A neuroscientist and some grape skins vs. the pharmaceutical industry.

People Pay for Five Star Reviews?

In late 2017, NPR aired a two-minute segment on the science behind our new pain cream. It became such a popular segment that it left our customers hungry for more detail. So by popular demand and for the first time ever, here’s part 9 of an 11-part story on the discovery and creation of Ted’s Pain Cream. To read from the beginning, click here.

“We had a pharmaceutical marketing director call and ask us how much we paid for those reviews,” recalled Ted. “I was stunned. I didn’t even know you could buy reviews, and the fact that I was stunned, stunned him. He assumed that with feedback as positive as ours we must have paid for it.”

Ever the scientists, Ted and Greg realized that with as many users as they had, they could do some interesting segmenting research on the resveratrol and wintergreen combination. It wouldn’t be clinical-trial-level reliability, but it could still help improve their understanding of their product. They designed a questionnaire to pinpoint the conditions most (and least) responsive to the cream, and sent it to their entire customer base with a plea for input, good or bad.

What they learned surprised even them. (Ted gave a three-part Facebook live presentation on it, which you can watch starting here). Close to 90% of respondents experienced some relief from their pain. Even more impressive, over half of those reported that in fact, most of their pain was gone altogether. But the bigger surprises were deeper in the data. Several conditions responded particularly well to Ted’s Pain Cream. Two in particular stood out. The first was carpal tunnel. No surprise there, since the hand and wrist are fairly thin, making it easier to get medication through the skin and muscle. The real surprise was the magnitude of success. Almost every single user with carpal tunnel reported that the majority of their pain was gone after a week of use.

 

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