ADVERTISING, DISTRIBUTION, & SALES
Few aspects of the medical world are one-dimensional, and marketing within the healthcare field is no exception. Faced with a diverse—and sometimes skeptical—mix of customers, medical product marketing must extend beyond a catchy jingle or sleek logo if it is to woo its audience. At its pinnacle, medical marketing not only catches the attention of its targeted consumers but also conveys valuable information and convincing data to support the use of a product.
The Medical Marketing Association (MMA; San Francisco) issues its International Awards of Excellence (In-Awe) annually to recognize creative and effective work in medical and healthcare marketing. In early June, MMA presented a total of 111 awards spanning more than 40 distinct categories.
In addition, this year's MMA Marketer of the Year Award was presented to Holley Malia, director of global brand management at device firm Inamed (Santa Barbara, CA), for her work in developing an innovative direct-to-consumer (DTC) education campaign for the company's surgical alternative to gastric bypass surgery.
"In some areas, there is a still a stigma that advertising is cheap or unprofessional—trying to make a profit off a disease," says Malia, who has since left Inamed to work as a consultant. "But when it comes to devices or drugs, marketing or advertising should be supporting education."
An Evolving Marketplace
Shifting demographics continue to influence the face of today's marketing, particularly in the medical realm. "The continued aging of the baby boomers is one of the single biggest factors that has affected medical device marketing trends in the last year—and will continue to do so for years to come," says Mark Perlotto, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Adair-Greene Healthcare Communications (Atlanta). "This population of outspoken, well-educated consumers willing and, in fact, demanding to be involved in decisions affecting their healthcare is unlike anything medical marketers have seen. This population of consumers of healthcare products could potentially be one of the greatest boons ever to surface for medical device marketing."
However, despite the boon of baby boomers, medical device companies in all sectors are facing increasingly crowded marketplaces, increasing the need for effective product differentiation in the face of potential commoditization of their products.
"There are more medical devices entering the market than ever before," says Robert Mangone, senior vice president of account services for GSW Worldwide (Westerville, OH). "And in most cases, these new products are not fulfilling unmet needs as much as they are providing incremental improvements over existing medical solutions."
Tim Sellers, a partner at Inferno LLC (Memphis), which received recognition at the In-Awe ceremony for its work for Smith & Nephew (London), agrees. "The medical device industry is extremely cluttered, requiring companies to become more dynamic in the way they present new implant systems," he says.
Competing in a crowded marketplace requires dynamic marketing approaches that harness the power of emerging technologies, as evidenced in Inferno's campaign for Smith & Nephew. "Animation technology enabling the customer to experience the surgical technique is becoming more and more prevalent," Sellers says. "With very little time allowed to present to surgeons, sales representatives equipped with this sort of technology have an advantage over the competition."
Steve Coldiron, creative director for Jocoto Advertising Inc. (San Ramon, CA), says his agency sees a continued trend toward more inventive, compelling, and creative advertising in the medical device space. "It is not enough to simply feature a product shot with a bunch of product specs," he says.
Charity Williams, director of marketing at Zevex, agrees that simple spec sheets for a product are not enough to capture consumers' interest. "Consumers and physicians need to know how things such as battery life and accuracy solve their problems," she says. "We have reacted by translating our device specifications into case studies describing how product features affect patient outcomes." Produced by Mallory Multimedia (Layton, UT), Zevex's training documentary received a silver award in the 2006 In-Awe competition.
"Building brands around emotions and personalities has been viewed as radical thinking and risky, and taking this kind of message directly to consumers has been seen as even riskier," says Tom Haan, a partner in account services at marketing firm ODA (San Francisco). "Thus, the majority of device companies still have very conservative brands that do little to raise an eyebrow. But this paradigm is starting to shift, and with pharmaceutical marketing as a model, medical device marketing may just venture into the land of creativity."
Marketing Hurdles
Despite an increased willingness to experiment with new marketing concepts and media, medical device marketers face significant challenges and restraints when it comes to communicating in a complex, crowded, and heavily regulated environment.
"Technology is growing by leaps and bounds, making the decision for investment a difficult one," says Jonathan Peischl, vice president and creative director for Kane and Finkel Healthcare Communications (San Francisco). "Institutions and practices must be cautious in how they expend their resources when it comes to capital equipment acquisition."
To stand out in an industry teeming with competitors, medical device firms are increasingly focusing additional resources on building their brand identities. "We're seeing more emphasis on selling the company as well as the product," says Jo Seidler, principal at Seidler Bernstein Inc. (Cambridge, MA). "Virtually all of our campaigns in the past year featured an element of corporate branding—that the brand value is about people as well as product. In fact, these days, most of our clients seem to be just as concerned about branding their support services as they are about branding their devices or diagnostics."
In addition to marketing in an ever-more competitive environment, medtech manufacturers must also make their cases to a wider audience of decision makers. Jack Curran, president of LehmanMillet (Boston), says he believes clinicians will continue to have significant influence with respect to the adoption of innovative products. "However, we have all witnessed examples of clinical innovations that exhibit great promise but stall due to forces outside of the clinician's control," he says. Curran points specifically to instances in which the payer community has severely restricted payment for—and therefore use of—innovative medical technology in the areas of artificial disks and laparoscopic bypass and laparoscopic banding.
Regulatory Scrutiny
Along with reimbursement, regulatory restrictions are another fact of life for manufacturers looking to market their devices. "Regulatory agencies are playing an ever-increasing role because a few industry players have stretched the limits of what should be done," says Pier Lalonde, senior creative director for LXB Communication Marketing (Quebec City, QC, Canada). "Unfortunately, there may be an imbalance as to the strictness of the agencies' recommendations and rulings. The challenge for agencies will be to get a clear understanding of the dos and don'ts and find the inventive opportunities within this space."
Recognizing the lack of attention that has traditionally been paid to regulating DTC marketing of medical devices, FDA last year held a public hearing to seek input on whether the agency needs to revise its approach to the promotion of medical products, including restricted devices.
"FDA has not taken a very active role in regulating the marketing of medical devices due to the limited amount of DTC activity," says Mark Klapper, vice president of strategic planning for MicroMass Communications Inc. (Cary, NC ). "As marketing strategies evolve, one can only assume this will change."
However, Seidler says the threat of increased regulation need not drastically alter how medical device marketers conduct their business. "If marketers stick to the three things physicians want to know—how and why it works, the data that support it, and what the thought leaders are saying—they should stay on the straight and narrow," Seidler says.
DTC Considerations
Despite regulatory concerns, the trend toward DTC marketing in the medical device industry continues, with many of the In-Awe award-winning campaigns targeted to consumer audiences.
"Until recently, device manufacturers focused exclusively on the physician, but now consumers are getting more sophisticated in the device arena as they did with pharmaceuticals," says Malcolm MacKenzie, group client service director at Anderson DDB Health & Lifestyle (San Francisco).
With this in mind, certain sectors inherently lend themselves to DTC marketing—and others do not. "In emergency and acute care situations, the consumer can't really control the type of care they receive or the products used, so DTC will never be an absolute," says Eric Williams, manager of marketing communications for Boston Scientific Neurovascular (Fremont, CA). "However, as the public continues to become more aware of treatment options and takes more responsibility for making decisions about their own healthcare, the importance of DTC will only continue to grow."
Medical device companies considering targeting consumers directly face a grave concern: the possibility of isolating the physician. "Many of our customers are still struggling with the trade-off between driving patient demand and the negative response that this creates with physicians—the people who buy the actual product," says Jocoto's Coldiron. "The demand is a positive, but if a campaign serves to irritate or alienate the actual customer, then all is lost."
Erin Reynolds, account supervisor for Archer/Malmo (Memphis), agrees. "As more companies expand their DTC communication, there is a shifting of budgets and strategies," she says. "Marketers must ensure that internal and surgeon customers are kept informed and engaged during the process of speaking to consumers."
Larry Mickelberg, senior vice president for strategy and enablement at Medical Broadcasting Co. (Philadelphia) says he expects to see progressively less DTC marketing through mainstream media such as TV, radio, and print—especially for new brands. "More online marketing, including rich media, will join more-sophisticated online tools for motivated consumers, such as self-screeners and symptom assessors," he says. "For devices, we expect a greater variety and depth from online resources, such as how-to-use demonstrations."
"E-marketing in the medical device industry significantly lags that of other industries," says Williams of Boston Scientific. "This industry is behind in terms of basic Web presences, e-mail marketing, and analytics—let alone utilizing new media like RSS and Podcasts. As the cost of sales continues to climb, e-marketing offers a cost-effective channel with tangible, actionable metrics to support business decisions."
Conclusion
Beyond new marketing channels, diversified audiences, increased competition, and evolving regulatory challenges, GSW's Mangone points to an even more basic trend that is altering the landscape of medical device marketing: the increased need for medical device manufacturers to build stability into their marketing efforts. "Marketing positions in medical device companies will increasingly be filled by career marketers rather than individuals who are moving up the ladder from sales," he says. "It seems that if we are committed to breaking the commoditization of the industry, we need career marketers in place, with long-term thinking deployed as a strategic advantage.
"There is no reason that brand managers can't organize their marketing teams to achieve both near-term results and a long-term vision," he adds. "Growth initiatives demand it, and there is no downside to orienting a brand architecture within organizations that prepares for future revenue downstream. Companies can and should make investments to accelerate opportunities yet to be imagined. The future cannot be predicted or foreseen, only created."
