Originally Published MX July/August 2003
ADVERTISING, DISTRIBUTION, & SALES
Direct-to-Consumer Device MarketingA proven strategy for pharmaceuticals, interactive marketing can also help device manufacturers to get their product message across.
Gerry McGoldrick
Historically, medical device manufacturers have targeted marketing efforts at doctors and hospital personnel. Lately, however, consumers are claiming ownership of more and more of the decisions made about their healthcare. The medical device industry is learning from pharmaceutical marketers, and is focusing efforts on reaching consumers directly. Interactive marketing is the best way to reach this important audience of ultimate end-users.
For a long time, medical device marketing lacked what might be called popular sex appeal. The breakthrough devices of the past few decades, such as the pacemaker and hip and knee prostheses, were typically launched to doctors and health professionals, the devices being accompanied by highly technical manuals and support materials that dealt exclusively with the implantation procedure. The marketing emphasis was entirely clinical, with little or no attempt to reach the patient affected by the device. After all, the patient was presumed to have no knowledge of the medical technology in question. Consequently, the marketing materials did not take the patient into consideration.
But a change is coming. A look at the pharmaceutical industry suggests why—and how.
Pharmaceutical marketing mirrored medical device marketing until 1997, when FDA revised its guidelines regarding broadcast consumer advertising and drug makers shifted much of their spending from print media to television. Between 1997 and 2001 the percentage of television advertising in all direct-to-consumer spending increased from 25 to 64%.1
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| Figure 1. The marketing goal has shifted from getting physicians to prescribe medications to getting patients to request specific drugs, the result being better-informed consumers actively discussing with their physicians how their condition will be treated. (click to enlarge) |
Consumers are now informed directly by pharmaceutical companies about the particular benefits of many drugs. Where drug marketing once was a drive to prescribe (to win doctors), it is now increasingly a drive to request (to attract potential patient-customers) (see Figure 1). Thus educated, they can now request a prescription drug by name. A new kind of brand awareness has emerged.
To facilitate a conversation between the patient and doctor has become the new marketing goal for drug makers. Some medical device manufacturers will find themselves following suit. A conversation between a doctor and a patient with access to the same information enables the patient to take an active role in determining his or her healthcare program, especially important as managed care reduces opportunities for direct patient-physician contact.
Of course, the doctor's role cannot be slighted. Physicians must be included in the information and marketing loop for the traditional reasons, of course. But exposing them as well to the kind of messages consumers receive will prepare them to field patient questions and concerns. Participants in the practitioner-focused and consumer marketing efforts of a drug or device company must communicate with each other and synchronize their marketing programs for uniformity of message.
Fishing where the Fish Are
Before 1997 it made sense for pharmaceutical companies to direct their marketing energies toward doctors. Keeping a particular drug prominent in the doctor's mind by providing free samples, script pads, and the like was a surefire promotional technique. Consumers were not then participating actively in decisions about their own health treatment, and so received less attention from a marketing standpoint.
Now, pharmaceutical marketers routinely target consumers, building brand loyalty for such popular drugs as Claritin, Celebrex, Vioxx, and Nexium. The key to success in this effort—applicable to device marketers as well—is to give consumers the health information they need and want when they are prepared to receive it. An ad for a rheumatoid arthritis medication aired during the television show The Bachelor is not likely to be effective. The demographics for such a drug as that—women over 45 years old—does not match the show demographics. And how interested in a cancer treatment or drug is a viewer of the postmortem crime series CSI going to be? But if a person or someone that person loves is diagnosed with a serious disease or condition, the readiness to receive information spikes.
Patients used to have very little choice in the matter. They had to rely on their doctor—and maybe the experiences of friends and family members—for just about all their healthcare information. The Internet has changed that. Once a diagnosis is received, the Web-savvy person is essentially an eager student with hand up, asking "May I have more information, please, right away?"
Contemplating a diagnosis or facing a visit to a specialist, 68% of all healthcare information seekers start their research through an Internet search engine. Most of these people are women between the ages of 35 and 64, who typically are the gatekeepers for their own and their family's health. Some 60% of people who have looked for health-related information on-line claim their Internet search influenced their healthcare decisions.2
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| Figure 2. The Internet has changed how patients access healthcare information, and focuses subsequent discussions with physicians on the utilization of branded medical products. (click to enlarge) |
The best way to reach this demographic group is through a synergistic marketing campaign that exploits interactive media, direct mail, television, and print. But interactive on-line promotion is definitely the place to start (see Figure 2). Medical device marketers have to put their product out there in cyberspace, where people increasingly are looking for it. As the saying goes, fish where the fish are.
Comprehensive search engines such as Google and Ask Jeeves are the most effective interactive marketing starting point. It is also important for a product message to be placed on medical information sites such as WebMD and Intelihealth, at general healthcare portals, and with broad portals that feature significant health information offerings, such as Yahoo! Depending on the device, representation on certain lifestyle sites, such as iVillage, may make good sense, particularly if the device relates to women's health issues. A site like iVillage offers the consumer an excellent one-stop shopping experience. Such a venue should not be left out of interactive marketing efforts.
Building Brand Loyalty
Patients have demonstrated brand loyalty to certain prescription drugs. Now they are researching medical devices as well, from hearing aids to joint-replacement prostheses and coronary stents, and are primed to identify certain manufacturers' products as the best on the market. How can interactive marketing build this kind of loyalty?
It begins with positioning the product message properly and making the copy, content, and graphics relevant to the user. For instance, a site discussing a cardiology device targeted at older men should not have a presentation characterized by frilly graphics and pastel colors. Similarly, messages about a device to stem sudden urine loss would not feature the image of a strong patriarchal male. Many of these cues are subtle, almost subconscious, but they are important nonetheless. Designers of sites relating to terminal health conditions avoid using robust models. The patients visiting such sites can relate to images of regular people who could be suffering from the disease they are, and would prefer not to feel disconnected and discouraged by depictions of irrelevantly strong, healthy individuals.
Effective search engine marketing is critical to the success of any interactive marketing campaign. It is popularly yet erroneously referred to as search engine optimization, but the optimization is only one part of the process, which starts at the Web site design phase and involves making sure that the site is search engine friendly. If a company's Web site consists mainly of bells and whistles and flash graphics, it will not be read and indexed by most search engines. Keyword prominence, density, proximity, and frequency all directly affect the site ranking. For instance, search engines pick up keywords that are used at least 100 times, so that number should be a minimum goal. Paid inclusion in search engine rankings can help to position a product message in front of the right demographic group, known as qualified users. In addition, paid placement—buying creative ad units such as text links or banners—significantly increases the chance that a message will reach its qualified audience.
Since each search engine operates differently, the broad-brush approach won't work. The marketing bottom line is, when someone types in the relevant disease state, the search engine must turn up site listings for the company's medical device.
It is important to keep in mind that the fundamental goal of any interactive marketing campaign is to enable consumers—that is patients, suffering human beings—to be better informed about their treatment options. People employed in pharmaceutical and medical device marketing, while naturally concerned with meeting sales objectives, are also cognizant of the concerns of the patients to whom their products are being marketed. In marketing directly to patients, it is vital to make them comfortable in their minds, to establish relationships based on trust that will be influential in their future healthcare product purchasing decisions. Respecting and protecting patient privacy is another critical element of these relationships, one that cannot be compromised, especially in light of the sensitive nature of most healthcare information.
Once this kind of trust is established, the relationship between the consumer and the medical device company can be productive of real value. Device marketers can continue the conversation through follow-up e-mailed newsletters, focused tips, and other helpful forms of information. In some cases, procedures undergone by patients aren't permanent and need to be repeated. If an experience with a particular device was positive, it is likely that the patient will feel justified in exhibiting brand loyalty.
Marketing Medical Devices Interactively
Not every medical device is suitable for direct-to-consumer interactive marketing, but many are. Home-use test instruments such as glucose and blood-pressure monitors are excellent candidates, because they can be given added value through on-line tools to track patient results that are offered via a password system at the device Web site. Stents and other surgical devices relating to cardiology are also promising candidates. Nowadays, a patient referred to an interventional cardiologist is a safe bet to research on-line both the prospective procedure and the device employed. That search could very well result in the person saying to the doctor, "I read about the benefits of this new device, and I want it for my surgery."
Brand awareness goes out the window when someone's life is on the line, so any medical device that tends to be used in the emergency room at a point of critical care is not going to be subject to patient preference as a result of successful interactive marketing. But when patients have a chance to do some research, and the timeline between diagnosis and treatment is longer, interactive marketing can make a big difference.
Interactive medical device marketing, and likewise such marketing of pharmaceuticals, is still an emerging field. But the potential is huge. Since pharmaceutical marketers are ahead of the curve on this one, it would be wise to monitor their progress.
A big trend is to provide doctors with tools and other leave-behinds that enable medical device companies to reach patients through physicians. Another strategy is to use professional conferences as opportunities to supply physicians with tools that will benefit their patients. For instance, a marketing agency designed an animated, three-dimensional CD on behalf of a pharmaceutical industry company, which showed how joints are affected by rheumatoid arthritis, and launched it at the biggest trade show of the year. The convened group of rheumatologists agreed that the graphic presentation was an effective way to explain rheumatoid arthritis to their patients. Demand for the CD was great. Here again, brand messaging reached consumers through their physicians.
Taking a multipronged approach to the education process is key. This means educating patients about their disease or condition, about possible treatment solutions, and about the potential benefits of those solutions.
Conclusion
Medical device marketers, in the shadow of their pharmaceutical industry colleagues, are just now discovering how interactive marketing gives them an opportunity to involve their technology in the consumer's journey along the continuum from the discovery phase of his or her condition to planning for the medical procedure and beyond. As consumer-patients become more involved in managing their own healthcare, filling their need-to-know requirements clearly and succinctly becomes the key to successful marketing for medical device manufacturers.
References
Gerry McGoldrick is vice president for media services at Insight Interactive Group (Philadelphia), an interactive advertising and marketing agency.
Illustration by DIGITAL VISION
Copyright ©2003 MX
