A lumbar belt for China’s back pain sufferers
The brief
A well-known wearable medical device company had launched a lumbar belt online in China and wanted to target its campaign. Around 400 million people in China have back pain, but only about 120 million see a doctor or do anything about it. The campaign aimed to teach people how to care for their backs, stop acute pain becoming chronic and get them active again, with the belt as part of the answer.
Why it was hard
Most sufferers never seek help, and many who do rely on a patchwork of remedies, from massage and medicine to simply putting up with it. Lumbar belts were an unfamiliar category for many, and the product was sold online, so the purchase journey ran through e-commerce platforms rather than a pharmacy counter.
How we did it
We started with desk and online research on the market: its size, what drives it, the sales channels and the main competitors. Then we ran focus groups with people who had done something about their pain, split by stage of back pain so acute and chronic sufferers could each speak to their own experience. Respondents brought along the remedies and products they actually use, which made the conversation concrete.
The groups covered every remedy people had tried, from exercise to prescriptions, and what worked for which kind of pain. Then they zoomed in on lumbar belts: what people know about them, the competitors, how they buy, what they look for and where they get information online and offline. Finally we worked through the client’s brand proposition and how to make it more visible and convincing.
What the client got
A clearer understanding of how Chinese sufferers deal with back pain and buy lumbar support, better ways to explain the product’s benefits, and ways to educate people on living with back pain more healthily.
What it shows
Desk research and well-designed groups together turn a big, vague market into a campaign that knows who it is talking to.
Services: desk research ยท focus groups
