8 min reading time

As originally asked by Eddie Chen.

I’ve just begun at a Medical Device startup that is shifting its focus from the acute care hospital market to the nursing home and home consumer market. I was hoping to get some advice concerning the marketing, sales and distribution channels anyone has implemented or seen. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Edward Chen

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Larry Czapla
President at IntriMed Technologies
Eddie
I would appreciate the site / presentation that Jerrold Shapiro mentioned in his email… Thanks in advance..lczapla@cox.net

Eddie Chen
General Manager (SF) at JUMP Bikes
Mark, thanks so much for the comment. I know I will have questions going forward once I’ve had time to review and digest the info you’ve sent. I really appreciate you offering advice and will reach out when I’ve gotten my thoughts in order.

Mark Dahlby
Experienced Regulatory / Compliance Attorney Within Software and Healthcare Industries
Eddie, Marc’s comments about focusing outside of the home environment to start may be very helpful while you wrap you head around a very different regulatory environment for home use products – both in terms of marketing and design. FDA is expecting medical products used in a home environment to be designed and / or maintained very differently from those in professional settings . . . and FDA hasn’t quite made up its mind about what those requirements will be (see this: [http://www.hallrender.com/ltc/fda-seeks-comments-on-design-of-medical-devices-for-home-use|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3www%2Ehallrender%2Ecom*3ltc*3fda-seeks-comments-on-design-of-medical-devices-for-home-use/4MuP?_t=tracking_disc]). Additionally, direct-to-consumer advertising of medical products, whether on TV or the internet, will be heavily scrutinized by both the FDA and the FTC. FDA’s been a bit behind the 8-ball with its marketing guidances, but FTC recently came out with a new one for the digital world ([http://www.hallrender.com/hit/new-ftc-guidance-addresses-social-media-advertising-could-fda-be-next|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3www%2Ehallrender%2Ecom*3hit*3new-ftc-guidance-addresses-social-media-advertising-could-fda-be-next/-S-0?_t=tracking_disc]). Let me know if you have questions.

OMAR BADAWI
Business Unit Manager
Dear Eddie
Send me more detail
Omarbadawi10@gmail.com
KSA

Eddie Chen
General Manager (SF) at JUMP Bikes
Thanks Marc. I guess if any of these roads were really easy, everyone would be doing it right? I’ll be sure to look that company you mentioned up.

Marc Hollingworth
Proven Business Leader in Medical Devices and Healthcare
Thanks Allen. Social media marketing is growing, however there is a slight misconception among medical companies that it is a panacea. To effectively promote a product in the social media space takes quite a bit of effort, the correct software and time. The investment is much less than traditional models.
I would perhaps also suggest you look at who is strong in your space. Arjohuntleigh immediately comes to mind as they are a strong contender in the sub-acute market and I do not think they compete with your product.. From what I know of them they are always looking for new products to give them an edge on their competitors.

Nadine Lepick
VP Business Development at CTX, Inc.
Hello,

In the past, I revamped instructions for patients on a self-administered product for chemo and/or radiology patients.

Original instructions were comprised of two long sentences and were difficult to locate on the package insert.

I changed them to a single sheet of pictograms which were issued by the oncology nurses along with the prescription.

This offered peace of mind for both the patients and the nurses; it was very clearly written and steps could be followed at any time of the day or night without having to call anyone for further instruction.

Eddie Chen
General Manager (SF) at JUMP Bikes
Wow, thanks to everyone who has taken part in this conversation. It has given me a lot of food for thought. As with most startups, the efficient and targeted allocation of resources (esp. money) is the name of the game and marketing “bang for the buck” is the mantra of the day.

Gunjan, yes it’s the LifeBed System however our next generation version adds wireless connectivity features and comes in at quite a discount to our original product.

Marc, I agree with you that subacute care facilities should be targeted and they are definitely included in our target market. New technologies such as ours require educating the public as to our value proposition which, as you noted, will take tons of capital. Although, given the rise of social media, I may be naively searching for that “magic bullet” that is able to create interest and groundswell without costing an arm and a leg. I’m also looking into strategic partnerships with companies that already have a relationship with our target audience. There are a growing number of businesses in the telehealth/medicine industry.

Marc Hollingworth
Proven Business Leader in Medical Devices and Healthcare
I went to your web site to view your products. They look very innovative. I would suggest that home health care be a secondary market to nursing homes and extended stay facilities for now. The cost of entry into consumer is huge. There are many distributors and independent reps that would love to run with what you have though. In addition, although the US is a huge market, many countries with socialized medicine want to get the patients out of acute care facilities quickly. They are investing in their after care markets heavily. It’s worth investigating.

Gunjan Siroya
Principal Partner and Sr. VP at Netspective
Not sure about your product (is it LifeBed ?) but I recommend treat your products like any other in the Consumer Electronics / Consumer Products industries. Start with your retail distribution channel plan. This may impact your profits negatively but provides you a quicker path to revenue and creating larger volumes at lower investment. Discussions with distribution channels can provide you with data on target market, consumer demographics, price points, fine tuning your value proposition, etc. Map this this with other sources of data from professional firms. Collective information can feed your Digital / TV / Print / Radio /Social etc. based targeted marketing campaign. Explore direct retail (Amazon, Best Buy, other???) channels and what kind of strategy they can offer to market your products too.

Side Note: – Getting the right distribution and retail channels to sign up is easier said than done, but can provide good data and revenue for a small firm looking to enter new markets.

Marc Hollingworth
Proven Business Leader in Medical Devices and Healthcare
There are many great comments and suggestions here. There are also distributors who focus in the areas to which you are referring. Home health care is a growing market and there are great companies involved.

Todd Staples, MBA
Account Representative, GYN at Medtronic
I guess I see things a little differently when it comes to advertising, though I will be the first to admit, I am more in the marketing and sales camp than I am advertising, which is in my mind what broad brush media forms are good for – promoting a brand name, not necessarily products into niche markets. I can think of several examples – the first that comes to mind is satellite radio. I spend alot of time in my car and I love satellite radio, but based on all of the commercials I hear repeated over and over and over, I am convinced that most satellite radio listeners are impotent men who drive big rig trucks for a living and invest their surplus cash in gold coins. Apparently that is the huge demographic and I am in the minority not fitting into any of those categories. Regardless, I am, much to my annoyance, constantly having those topics drilled into my ears, and the ears of my kids, which is further annoying. I’m not sure how scalable that form of advertising or marketing (if you want to stretch it) is, since I am not sure how much more air time they could possibly get than they already have.

TV can be a little better at targeting audiences, though it gets in the same trouble at times since apparently ALOT of people who watch tv shows from their childhood on occasion are now afflicted with diabetus and need an alternate place to buy our testing supplies. And if I see one more “pre-lubricated catheter” commercial I might lose it. 🙂

The beauty of digital media and SEM, SEO and others is, it truly is a tailored solution. I never see advertisements in my digital web experience for horse stable rentals, or RV repair services, thankfully, because I don’t own horse or an RV, and my web search history and computer habits reflect this, so I am off the radar screen for those marketing initiatives. When I do see banner ads, or search for things that interest me, I am generally receiving advertising that is relevant to my interests, and if the marketing is done well, often times I am steered into a direction that ends with me buying something without even knowing that I needed that item. This is really what marketing is all about in my mind – expanding markets, growing a base, and reaching customers who didn’t even realize there was a simple solution to their pain (whatever pain that is).

TV, Radio, and other forms have some viability, but the sheer volume of the existing advertisers indicates to me that the NUMBER of advertisers is declining making more air time for the ones left behind to further drive their message into my head. I agree with Tom though, it really is all about your product, and your target audience. In alot of cases it is all about the numbers.

Jerry Robinson
Consulting Designer: mHealth, IoT, Embedded Products, Wireless Commun, Consumer, and Disruptive Innovation Tech.
As Tobby said… Home Consumer market is going to get vast – fast. For a lot of reasons, med tech for homes becomes more important daily – and even more so outside the US.

I would love to do innovative med-tech and ship to China. But how do I get paid? I think this is the real creative problem to solve.

–jr

Tom Albright
President and CEO, Board Member at Recros Medica
Hi Eric, it would be hard to comment on digital scalability without knowing the specifics of the target audience. If you are going after a large well-defined disease state of mostly women 30-50 years old, scalability is quite different than if you are targeting seniors with a treatment for a disease that may be large in prevalence, but frequently diagnosed.

Eric Meyer
Advisor to early stage consumer medical, health and wellness companies
Tom and Eddie,
While I agree that digital marketing, social media and pr should be standard components of any marketing mix these days, I wonder about the ability to scale sales to say $100 million without using other vehicles, such as DRTV? While it’s easy to write off traditional media, TV viewership has not declined and still sells a lot of products — I have a client that is driving their sales of consumer medical device via DRTV. Of course, for this to work the product needs to have mass appeal and/or have a clearly defined target. Tom could you comment on what you’ve found about scalability of digital?

Tom Albright
President and CEO, Board Member at Recros Medica
Niall, my concern with trying to use apps to push consumers to an online presence, is that I may need to expend a lot of effort to get people using that app in order to achieve a significant audience. There is already a large existing audience of consumers online for almost any disease state or interest that medical devices treat. You just need to find out where they are….qualitative market research, followed by a quant study is still the best way to determine that information. Maybe I am overlooking something in terms of apps, but it does seem that it could take a significant effort to build an audience for the app.

Eddie: regarding a quick call for advice, please provide me contact information and I will try to reach out to you. Right now we are very busy launching our product and raising a Series D Round, but I should be able to spare a little time.

Tobby Chen
Business Manager at China Meheco Corporation
Nursing Home and Home consumer market is a big market, the same situation in China too. As people are more well educated and some basic first-aid home consumer medicals will have great market. Some product like chitosan spray in curing the wound are easy to use in household. We would like to see more innovative products coming into China.

Niall Hayden
Head of Commercial Partnerships @ BOI Payment Acceptance
Tom, regarding direct to consumer communication tactics, do you think that mobile App’s have a role to play here?
The big advantage that I can see for an App in this space would be something like push notifications, being able to directly hit your target audience on their phone with your message (provided they have your App of course).

The difficulty is getting people to download and keep your app! For this the App needs to be practical and engaging. I suppose the practicality depends on your product and the engagement piece could include gamification.

Any thoughts?

Eddie Chen
General Manager (SF) at JUMP Bikes
Tom, I’d love to pick your brain about your experiences and advice, if you wouldn’t mind, since I’m definitely in the same boat.

Tom Albright
President and CEO, Board Member at Recros Medica
Yes, I started working on direct to consumer/patient advertising and communication tactics back in the early 1990’s (right after the FDA started allowing it). My early experience was with large pharma products in the 1990s, and then shifted to medical/dental aesthetic products and devices in the 2000’s. I’ve led huge TV/print advertising & PR campaigns in the past, but we have now found that online & social media mixed with PR works very efficiently. Especially helpful, since I am now running a small startup device company…with limited resources.