Project Description
“Understanding why and when Chinese consumers use a lumbar belt”
THE CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH
A well-known wearable medical device company wanted to explore why and when Chinese consumers use a lumbar belt with the goal of targeting their marketing for a new lumbar belt campaign for the introduction of their product to the Chinese market. In China, four hundred million people are experiencing back pain, however, only roughly 120 million of these go to see a doctor or do something about it. Back pain is a huge market. The campaign hoped to educate people how to take care of their back pain to prevent the acute ones from becoming chronic problems and to generally encourage the resumption of physical activities tied into it’s recently launched lumbar belt online in China.
OVERVIEW
A four-phase Exploratory Protocol was used for this study.
PHASE 1 – Preliminary Research
UniqueView executed an extensive desk research to gather preliminary information about this market segment in China. Furthermore, we conducted online research through various resources that helped further understand the motivations of consumers in this field, the main market drivers, the size of the market, the distribution channels and the main competitors in China market.
PHASE 2: Focus Groups
We recruited two groups of people who are at different stages of back pain and have done something to relieve the pain. The first part of the research was to explore the ways people cope with their back pain using various remedies such movement, prescriptions, etc. For each method they tried, we were eager to hear their opinions of the pros and cons, and which one worked best or was the most useful for what type of back pain.
After this exploration, we zoomed in on the purchase solutions for items in the market for dealing with back pain, with particular attention given to lumbar belts. We probed deeper on people’s knowledge about this category, the competitors, their purchase process, decision criteria, their sources of information (online and offline), etc.
Last, focus was given to the client’s brand propositions, discussing how to optimize it to increase the awareness and POS so that more people see and understand the benefits and have the potential to purchase their lumbar belt.
CONCLUSION
The research findings provided our client with a clearer understanding of Chinese consumers’ needs, expectations and purchasing habits regarding their back pain remedies they use with particular attention to lumbar support products. The findings of the study helped them understand better ways to communicate the benefits of their product along with ways to educate back pain suffers on healthy ways to life to reduce the negative effects of their back pain.
