Figure 1: Promotion Spending Breakdown for Diabetes Product Launches

Figure 1 distinguishes the promotional spending for Tradjenta, Bydureon, and Juvisync by each budgeted area dedicated to a different media outlet. While all companies devoted dollars to each channel, product detail expenditures represented 70% of promotional spending for Tradjenta, ePromotion was a top focus for Juvisync and Bydureon spent proportionately more of their budget on professional education activities via meetings and events.

Figure 2: Increase in Diabetes Products Sales

Indications of successes for each promotional campaign can be measured by comparing the budget allocations in Figure 1 to a quarterly increase in sales,. Figure 2 presents the first and second quarter sales of the 2012 fiscal year for Tradjenta, Juvisync, and Bydureon. Through an increased focus of the campaign’s interaction with healthcare professionals through meetings and events, Bydureon’s promotional campaign had the greatest level of success by increasing earning 423%. While focusing on product details did have positive results, Tradjenta saw only a 23% increase in sales. The promotional campaign of Juvisync was the least successful. While it did experience a 21% increase in sales, the $1.24 million in product earnings over two quarters was drastically less than the $24.5 million budget of the entire promotional campaign.

The product earnings of diabetes products in conjunction with the media distribution of their product spend suggests a possible connection between successful sales performance and budgets focused on professional education, meetings and events.

As marketers look to finalize their budget allocations for the coming year, studies like these may provide some insight into how to potentially get the biggest bang out of the proverbial buck.

If you’re looking for ideas for how to make your product launch a stand-out, contact The Matchstick Group. We’d be more than happy to share with you what we’re doing with some of our medical device clients.

As a result, leading healthcare centers have begun saying no to new drugs and treatments where the cost/benefit ratio seems off-balance. Recently, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center announced in October this year that they would not be providing a new cancer drug, Zaltrap, as a treatment option for their patients.

While studies demonstrated that Zaltrap prolonged patient lives by an average of 1.4 months compared to a standard chemotherapy regimen, the drug cost more than $35,000 during each month of treatment. Because of this, the physicians of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center argued that the slightly better benefits of the drug did not justify the associated cost.

Interestingly, while the prices of pharmaceuticals have been consistently on the rise, the costs of medical devices have remained relatively stable – increasing only 1% per year in the last decade. In fact, national spending for medical devices was about $156.3 billion in 2010, making up only 6% of total national health expenditure.

Medical centers and hospitals are taking it upon themselves to mitigate the rising prices of medicines and treatments. Medical device marketers need to be aware of hospital administrator’s preconceptions about the ongoing price of medical devices and be able to explain how the perceived cost fits within the greater picture. Now more than ever, potential leads will be analyzing the benefit of a product with its associated price when purchasing a new product. Therefore, marketing campaigns will need to stress how new products will be beneficial not only to patients’ health but the hospitals’ wallets as well.

In speaking with several of our clients, those who have elected not to cut jobs still have to come up with a way to pay for the 2.3% excise tax – a task that can be daunting especially for smaller device companies operating on thinner margins. Price increases while considered by some can put companies at a competitive disadvantage and/or result in fewer devices sold as tighter pricing controls are put into place. Premier Inc. last month wrote to the Internal Revenue Service asking that they monitor device pricing practices in an attempt to minimize the likelihood that manufacturers pass the tax along to the customer.

Interim CEO at Stryker, Curt Hartman, suggests that companies will begin moving operations off shore in an effort to minimize the tax impact.
What (if anything) is your company doing?

When a recall happens it can diminish the trust that your customers and patients put in the company. However, when handled appropriately and with transparency, companies actually have an opportunity to rise above.

Update: Found a good article on MD&DI Online (Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry) by Denise Odenkirk and Tom Konzenski which highlights best practices for tracking and managing recalled inventory.

LinkedIn is also a place where the playing field is somewhat leveled between the ‘big boys’ and the smaller start-ups. Regardless of whether you have a $100M or a $100 marketing budget, everyone kind of looks the same on LinkedIn. So it’s a great place where as a smaller med device start-up, you can start to build some credibility. So then the question becomes, how can you build credibility and portray yourself as an expert on LinkedIn?

Post Your White Papers, Poster Presentations and Clinical Papers in a Group: LinkedIn is a B2B communication zone. People in groups want to talk and learn more. If you publish new content, post it in relevant groups on LinkedIn, and pick up new exposure, comments, and potentially new customers.

One note of caution: Keep in mind that most of the content on LinkedIn will be publically available so do make sure that you’re mindful of what you are posting as it will be read by physicians and consumers alike as well as by friends – and potential foes.

At the same time, there is something inherently human about our business. The Agency Creative teams can’t function in a silo and Agency/Client relationships that are conducted solely via email are fraught with ‘miscommunications’. People do business with people that they like and they trust and nothing builds a stronger relationship faster than a face-to-face conversation.

In this article in Return on Performance magazine, I (founder Melissa Wildstein) was interviewed by Jodi Ferguson on the ins and outs of operating with a virtual workforce. I recommend setting clear guidelines and expectations all around, communicating frequently and always going out of your way to grab a beer with a co-worker.

Read the full article here

Invariably after some back and forth, some rethinking, and re-crunching, budgets get cut, and sales / share goals get ‘stretched’.  Brand teams are left with a bigger number to hit and less money to get there.

If this sounds familiar – you’re not alone!

The last thing you want to do in this case is write another full-blown plan.

Unfortunately now you need one more than ever, because now every penny counts. You must make sure that every program that you’re developing is going to deliver the impact that you need.  You must prioritize sales and distribution team efforts, and you must squeeze every dollar out of every contract negotiated – a daunting prospect particularly if you were hoping to hit the ground running January 3^rd.

Your brand and your product positioning probably didn’t change with the business plan re-writes so your marketing STRATEGY remains sound. It’s the tactics and how you realize the strategy that needs to be reconsidered. You could write a full-blown marketing plan – or you could save valuable time and effort by getting S.M.A.R.T about your marketing goals. S.M.A.R.T goals are

Specific.          Measurable.           Actionable.          Realistic.        Timely.

• Specific: You want very specific goals. The more specific the better. Goals are only lofty aspirations unless you know how to attain them, so be specific. This is probably the most important element when writing your marketing goals. You have to ask yourself
• Who
• What
• Where
• Why
• How

• Measurable: You need to be able to quantify your goals. Set up milestones over the course of the year to help you measure how close – or how far – you are from attaining the goal, and review these on a monthly basis.

• Actionable: Frame your goals in an actionable way so that you can take very real steps towards reaching them.

• Relevant: Your goals have to be relevant to your business. Don’t get distracted by the bright and shiny. Think about what’s really going to drive your revenue growth what will help you make that number, and stick to that.

• Timely: If you don’t set a time limit for reaching your goals somehow success is never attainable.

‘Launch Product X’ isn’t a S.M.A.R.T. goal, you’ve got to get much more granular than that.  Who are you going to launch that product to? What tactics will you deploy to pre-seed the market and build the level of awareness? Where will you communicate your message? Why does your customer care about the product benefit? How will you measure success?

Put your thoughts down on paper. This way you’ll ensure that everyone on your marketing team, every one of your distributors, every member of your sales organization is aligned towards your common goals.

Spend some time going through the exercise, and if you need direction or help call us. We help Med Device Marketing teams develop their goals, strategies – and then execute on the tactics. From strategic planning to brochure development and video animations, The Matchstick Group understands what Med Device Marketers need – and we help spark the ideas to get you there.