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 6 Steps to a Dynamic Message
Developing a persuasive message for your
product - and a meaningful "story" that
presents your message in a logical sequence
so that your audience understands why they
should care about it - is an important
supporting step in establishing the product's
positioning and its subsequent usage.
However, even after effective messaging is
developed for a product, in a dynamic
marketplace it is critical to also monitor
the product's message over time, to make sure
it continues to resonate with customers and
continues to reinforce the desired brand
positioning.
In an article written for Medical Marketing &
Media, Donna Kelly, Ph.D., Executive Vice
President, Alice Liftin, Ph.D., Senior Vice
President, and Stacy Vaughn, M.B.A., Vice
President, GfK Healthcare, provide an
overview of the research process that can be
used as a blueprint for developing and
refining the product message across the
product's life cycle.
 The Promise and Peril of Biologics
By Geoff Penney, Vice President
Biologic medications have brought tremendous
relief to a multitude of sufferers across
indications, and in an environment of
shrinking pipelines and patent cliffs, is one
area where there is still room to grow and
reason for promise. The science of biologics
has not yet been saturated, with new arrivals
expected from successful biologic suppliers
as well as from hopeful biotechs.
However, the peril cannot be understated, as
biologic development faces a complex and
evolving competitive landscape. These include
emerging biosimilars, the current economic
climate and potential future political
developments.
Health Care Investment
Typically, when health care is discussed in
financial terms, the usual focus is on the
rising costs of providing health care, which
are increasingly being felt by patients,
employers, state and federal governments and
other stakeholders in the game. Less
discussed is the fact that, with the world in
a recession and excellent health care
companies valued extremely cheaply,
significant opportunities currently exist, if
one employs the right strategy and tactics,
to make significant amounts of money while
simultaneously benefiting physicians,
patients and other stakeholders.
This month's published document for The
Orange Pages points to the book
Health-Care Investing, by Les
Funtleyder, as an invaluable resource for
laying out and organizing the various
considerations involved in making health care
investment decisions and how these factors
fit together.
MedTech Evolution: Responding to the Changing Dynamics of the Marketplace With Effective Market Intelligence Strategies
Free Educational Webcast:
March 26, 2:00 - 3:15 p.m. EST Save the Date! No longer is it enough for medical device
manufacturers to simply build a great product
to ensure marketing success. Today, the
marketplace is evolving faster than the speed
of business, and you have to answer the
demands of more customer stakeholders than
the surgeons you seek to reach, including
marketers whose messages need to resonate
with purchasing, payors and patients. What's
more, you have to contend with marketing
strategy challenges, ethical access to the
end-users, the changing relationship between
surgeon and manufacturer's representative,
and the current ways doctors learn and train
for new procedures.
Join GfK Healthcare's upcoming webcast,
MedTech Evolution: Responding to the
Changing Dynamics of the Marketplace With
Effective Market Intelligence Strategies,
to learn how you can respond effectively
to the new dynamics of the challenging and
opportunity-rich medical and surgical device
marketplace.
Did You Miss the February Issue of Topline?
Click
here to read the issue, which
includes:
Topline
archive is available. Skim the
directory and select
articles you missed. Access subscriber
opt-in/comment form.
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March 2009
 The Perfect Storm II In the November 2008 issue of Topline, I wrote an Orange Pages module talking about the "perfect storm" in which I described financial difficulties facing many health care marketing research firms as a bad economy joined with weak pharmaceutical company performance to significantly tighten belts. Next week, I will have the opportunity to present to the main session at PMRG in Las Vegas what I consider to be a very important message that goes beyond this one. More specifically, I will discuss the fact that while I used to tell young professionals I was trying to recruit into one of my companies that the health care market stood by itself, insulated from the general economy, more recently the recession and several other factors have merged the two. While it is still true that the health care market is relatively inelastic when compared with other marketplaces, data are beginning to accumulate that demonstrate consumers are increasingly shifting their behavior to favor wealth over health. While such behavior is not being demonstrated by everyone, somewhere between a quarter and a third of respondents to a series of surveys have indicated a willingness, or necessity, to avoid various aspects of health care because of economic considerations. This percentage is increasing steadily as the economy worsens. In fact, today we face the perfect storm with a troubled pharmaceutical industry unable to bring any substantially improved products to the marketplace. Thus consumers are increasingly motivated to turn to older and cheaper generic products, or to treat themselves with over-the-counter medications to avoid the cost of physician co-pay. The establishment of such facilities as MinuteClinics in pharmacies like CVS clearly helps to push things in this direction...  Richard B. Vanderveer, Ph.D. CEO, GfK Healthcare    Research Highlight: Neurology
Data Download provides highlights of recently released data from GfK Healthcare's Therapeutic Class Studies (TCS). Based on primary market research, TCS provide in-depth analysis of market trends, physician practice patterns and competitive brand positioning. This month's selection covers research conducted in the area of fibromyalgia. |
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