Upstream marketing Archives - Page 3 of 5

18Mar 2023 by cesare ferrari

Do you consider customer complaints a good proxy of customer satisfaction? You may regret it!

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

Medical device companies must seriously treat customers' complaints in compliance with regulatory quality standards. However, compliance with regulations does not necessarily mean you're focused on customer satisfaction. Most MedTech companies are small and medium-sized, and customer satisfaction is sometimes not fully understood and considered for different reasons. Imagine this scene: You are with a colleague discussing a product feature that produces customer's dissatisfaction. And to support the thesis that this is not a real problem, he/she shows you that none of the complaints collected about the product is related to that feature. Despite having anecdotal feedback on the problem, you do not have robust data; therefore, customer satisfaction with this feature is considered good. Let's have a look at the impact of customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and customer complaints to see…

10Feb 2023 by cesare ferrari

7 strategies to avoid the commoditization in the MedTech business

Downstream marketing, Sales, Upstream marketing

In my previous post, I discussed the commoditization of medical products. How it is becoming very common and a visible threat to company profitability. As a result of commoditization, business models that MedTech and pharma companies were able to implement in the past are becoming unsustainable. Today's post is about strategies you'll have to implement to avoid commoditization in MedTech. Strategies countering commoditization of MedTech products To begin, the ideas and the strategies to avoid commoditization presented here are not a panacea. Every company must find its way of countering commoditization's power, exploiting market knowledge and core competencies. The company facing commoditization has 2 options: compete within the trap or escape the trap. It is also possible to work on both strategies simultaneously to increase the chance of success. Compete…

23Oct 2022 by cesare ferrari

Is customer orientation a priority for your entire company?

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

Today any company, big and small, active in the medical business declares openly that it is customer oriented. I would say that being or stating to be customer oriented or customer centric is both fashionable and necessary. However, as you can imagine there are different levels of being customer oriented, a big difference between saying and doing. And inside the companies, it is possible to have different departments with variable levels of customer orientation. Why Customer Orientation? The essence of customer orientation is focusing on the customer and potential customer, identifying customer needs (current and future), and satisfying those needs. Customer orientation is an important driver of a company’s performance as described here and companies that “truly” follow this “religion” with its behaviors, practices, and commandments are examples of success…

08Oct 2022 by cesare ferrari

What can a MedTech product manager learn from 2 great product flops?

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

There are several examples of product flops and I think the best thing to do with these examples is to learn from other people’s mistakes, understand what went wrong and what we can do to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Let’s look closely at a couple of examples in other industries with very detailed stories. New coke On April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta launched the new coke, and only 79 days after its introduction Coca-Cola announced the return of the original formula. Eventually, the new coke was discontinued in 2002. What went wrong? According to Wikipedia: The sweeter cola overwhelmingly beat both regular Coke and Pepsi in taste tests, surveys, and focus groups. About 10–12 percent of testers felt angry and alienated at the thought and said they…

26Aug 2022 by cesare ferrari

Why Are R&D Engineers Not Spending Time With Their Future Customers?

Upstream marketing

I'm deeply convinced that it's essential for R&D engineers and medical device customers like surgeons, nurses, and other HCPs to interact closely. If you'd like to know how I arrived at this conclusion, you'll only need to continue reading; perhaps you too will see reasons with me. I realized that today it is almost impossible to find someone who insists that close contact between medical device users and R&D staff is unnecessary. However, I've often wondered, "why then are R&D engineers not spending time with their future customers?" Although I still don't know the answer to this question, I will try to explain why R&D staff should visit customers in today's post. And what they should know beforehand. A MedTech Anecdote When I joined Medtronic, a colleague told me…

02Apr 2022 by cesare ferrari

Common Challenges To Adopting A Customer Centric Approach In A Medical Device Company

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

I have already examined and explained the meaning of customer centricity for medical device companies in this post. Here, I'll focus more on how to transition from existing product centricity and traditional structural models to new ones that deliver what customers want. Know that the first step toward a customer centric organization is understanding the difference between customer centricity & product centricity, and identifying issues & challenges. These topics will be discussed in-depth as you read on. Product Centricity Versus Customer Centricity In the table below, I’ve listed some distinctive characteristics of the product centric and customer centric strategies. Product centricityCustomer centricityBasic ideaWe sell product. Product push approach with little or no customer segmentation.We serve customer segments. Tailored product offering based on diverse customer segments. Customer insight supports the entire…

05Mar 2022 by cesare ferrari

Customer Centricity: The Holy Grail Towards Unlocking The True Potential Of Customer Value

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

In the Medtech business as in many other businesses, there is a trend to move from a product-centric to a customer-centric way of doing business. Many companies are realizing that customer-centricity provides a competitive advantage, which is difficult to achieve and hard to copy. I’ve already touched on the topic of customer centricity here and here; In this short post, I will explore the following: The origin of the customer centric paradigmWhat it means to be a customer centric companyWhy it is important in the medical device sector Origin Of Customer Centricity The concept of customer centricity and its benefits have been discussed for more than 60 years in the academia and business community. Already in 1960, in the famous article “Marketing Myopia” published in Harvard Business Review, Theodore Levitt…

07Jan 2022 by cesare ferrari

The Voice Of The Customer (VOC) Is Different From The Voice Of KOLs Or Key Accounts

Upstream marketing

Every medical device marketer is familiar with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), Key accounts, and their spokesperson- the Key Account Manager. In this post, I will discuss two common traps in New Product Development: the conflict between following your KOLs, or the biggest and most essential account versus addressing the needs of a large market listening to the VOC. Let’s start with KOLs. Key Opinion Leaders: A Definition . A key opinion leader (KOL) in the healthcare field is a physician, nurse, researcher, hospital executive, etc that has proven experience and expertise in a specific discipline, who is trusted and respected by his/her colleagues. Medical device companies can use their KOL network to gather valuable insights in various phases of new product development. Moreover, KOLs are influential, so companies leverage the relationship to access…

18Dec 2021 by cesare ferrari

4 Fundamental Topics For Your Christmas Holidays

Upstream marketing

Christmas holidays are the favorite period of the year for most children and adults alike. It's a time to exchange gifts with friends and loved ones, decorate Christmas trees, merry and have fun all together. Looking back, Christmas 2020 was different due to the Covid-19 pandemic and many people, including me, were unable to spend time with family and friends in-person. This year; hopefully, the situation will be different, and we will have the opportunity to spend quality time with family and take a step back to reflect on what and who matters most in our lives. Keep in mind that if during the Christmas holidays you would like to go through some fundamentals on Medical Device Sales and Marketing, the following suggestions I've put together would give you a…

20Nov 2021 by cesare ferrari

“Easy To Use” Or “User-friendly” Is Not A User Requirement!!!!

Upstream marketing

From time to time, I come across situations where I need to clarify and point out some essential facts I’ve already discussed in this post about user requirements definition and in this one about writing user requirements. A few weeks ago, a colleague suggested to me to include (in the user requirements of a new product) the fact that the product must be “user-friendly.” And then more recently a start-up founder showed me a user requirement of a new medical device- still in development that was formulated with the expression “easy to use”. Although both wanted to have the user requirement “easy to use” for good reasons. And both are laudable for taking into consideration the user in the development; unfortunately, they are both wrong. Why is “easy to use”…

Category: Upstream marketing