Is your brand caught in the ‘Awareness Trap’?

In healthcare, we often assume that if people know better, they'll do better.

But awareness isn’t action. Education isn’t behaviour change. And even the best campaigns can fall flat when they don’t account for the realities of human decision-making.

What Is Behavioural Science (and Why Should You Care)?

At its core, behavioural science is the study of how people make decisions — and why they often don’t do what’s “rational” or expected. It looks at the psychological, emotional, and environmental factors that drive action (or inaction).

When we ignore these realities, we waste budget, miss our audience, and risk disengagement.

In healthcare marketing, we often assume that if we give health professionals the right evidence, they’ll act on it.

But prescribing decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. They’re influenced by habit, heuristics, emotional drivers, and even identity.

Some HCPs are early adopters — energised by innovation. Others are more care-focused — prioritising familiarity and workflow harmony. Some are data-driven — needing to see robust evidence before making a shift. And some are more cautious, — requiring more social proof or peer endorsement.

Clinicians are extraordinary, determined, caring, curious, and empathetic — but at the end of the day, they’re human too.

So what holds them back?

• 🧠 Status quo bias — “What I’m doing already works”

• 😰 Loss aversion — “What if switching leads to worse outcomes?”

• 📉 Information overload — “I’m too busy to evaluate another product.”

• 👀 Lack of peer validation — “No one else is using this yet.”

• 🛠️ Implementation friction — “It’s just not easy to integrate into my practice.”

When strategies ignore these behavioural realities, they fall flat — no matter how strong the solution story is.

Behaviour-Led Strategy = Real-World Impact

Applying behavioural science isn’t about jargon or academic theory. It’s about designing smarter strategies that work with human nature, not against it.

It helps answer questions like:

• How can we help our HCPs feel confident about starting a new therapy?

• What’s the right message to move them from curiosity to confidence?

• Where are the friction points in a patient’s journey — and how do we remove them?

This approach can transform:

• 📲 Omnichannel planning — the right message, in the right medium at the right time.

• 🧠 HCP engagement — by aligning with their mindset, habits, and decision-making cues.

• 💊 Adherence campaigns — by identifying the real-world barriers & triggers behind drop-off.

It’s Time to Move Beyond Awareness

Too many healthcare brand teams align content to the customer journey — and stop there.

They map the stages, plug in the assets, and tick the boxes. But are they actually changing behaviour — or just presenting facts to support their brand?

HCPs don’t need more data dumps. Prescribers don’t need another PDF in their inbox. And no one changes prescribing behaviour because they saw a banner ad at the right stage of the funnel.

Behaviour change isn’t linear — and engagement shouldn’t be either.

It takes a blend of digital and in-person touchpoints, emotional and rational messaging, peer influence and personal motivation.

For example:

• 🧠 A prescribing decision might begin with a compelling patient case at a congress,

• 📲 Be reinforced by a short-form video shared in a WhatsApp peer group,

• 📧 Nudged again by a succinct email backed by real-world evidence,

• 🤝 And sealed by a rep or MSL conversation that addresses a specific clinical barrier.

That’s the power of behavioural science. It helps brand teams stop communicating at HCPs, and start building strategies around how they actually think, decide, and act.

"It’s not just about filling journey stages — it’s about shifting mindsets."

AJ - Strategy Director - Green&Co Strategy

And when we do that, we move from message delivery to real impact — helping brands, professionals, and patients move forward with clarity, confidence, and better outcomes.


Let’s Make Healthcare Comms Smarter

If you're working on a brand that’s stuck in the “awareness trap,” or you’re briefing a campaign that needs to go deeper than the journey map, I’d love to chat.

At Green&Co we help healthcare brands and agencies shift from content-heavy plans to behaviour-led strategies that actually move the needle — for prescribers, patients, and the people who care for them.