Value and engagement: what can clinical trials learn from techniques used in not-for-profit marketing?

Mitchell, E. J.; Sprange, K.; Treweek, S.; Nixon, E.

Abstract

Marketing is a core business function in commercial companies but is also frequently used by not-for-profit organisations. Marketing focuses on understanding what people value to make choices about engaging with a product or service: a concept also key to understanding why people may choose to engage with a clinical trial. Understanding the needs and values of stakeholders, whether they are participants, staff at recruiting sites or policy-makers, is critical for a clinical trial to be a success. As many trials fail to recruit and retain participants, perhaps it’s time for us to consider approaches from other disciplines? Though clinical trial teams may consider evidence- and non-evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies, this is rarely done in a systematic, streamlined way and is often in response to challenges once the trial has started. In this short commentary, we argue the need for a formal marketing approach to be applied to clinical trials, from the outset, as a potential prevention to recruitment and retention problems.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 18, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jun 2, 2022
• Publication Date: Jun 2, 2022
• Deposit Date: May 24, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2022
• Journal: Trials
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-6215
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Article Number: 457
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06417-3
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/8219655
• Publisher URL: https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-022-06417-3