Does brand reputation impact clinician decision-making?

By Ben Fisher , Head of Heath at WE UK

Clinicians have a wide array of drug treatment options to choose from. But what impacts their decision? Surely, it’s the functional factors—efficacy, safety profiles, and pricing? Yes, but when comparative differences between medicines are small, 62% of clinicians consider one other metric—reputation.

This surprising finding, which I recently presented at the Pharma & Healthcare Comms & Reputation event, is based on research published in WE’s latest Brands in Motion health report. It’s striking to see just how important reputation is—81% of clinicians said it influences how they perceive a medication’s value. And it goes beyond surface-level perceptions; it’s about trust in the company’s long-term commitment to patient care, their ethical practices, and their credibility in the healthcare space.

So, how can healthcare brands and communicators assess reputation and, importantly, how can they strengthen it? First, it’s crucial to understand the nuanced levels behind your brand’s standing.

The three tiers of reputation

To truly build a healthy reputation, you must succeed across three levels. What does this mean in practice? Think about it this way: it’s not enough to have a stellar corporate image if your disease-area expertise is not recognised. Your first step is understanding the levels, before assessing where your brand can make improvements.

1. The top tier, or broadest level, is Corporate Reputation. This is how clinicians perceive your company overall. Think of this as your global standing, your commitment to social issues, and your leadership in the healthcare industry.
2. The next level covers perception of your Therapeutic Area Leadership. Clinicians pay close attention to your expertise in specific disease areas, with 59% saying that leadership here is even more influential than corporate reputation alone.
3. Finally, there is Product Specific Reputation, which is the most granular, looking at individual treatments. Here, data matters. Clinicians look to the evidence behind your products, using this to form their opinions. Success at this tier is rooted in transparent communication about clinical research.

Where are the biggest gaps in reputation?

Clinicians are willing partners, but only if you’re transparent. If the aim is to increase patient access to treatments, 91% of clinicians are willing to collaborate with pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Yet, trust remains key—only 27% of clinicians feel that companies are sufficiently transparent about pricing. This lack of transparency is a significant barrier to building trust and forming meaningful partnerships.

If companies want to unlock productive relationships with clinicians, they must be open and honest about both the challenges and successes of their treatments. This means being clear about clinical research, pricing, and the steps taken to address healthcare inequities. The more transparent your company is, the more likely clinicians are to partner with you to drive innovation and improve patient care.

What drives a powerful reputation?

Clinicians rank reliability and credibility as the top factors influencing reputation. Specifically, 73% of them prioritise companies that deliver consistent product quality and efficacy. To them, reliability means confidence that treatments will deliver the results they promise.

Innovation is another factor. Its notoriously difficult to define but essential in healthcare. We know this because 72% of clinicians said that a brand’s ability to address unmet medical needs through patient-centric innovation is key to assessing the company’s reputation. It’s not enough to be proud of breakthroughs—the story must be tightly bound to the difference your brand is making in the real world.

While reliability is easier to pinpoint and improve on, healthcare brands often stumble on their innovation narrative—something that tech companies, on the other hand, are really good at communicating. The key, really, is about leveraging a tech-brand approach to healthcare innovation stories, which is something that WE does well. WE has a long and storied history when it comes to technology, and we bring that heritage to our healthcare work. We stand at the intersection of health and tech. We apply the lessons we’ve learnt from our tech-sector work to our healthcare strategies—telling a confident and progressive story about innovation, embracing bold risks and continuously pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Through this approach, health brands can leverage their latest advancements to improve patient outcomes, build trust, and stand out in a rapidly evolving landscape. By owning the innovation narrative, health brands can transform not only how they are perceived, but how they impact the world.

Reputation pays (off)

Reputation isn’t a soft asset. It’s a critical business driver in healthcare, a key differentiator of brand value, and a powerful and meaningful tool for building relationships with the clinical community. ?

When we partner with healthcare brands, our approach to reputation building starts with analysis. First, we evaluate the strength of your reputation at the corporate, disease-area, and brand-offering levels. Next, we create a strategy to help educate your internal stakeholders about the power of reputation. Finally, we tap into the expertise of our Insights & Analytics team, using their data-led findings to build the case for more resources and attention on identified areas needing improved reputation management.

Having established the link between brand reputation and clinician prescribing decisions, the path forward becomes clear. It begins with shifting reputation to the top of your business-growth agenda, and partnering with comms experts, like WE, who can assess and fortify your reputation, ensuring it becomes a powerful asset.

Click here to access comprehensive insights from our Brands in Motion report: Reputation Rules: Unlocking Clinician Prescribing Power. Or get in touch with our healthcare team by emailing [email protected]

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