Tracking Global Reputation for a Leading Pharmaceutical Company

The Challenge

A global pharmaceutical company needed to understand something crucial: What do people really think of us, and does it matter?

With operations spanning multiple countries and stakeholders ranging from physicians to policymakers, they needed more than vanity metrics. They needed to know:

• What is our familiarity and favorability among key stakeholders?
• How do different audiences perceive our reputation across innovation, heritage, and impact?
• Which reputation drivers actually influence business outcomes?
• How do we stack up against competitors across diverse markets?
• Are our corporate initiatives breaking through, or falling flat?

This wasn’t a one-time pulse check—it was an ongoing tracking study designed to measure reputation shifts over time and guide strategic decisions.

My Role

Orchestrating Complex, Multi-Market Research

I served as led research support for this ambitious study, working closely with the project manager and client lead to carry out the intricate details that kept everything running smoothly:

• Project management support, working closely with the project manager to develop a detailed project timeline and work back plan.
• Survey design and updates refining screeners and questionnaires to align with evolving research objectives and new audiences and markets.
• Quality assurance through rigorous testing of survey links, monitoring soft launch data, and tracking quotas to ensure we heard from the right people

Turning Data into Strategic Intelligence

Where I really added value was transforming raw numbers into actionable insights:

Advanced Analytics:

• Ran regression analyses to quantify the relationship between reputation and business behaviors proving that reputation improvements weren’t just “nice to have,” they drove tangible results
• Created custom SPSS syntax for complex analyses that answered stakeholder questions other methods couldn’t
• Developed AI prompts using Anthropic’s Claude to uncover deeper patterns in open-ended responses and generate insights at scale

Data Architecture:

• Cleaned, manipulated, and merged complex datasets across geographies and time periods
• Built banner specifications that made cross-audience and cross-geography comparisons seamless
• Conducted year-over-year trend analyses to identify meaningful shifts in perception

Strategic Reporting:

• Designed report templates that translated statistical findings into clear visual stories for C-suite stakeholders
• Synthesized findings across 24 audiences into coherent narratives that highlighted priority opportunities
• Created specialized reports (including a dedicated physician specialties report)

The Research Framework

We built this study on APCO’s Return on Reputation proprietary model, a framework that goes beyond measuring awareness to understanding how reputation drives business value.

This was research at scale:

• 8 distinct audience groups (physicians, payers, hospital administrators, global health experts, prospective employees, health opinion leaders, scientific researchers, policy elites)
• 5 key markets (US regions including Los Angeles, Georgia, Massachusetts, plus Japan and Switzerland)
• 800+ respondents providing statistically robust data
• Multi-year tracking to identify trends and competitive shifts

Our Approach

1. 📝 Strategic Survey Design: We developed questionnaires that measured what mattered: familiarity, favorability, reputation drivers, initiative awareness, and—critically—behavioral outcomes that impact business results.

2. 📊 Rigorous Data Collection:We ensured data quality at every step, testing survey functionality, monitoring quotas in real-time, and coordinating with vendors across time zones to maintain consistency.

3. 🔍 Deep Analysis: Using regression modeling and advanced statistical techniques, we didn’t just measure reputation—we proved its business impact. I quantified exactly how reputation improvements influenced stakeholder behaviors, from prescribing decisions to partnership interest.

4. 📈 Competitive Benchmarking: We positioned the company against competitors across all markets and audiences, identifying where they led, where they lagged, and—most importantly—where they had the greatest opportunity to differentiate.

The Outcome

Our work delivered more than data it provided a strategic roadmap:

✅ Clear positioning assessment across the company’s three distinctive reputation themes, showing exactly where they stood with each stakeholder group

✅ APCO Reputation Index scores that tracked progress over time and became internal benchmarks for success

✅ Priority opportunities identified through data-driven analysis, showing which reputation drivers would yield the greatest return on investment

✅ Quantified business linkages proving that reputation improvements drive behaviors that directly benefit the bottom line—prescriptions, partnerships, talent recruitment

✅ Competitive intelligence revealing longitudinal shifts in market positioning across geographies and audiences

✅ Initiative impact measurement showing which corporate programs were actually moving the needle on reputation

Reflection & Impact

This project pushed me to balance multiple skillsets simultaneously:

• Technical expertise: Building regression models, writing SPSS syntax, cleaning complex datasets, and developing AI-assisted analysis workflows
• Project management: Coordinating vendors, managing timelines, and ensuring quality standards were met
• Strategic thinking: Translating statistical findings into business recommendations that resonated with C-suite leaders
• Adaptability: Continuously refining our approach to ensure client goals were met, new audiences were added, and research objectives shifted