CRM Case 4: GlaxoSmithKline’s Committed Quitters

Introduction
Pharmaceutical companies exploit the opportunity that customer relationship management (顧客關係管理) provides in increasing understanding of its patients. If this knowledge is fed into improving the pharma-patient relationship, it has the potential to boost patient support and, therefore, satisfaction. Improved patient satisfaction could ultimately lead to improved compliance, but can also be extended further into developing brand loyalty and maximizing retention. The case will now focus on highlighting pharmaceutical company which exemplify exceptional customer relationship management (顧客關係管理) within their operations.

Case Study
GlaxoSmithKline’s Committed Quitters

The added value that a tailored CRM program offers contributes to the perceived brand value that patients and physicians associate with a product. The following case study looks at an OTC (over-the-counter) brand that was supported effectively by a personalized support program that helped build brand loyalty and improve compliance. Components of this initiative may have applicability to prescription products.
Purchasers of GlaxoSmithKline’s smoking cessation products, such as Nicorette, Commit and NicoDerm, received free enrollment in Committed Quitters. Committed Quitters is a personalized stop smoking behavioral support plan that offers advice and counseling for smokers trying to quit, using GlaxoSmithKline’s nicotine replacement therapy produces. It is designed to help patients break the psychological dependence on cigarettes, while the smoking cessation products help relieve the physical dependence.
When GlaxoSmithKline’s smoking cessation products, particularly Nicorette and NicoDerm, were moving from prescription products to over-the-counter (OTC) status in the US in 1996, the FDA mandated that a support program be made available to consumers. A physician support program had already been provided. MicroMass (a CRM provider) was selected to handle the US program. In Europe, HealthMedia controls a European version of the program. When MicorMass developed the US Committed Quitters Program in 1996 for GlaxoSmithKline’s Nicorette and NicoDerm OTC (over-the-counter) brands, it set an industry standard for personalized smoking cessation and education programs that is now being replicated worldwide.

What does the program involve?
Committed Quitters involved a free, personally tailored quit plan, complete with newsletters, award certificates and other motivational materials, as well as a toll-free help line. Participants enrolled in the program by telephoning the toll-free number found inside the packaging or online at Committed Quitters. Patients were asked a series of questions and submitted a detailed smoking history. They then received a tailored profile and quitting program.
A series of customized self-help materials were sent throughout the 8-12 week course of therapy, to help users successfully cope with their specific triggers and issue in quitting. The program provides customized materials according to the individual’s smoking history and reasons for quitting and therefore, represented a departure, such as an untailored user guide or audiotape for helping smokers quit smoking.

Results
As of June 2000, a total of 575,000 consumers had enrolled in the Committed Quitters program since its launch in 1996. During this period, the program recorded a 350% increase in refills, and according to independent research conducted at the University of Pittsburgh (published in 2000), program participants were 56% more likely to quit smoking for 120 days than non-participants.

When compared to nicotine replacement therapy alone, the Committed Quitters support program had been clinically proven to increase a smoker’s chance of quitting successfully by up to 26% when paired with NicoDerm CQ and by up to 50% when paired with Nicorette, versus using either of these products alone (company press releases, October 2001)
In Europe, a study of 3971 smokers using the NicoDerm CQ 21 mg patch and receiving either HealthMedia’s tailored Committed Quitters Stop Smoking Pan or untailored support was conducted. There was a 28% increase in the number of people stopping smoking with the tailored support programs over the untailored, with 55% able to sustain 10 weeks of continuous abstinence from smoking as opposed to 43%. From the sales point of view, participants with the tailored materials purchased over 1445 more boxes than those with generic materials.