The brief
A global oncology brand needed sharper messaging discipline across a multi-tumor portfolio. Messaging that landed in one market often missed in another — and the underlying reason had less to do with disease state and more to do with how individual specialists made treatment decisions. The research needed to find the through-line: not which therapy specialists prescribed, but how they thought about their work.
The methodology
Mixed methods. A quantitative survey of 60 oncologists across markets, paired with qualitative depth interviews to surface what the numbers couldn’t. We tracked:
- Adoption patterns for newer therapies (especially immunotherapy)
- Decision-making heuristics: protocol-led, evidence-led, peer-led, system-led
- Brand perception against category alternatives
- The clinical questions specialists asked themselves before switching a patient
The personas
Not which therapy specialists prescribed — how they thought about their work.
Three working personas emerged, each named for how the specialist makes treatment choices:
- The Traditionalist — protocol-led, slower to adopt newer therapies, evidence-cautious. Needs long-tail safety data and peer endorsement before switching
- The Innovator — early adopter of immunotherapy and newer mechanisms. Drawn to mechanism-of-action storytelling and pivotal trial data; less swayed by guideline lag
- The System Follower — decisions filtered through institutional protocol, formulary, and care-team consensus. Messaging has to land at the system level, not just the individual specialist
What I led
- Survey design and qualitative interview guide
- Synthesis across quantitative and qualitative findings
- Persona development, naming, and the strategic positioning for each
- Messaging architecture mapping each persona to the brand stories that would actually move them
- Strategic recommendations for global brand capability — what to centralize, what to flex per market
Why it matters
Brand strategy grounded in real audience research, not assumption — and persona work that translates cleanly into messaging frameworks teams can actually use. The methodology (mixed-methods research → working personas → messaging architecture) transfers from oncology specialists to any specialist audience: B2B buyers, clinical decision-makers, technical end users, niche consumer segments.
This is the case study for any role where the brand strategist has to do the research, write the personas, and hand teams a messaging framework that holds up across markets.