High Stakes, High Speed – Cardinal Health Case Study

Situation:

• Cardinal Health, a health care giant with over $100 billion in sales, developed a complete overhaul of its brand architecture, naming conventions and brand positioning.  Just before deployment, senior management asked for primary research to ensure customer acceptance.

Research Requirements:

• Conduct 75 qualitative phone interviews across 16 health care audiences.
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative research with the sales force.
• Complete 50% of interviews and deliver topline report in 26 days.  Full report in seven weeks.
   

What We Did:

• Our recruiting team’s experience and established relationships allowed us to select two partners we knew could quickly recruit the tough audiences Cardinal needed (such as hospital CEOs and independent pharmacists).  We handled recruiting of sales reps directly.
   
• Our business model allowed us to instantly scale-up, bringing in five consultants to moderate interviews, hold an online bulletin board with reps and conduct a survey of the sales force.
   

Results:

• 39 interviews (more than 50%!) were completed and a topline report delivered within the 26-day requirement.  The full report was delivered in seven weeks, as promised.
   
• Fortunately for Cardinal Health, our research confirmed the potential of the new brand architecture.  The research yielded several tweaks to communication that helped deliver a successful launch.