2017. Advances in genomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics opened doors for more intelligent supplement recommendations based on many factors.
- Today, someone who wants to take a supplement will see unsolicited information appear where they least expect it. They hear opinions from everyone, from their neighbor and the influencer they follow on Instagram to their favorite celebrity and conventional doctor.
We no longer live in a world where a patient walks into a practitioner’s office, gets a diagnosis and recommendation, goes to their physical dispensary, and reorders from the practitioner.
Be Like Pharma?
Our HCP supplement brand clients used to ask us whether it made sense to market to consumers. They referred to the pharmaceutical model where television advertises prescription drugs, the premise being that patients ask for brand-name drugs and doctors follow suit and prescribe them.
We used to say, don’t bother. Market just to the HCPs. How quickly this landscape has dramatically shifted! What’s changed?
- The emergence of the patient-consumer who chooses to go to HCPs. They are not just a patient who follows orders—they are a consumer first who expects brands to market to them. That includes HCP brands. These patient-consumers may initially order from the HCP directly, but over time they are likely to look for other channels when adhering to their HCP’s recommendations. This is when a pro brand needs to market directly to this consumer or risk losing the sale to a brand that has greater awareness and accessibility.
- Marketing to the patient-consumer will have that intended “pharma” effect, with a two-fold benefit. First, if the HCP is familiar with your brand, then they can have an informed discussion with their patient. Second, if the HCP is not familiar with your brand, the HCP may investigate further.
Marketing to HCPs Matters Even More Than Before
With the proliferation of supplement marketing and the fact that almost all HCP supplement brands are available DTC, the HCP is still looking for a direct connection to their recommended supplement brands.
What they want from a professional brand has not changed. Education. Support and a degree of partnership with the brand. Clinical validation. Alignment with the brand’s philosophy.
They may not like it, but they have to adapt to a world where pro brands are no longer exclusive. What they don’t want is to be forgotten or ignored. In fact, in this changing health and wellness landscape, they want supplement brands to address their needs and not make them feel they are an afterthought or inconvenience.
Eight years ago, direct-to-practitioner supplement companies had one target: the HCP. In today’s increasingly complex supplement environment, HCP supplement companies have two targets: the patient-consumer and the HCP. The brand needs to gain the trust of the patient-consumer without alienating the HCP.