Problems in Marketing New Medical Inventions

The layered structure of the medical industry presents multiple challenges related to marketing new medical innovations. In the chain of decision makers, the opinion of the patient rarely counts. In fact, only through perfect alignment of the interests of several organizations can a new medical solution be adopted. The marketing strategy must then blossom into a multi-pronged approach that promotes the invention to several stakeholders.

Stakeholder Motives

• The physician's primary concern circles around the patient's comfort and whether the new solution provides a better outcome for the patient. The organization where the physician practices values new technologies that increase income by shortening the patient's time in the facility so the physician can see more patients each day. Solutions that lower the liability of the treatment center catch organizations' attention also. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must approve all medical solutions for safety, and insurance companies want technology that saves money in medical procedures. Finally, manufacturers will sell solutions with good profit margins.

Ideal Situation

• These various decision makers diverge in interests. To please all, the new invention needs to be a safe and high-profit medical product that improves the outcome of the patient while lowering physician's liability. Furthermore, only large market size can support the cost of the investment and the solution must address some of the more common medical issues.

One Point of Entry

• The market can sell only products that have been granted FDA clearance. This clearance process has become expensive because the manufacturer must demonstrate the safety through large, expensive and statistically meaningful clinical trials. Hence, companies lower trial expenses by seeking FDA approval for one disease condition only with the hope to attract enough revenues to expand trials to other diseases and penetrate additional market segments. This strategy of choosing one champion application five to 10 years prior to market launch requires a sharp intuition about market evolution, competitive landscape and trends.

Reimbursement Obstacle

• The market success of a medical product relies on how well the solution is adopted. Typically, solutions that are not reimbursed by insurance companies will have to be paid out of pocket by patients or by physicians, a major deterrent to placing novel medical solutions. Therefore, an invention will be seen attractive if the physician or patient do not have to pay for it, the insurance companies pay a lower amount of reimbursement than with current methods and therefore save costs, and the new solution helps physicians receive more income through an increase in patients. These interests do not always overlap and present a challenge in developing the marketing message describing the value of the product to each party.

Wealthy to Mass Market

• A patient does have some influence on the introduction of a medical innovation, although limited. Patients with greatest power of leverage are individuals with money. In fact, some technologies are first launched and marketed to the wealthy consumers. Rehabilitation and cosmetic solutions fall in this category. With this strategy, marketing must be targeted directly at the patient and the task resides in finding the wealthy individuals with the medical condition to be treated. This segmented market entry buys time to either receive approval for reimbursement from the insurance companies or for building enough credibility to attract patients with less disposable income.

Marketing the Financial Benefits

• The marketing strategy for a new invention starts with explaining its clinical benefit. However, the effort rapidly progresses to a financial analysis that articulates the returns to each stakeholder. Frequently, the marketing work integrates perspectives on how current technologies can be smoothly dislodged and replaced with the solution with no impact to the business. Because of the large size of the financial investments required to sustain the development of new inventions from concept to deployment in the doctor's office, partners will join forces making corporate strategic alignment the backbone of the marketing efforts.