China Healthcare & Wellness Consumer Survey

China Healthcare & Wellness Consumer Survey

Prepared by Burson·Marsteller & Kantar Health

June 2011

Content

Executive Summary

Overview & Methodology

Key Findings

Priorities and expenditure patterns in health and wellness

Information sources for health and wellness

Implications

Executive Summary

Key Findings

Healthcare tops family spending priority:

+ Almost 70% of consumers rank healthcare as the most important expenditure for Chinese families today.

Empowered and proactive consumers:

+ Preventive-care minded

+ Over 80% of consumers surveyed will conduct research on the Internet for information

every time or most of the time before they consult a doctor.

News-driven information:

+ A key source of healthcare information (69%), second only to doctor’s advice (73%).

Internet and online peer-to-peer communication “trusted” (viewed as credible)

platforms for healthcare information:

+ 96% will turn to the Internet for information on sensitive health topics

Women love themselves and men love their wives.

Overview & Methodology

Gain new insights into current Healthcare & Wellness trends

Healthcare & Wellness• Expenditure patterns• Information sources

Overview & Methodology

In February 2011, Burson-Marsteller and Kantar Health surveyed 1,000 consumers across

Tier I and Tier II cities in China to gain new insights into current healthcare and wellness

trends, with a focus on expenditure patterns and information sources.

Online survey• 1000 consumers• 3 Tier I cities & 11 Tier II cities

Methodology

Topics

Sample Distribution

Tier I Cities Tier II cities[1]

Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou

GenderMale 83 63 57 418

Female 22 37 45 294

Income Level [2]Middle income 50 50 50 352

High income 55 50 52 360

Age

Age 25 - 35 27 18 23 554

Age 36 – 45 33 38 62 112

Age 46+ 45 44 17 46

TOTAL N = 1019 105 100 102 712

[2] Mid-income means: the family income is 6,000 – 9,999 RMB per month.High-income means: the family income is 10,000 + RMB per month.

[1] Tier I cities include: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.Tier II cities include: Shenzhen, Nanjing, Tianjin, Shenyang, Jinan, Xi’an, Wuhan, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou and Changsha.

Over 50% of the respondents are college graduates.

Over 70% are professionals and mid-to-high level executives.

Priorities and expenditure patterns

in healthcare and wellness

Healthcare is the third largest family expenditure in China

49%45%

63%

Currently, consumers are spending a significant amount of their household

expenditure on healthcare. Nearly 50% of consumers indicate that healthcare

is the third largest expenditure area for their families.

FoodChildren’s Education

Healthcare

Food66%

And the most important area for most consumers

Almost 70% of consumers consider healthcare as one of the most important

expenditure areas for Chinese families today, exceeding food and children’s

education.

Children’s

education

55%

Healthcare

67%

Healthcare expenditure = better quality of life

72% respondents agree that they are spending money on healthcare and

wellness so as to attain a better quality of life for themselves and their family.

72%TOTAL

70%Beijing

69%Shanghai

75%Guangzhou

72%Tier II cities

Consumers are spending money on critical healthcare needs

A large majority of consumers focus healthcare expenditure on critical and

common illnesses.

Strong willingness to spend on health maintenance and preventive care.

70%77%

80%

67%

88%

High-income families more willing to spend on healthcare prevention

Consumers’ willingness to spend on medical check ups

Consumers’ willingness to spend on vaccinations Consumers’ willingness to spend on illness prevention

High-income consumers are

more willing to spend on medical

check-ups, vaccinations and

illness prevention.

Key decision maker for health and wellness expenditure in families

Most females are making key health

and wellness expenditure decisions

for their families.

And their decision-making power

becomes more evident as they get

older.

Females are making most decisions on health and wellness expenditure matters

Female age 46+Female age 36-45Female age 26-35

Women are keen to increase their expenditure levels on healthcare and wellness in the near future

Females are spending more money

on beauty enhancement, wellness

and nutrition, and Chinese

traditional medicine.

When it comes to wellness, females

are spending money on themselves.

Men are also more likely to spend

money on their wives than

themselves.

Healthcare/wellness expenditure now

Healthcare and wellness

information sources

News websites: a key category of information source

The top 3 key information sources

on healthcare and wellness

related matters are doctors, news

websites and family/friends.

* CTM = Chinese traditional medicine

Information sources on healthcare/wellness matters

Proactive health consumers

Research before making expenditure decisions

Comparison by city/tier level

Comparison by income level

Almost all consumers will conduct some

research before making key healthcare/

wellness expenditure decisions.

About 1/3 of consumers surveyed will

conduct extensive research.

Internet: most consumers will conduct research online before they consult a doctor

n = 1019 105 100 102 712 622 245 152

Although doctors’ advice is

the most reliable information

source for most consumers,

over 80% of consumers

surveyed will conduct

research on the Internet for

information every time or

most of the time before they

consult a doctor.

Online research before turning to doctors

Comparison by city/tier level

Comparison by income level

Women rely more on word-of-mouth and first-hand information

Sources for credible healthcare/wellness information

Compared with males, females rely

more on word-of-mouth and

information direct from doctors,

family, friends and specialists.

Men prefer to turn to websites for

healthcare and wellness

information, especially news

websites.

Information consumption patterns differ between men and women

Sources for credible healthcare/wellness information

Women are relationship driven;

they rely more on word-of-mouth

and information direct from

doctors, family, friends and

specialists.

Men prefer to turn to websites for

healthcare and wellness

information, especially news

websites.

But both males and females are active online

Current digital channels consumers are participating in

Other top websites

Males and females both show high

participation levels in social media

channels such as blogs, BBS, social

networking sites, video sharing sites

and micro-blogs.

Almost half of the men surveyed are

turning to general news websites for

health and wellness information.

BBS forums considered most influential

N = 1019

About 60% consumers surveyed are

participating in BBS forums, social

networking sites and blogs.

And they feel these are also the

most influential and credible digital

channels.

* BBS forums = Bulletin board system are online forms used to exchange public messages or files, mostly dedicated to a special interest

Most influential digital channels

Participation levels across digital channels

12 3 4 5 6

BBS forumsSocial networking sites

Blogs

Video sharing sites

Micro-blogs

Other websites

A look into recent BBS conversations….

N = 1019

• Recent BBS conversations on Tianya and Netease forums have centered on remedies and questions around:o Herbal medicineo Skin whiteningo Sexually transmitted diseaseso Anti-ageingo Nasal and throat infections

• The hot topic of discussion in BBS forums on Sina.com is death from overwork, triggered by the recent death of a 25-year old employee at PWC who kept a micro-blog about her fatigue and workload o Intense debate over whether overwork threatens

the health of white-collar workerso Other white-collar topics include anti-ageing,

mental health, backache and weight loss

The most popular BBS forum is Tianya

Tianya, which is visited most

frequently by 36% of

respondents, is clearly the most

popular BBS forum for health and

wellness information.

Participation levels at other BBS

forums are all below 10% and

generally low.

Participate rate of different BBS forums

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

n = 553

The top web portal most consumers visit is Sina

Sina.com.cn is visited most

frequently by 36% of

respondents, and is the top web

portal for health and wellness

information.

39.net, a specialized health

website, ranked only 7th most

popular (3%) , after general

portal sites Netease, Sohu,

Taobao and Baidu.

Participate rate of different websites

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9n = 140

Key attributes for healthcare/wellness information

Internet for sensitive health and wellness topics

Information or data source for sensitive topics

N = 1019

96% of consumers will turn to the

Internet and social networking sites

for sensitive health and wellness

topics.

Consumers are turning to the

Internet as an information source

on sensitive health and wellness

topics more than they do to doctors

for advice.

But credible information on sensitive health or wellness topics is scarce

Consumers are uncomfortable sharing

or discussing topics such as sexually

transmitted diseases, AIDS, infertility

and abortion. Comparatively, most

consumers are more comfortable

speaking about mental health,

contraception and cosmetic surgery

openly.

However, for topics like mental health,

cosmetic surgery and infertility,

consumers are finding it difficult to get

access to credible information and data.

N = 1019

Sensitive healthcare/wellness topics

1

Sensitive healthcare/wellness topics with limited info.

Implications

Implications

Personal health empowerment: consumers want to own health

knowledge and decision-making power

+ Shift from “patient education” to supporting “health learning”

Re-examine the “doctor knows best” communications

structure+ Doctors are part of the information gathering channels.

+ From a consumers’ brand experience perspective, doctors are part of the brand

experience.

Community as a critical backdrop to messaging structure

+ News: social relevancy and common conversation thread

+ Digital: peer-to-peer; safety to belong and gather information

+ Lifestyle: quality of life; relational (friends and family); life stages

Support Patients

Raise AwarenessMarket

Access

Interact

Influence

Digital

Learning

I.Health

Issue & Crisis

Partner Network

Enroll Patients

Our Offering

China Healthcare & Wellness Consumer Survey

Efen HuangSenior Healthcare StrategistBurson-Marsteller China

[email protected]

Simon LiGeneral ManagerKantar Health

[email protected]