Efficacy Expectations and Adherence: Evidence of Consumer Biases and Heuristics in Pharmaceutical Marketing - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 332

Motivation, or the desire to experience a product's benefi ts, is another underlying
determinant of such placebo effects; it drives effi cacy judgments at the trial and adop-
tion stage. Irmak et al. ( 2005 ) found, for instance, that for those who reported a high
desire to experience an energetic boost (highly motivated participants) a placebo drink
(purportedly an energy booster) led to equivalent levels of physiological change as a
non-placebo (caffeinated alternative). Indeed, consumers who inquire about medica-
tion and various treatments are motivated to feel some desired result. This suggests that
consumers who are highly motivated to overcome a cold, for example, may feel the
effects of Vitamin C in much the same way they would feel the effects of an OTC/Rx
medication, especially if the former is reinforced with product claims regarding its
effectiveness with preventing/alleviating various symptoms.

11.3.2 Time to Onset

Another placebo-like effect is evident in judgments of a products' time to onset.
Faro ( 2010 ) proposes that people may begin feeling the effects of a product in an
unrealistically short duration after consumption if they have used the product before.
That is, if people believe there is a strong link between the product and subsequent
performance—that a product did indeed have the intended effect on the person—
they estimate the product as working sooner than if a stronger causal link is absent
(e.g., that the product may or may not have been the direct cause of one's perfor-
mance). Such effi cacy beliefs translate into people opting to consume the product
later in time (since time to onset is perceived to be quick) and begin the same tasks
earlier. As such, duration estimates of a product's time to onset inevitably affect not
only the timing of consumption but also perceived product effi cacy in the trial
and adoption stage. Furthermore, evidence implies that reliance on such beliefs to
estimate time is a low-effort, automatic process (Faro 2010 ).
Ilyuk et al. ( 2012 ) extend this work by examining another temporal judgment:
duration judgments of how long products remain effi cacious (i.e., the length of time
consumers believe products exhibit their benefi cial effects). Consumers' estimates
of how long products remain effi cacious after consumption are a critical factor in
determining product use and misuse. Ilyuk and colleagues show that these estimates
depend on the nature of the task undertaken during consumption. Specifi cally, con-
sumers' estimates of effi cacy duration are shorter (longer) when the task is perceived
to be diffi cult (easy). For example, consumers engaged in a diffi cult cognitive or
physical task judged medicinal products to last a shorter amount of time than those
engaged in corresponding, but easier tasks.
With regard to both prescription and OTC medication, estimates of a product's
time to onset and duration judgments have important implications. DTC advertise-
ments continuously reinforce that the target product is potent in providing benefi ts
and often provide testimonials of people attesting to using the products and feeling
their effects. Exposure to such ads might result in consumers underestimating the
time to onset as well misjudging expected duration of effi cacy.