Medical Technology Marketing: The Race to Protect Thought-Leadership

In a November/December 2010 issue of Medical Product Outsourcing magazine, Group Editor Chris Delporte addressed the concern that the U.S. medical device industry may have lost their edge.

He offers good news and not-so-good news from a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP report titled “Medical Technology Innovation Scorecard: The race for global leadership.”

The report affirms that, thanks to decades of innovation dominance, the U.S. will continue to lead the world in medical technology for the foreseeable future. But… emerging markets are not to be discounted.

In every way, shape and form they’re developing innovations that could enable them to surpass developed countries in providing high-value medical device technology and healthcare.

Taking all this in to consideration, my question is, what are U.S. medical device companies doing to effectively communicate their value?

It is absolutely imperative to design, develop, and manufacture cost-effective, safe, reliable, cutting-edge, medical devices-no question. But if you are not effectively communicating that value, what impact might that have on your competitive advantage?

From my content marketing perspective, it seems as though many medical device technology companies are still relying on the same ol’, traditional means to promote their products and innovations. Unfortunately, they are missing vast opportunities to convey their thought-leadership, establish trust, and highlight their pioneering technologies. This, in turn, affects growth, revenue, and competitive advantage.

The good news is that many medical device companies are recognizing this.

These innovative companies are:

integrating blogs and newsletters-with consistent, relevant posts

publishing frequent, insightful articles in trade journals and magazines

getting actively engaged in social media

revamping their value propositions

targeting their audience to communicate more effectively

and providing customer-centric content in their marketing materials-from their website to their White Papers.

Just as there is a silver lining to the threat of rapidly emerging medical device markets (the U.S. still rocks in this arena), there is also for medical device marketing.

More and more medical technology companies are appreciating that staying “cutting-edge,” “relevant,” and “effective” does not just apply to developing an innovating device. It also relates to getting that message out to the world.

As Delporte astutely notes in his Editor’s letter, “Perhaps more so than any other moment in medtech’s history in the United States, have so many factors and stakeholders had the power to make or break the viability and dominance of our industry in the long-term.”

So my question to you, medical device marketers, is: Do you know what your content role is?