Eight synthetic personas modelling the behavioural shifts in OTC purchasing among UK GLP-1 users — from first prescription through to discontinuation.
Semaglutide and tirzepatide are reshaping how millions think about food, health, and self-care. But for OTC brands, the downstream effects are poorly understood. Which categories gain demand? Which lose it? How do purchasing patterns shift as patients progress through treatment stages? We built a synthetic persona panel to model these dynamics at the individual level — grounded in real UK prescribing data, side-effect profiles, and OTC market structure.
The panel is structured around three behavioural axes that capture the key dimensions of variation among GLP-1 users. Each persona occupies a distinct position in this space, ensuring the panel covers the full spectrum of real-world patient profiles.
This isn't demographic segmentation. Two women of the same age in the same city can have radically different OTC behaviours depending on their motivation for starting treatment, how their body responds, and how actively they manage their own health.
A synthetic persona is only useful if it holds together. A patient who distrusts pharmaceutical companies shouldn't simultaneously endorse prescription-strength messaging. Someone on initiation-stage dosing shouldn't describe adaptation behaviours typical of a 6-month user.
Every persona in this panel has been validated through contradiction testing and cross-persona differentiation auditing. The result is a panel where each member is internally coherent and distinct from the others — producing reliable, non-redundant insights.
The panel isn't just profiles. Each persona is a live analytical surface — able to be interrogated, compared, and mapped across multiple output frameworks.
Which OTC categories see demand increase, decrease, or remain stable across the panel. Ranked by impact strength with per-persona breakdowns showing how different patient profiles drive different category shifts.
Traces the full pathway from GLP-1 side effects through to specific OTC product demand. Nausea leads to antacid purchases. Constipation drives fibre supplement adoption. Fatigue triggers vitamin and energy product exploration. Each pathway is mapped with timing, frequency, and brand-level specificity.
Identifies unmet symptom gaps where no adequate OTC solution exists, under-adopted categories where personas have a need but haven't found the right product, and brand-level whitespace where competitors haven't positioned themselves for the GLP-1 patient.
Switching risk matrices, trust erosion analysis, discontinuation risk scoring, and channel concentration vulnerabilities. Which brands are most exposed to GLP-1-driven behaviour change, and where are the defensive positions?
Six messaging frames scored against all eight personas. Which frames resonate with which segments, which channels are most effective per persona, and the specific language triggers that drive engagement or rejection.
Explore two sample personas from the panel, or get access to the full study.