When one of our recent webinar polls asked consumer health organizations to identify the primary way they use (or aspire to use) their data, 70% of respondents pointed to “strategic decision making.” Despite that critical imperative, however, a staggering 95% of respondents were generally dissatisfied with the state of their data management strategies, with responses spread across “we are in the early stages,” “we struggle to integrate our sources” and “we need to optimize for a single source of truth.” Less than 5% felt they have a “well-established, mature multi-domain MDM strategy in place.”

To address these needs, solutions are available that can help consumer health organizations break down data silos and unify data for more reliable insights. “We have so many data sources — whether it’s global, regional or local data,” says Vaishnavi Save, Product Manager, IQVIA Consumer Health Global Technology. “But we need to bring all of that together into a single source of truth, which in turn will provide more value and insights out of the data.”

The need for a “golden” source of truth across multiple, disparate data sources is just as relevant in the consumer health industry as it is anywhere else in healthcare. Consumer health encompasses a wide range of direct-to-consumer, non-prescription products, including over-the-counter (OTC), nutritional, personal care and patient care products. As such, consumer health organizations require accurate, timely data for a variety of reasons, including creating sound strategies around product development, launch and commercialization.

As with the rest of the healthcare industry, consumer health organizations typically rely on a range of data sets, including:

• Industry data assets, market definition
• Sales and distribution data
• Loyalty data, in-store data
• Social media, web scraping, ecommerce

The ultimate goal in unifying different data assets is to facilitate critical business decisions or gain insights to make better decisions. This can grant a competitive edge to organizations previously unable to unify their data and use it to its capabilities.

Industry challenges require reliable data management

In the consumer health industry, macro-economic uncertainty is rampant as consumer spending patterns are changing. Whether it’s from “downtrading” or the results of “small basket shopping” (i.e., consumer-side shrinkflation, where buyers switch from expensive or larger products to low unit packs or lower-end brands), companies need to be agile to adjust their brand strategies in step with changing consumer habits.

Another growing consumer habit is the switch from prescription medication to lower-cost OTC alternatives. Those two forms of consumption require entirely different data sets, and companies who are used to specializing in prescription products may lack the right systems to effectively manage non-prescriptive sales.

Other industry trends, unrelated to consumer habits but directly related to data access, are also having an impact across the industry. For example, when a parent company spins off a segment or subsidiary, that spinoff may lose access to legacy data systems that are important to its success. Likewise, new entrants in the field (including those that are part of the trend towards private equity firms buying brand portfolios) must be able to identify the optimal sources and structure of the data they need to be competitive.

Across all of these challenges is a need for omnichannel engagement. Everywhere the customer goes — in physical stores; surfing the web; on social media; and in emails, apps, SMS and other digital spaces — they leave a trail of valuable data. Consumer health organizations need to be able to track, manage and ultimately understand the individual consumer journey in order to draw meaningful insights that lead to good decision making.

And finally, we have the biggest challenge: all of this data is siloed and fragmented across any number of sources. Worse yet, those sources may contain inaccurate or conflicting information, making it even more difficult for consumer health companies to have faith in the relevance of the decisions made and strategies developed from this data.

To master the product domain, bridge all that consumer health data

Consumer health is not just about products, but the product domain does comprise a large piece of the consumer health pie and can serve as a broad-reaching example for the importance of reliable, timely data. As such, here are three areas where bridging siloed data with IQVIA Data Bridging can create a golden source of truth for meaningful impact:

1. Flexibility: Flexible matching lets users compare disparate data sets against any reference source to uncover commonalities, gaps and quality issues. Flexible matching is a key component of bridging siloed data, to enable any-source to data asset comparisons.
2. Adaptability: In addition to increased accuracy (always a good thing), flexible matching and bridging data enable users to generate insights more quickly. Adaptability is key to merging new data assets from disparate sources as they are acquired or purchased without having to undertake a large-scale implementation to generate business-critical analysis.
3. Scalability: When we talk about bridging data, we can’t forget the need for scalability. This is where the ability to bridge multiple, disparate data sources as your business grows or needs change is critical so you can still make important business decisions without disruption.

Control your data, don’t let it control you

In today’s data-rich business environment, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by data. IQVIA Consumer Health is dedicated to helping you get the most out of your data and can show you how to minimize the impact of data silos, embrace complexity as a way to gain truly meaningful insights, and create a data management strategy that evolves with you.

To dive deeper and hear more from Vaishnavi Save & Andrew Jones, watch back our online webinar, Smashing the Silos - Bridge your Data for better Consumer Health Insights.