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On Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016, ResearchWorks, Inc.’s CEO Dr. Moshe Engelberg presented “High stakes product launch? How to nail your positioning strategy!” at the inaugural Medical Device Marketing Summit in Tampa Florida. Dr. Engelberg walked participants through a proven four-step process – illustrated with a detailed case study – for strategically determining and executing the optimal positioning, messaging, and creative for new product launches, so that users of this novel ap-proach can knock it out of the park on high stakes product launches. Below is a summary of the presentation.
High Stakes Product Launch? How To Nail Your Positioning Strategy!
Presented by Dr. Moshe Engelberg
Medical Device Marketing Summit
Tampa, February 2016
w w w . r e s e a r c h w o r k s . c o m
12396 World Trade Drive • Suite 313 • San Diego, CA 92128 • Phone: 858.487.8200 • Email: [email protected]
POSITIONING
STRATE
GY
© 2015 ResearchWorks, Inc.
Med device marketing is getting more and more cluttered with new marketing cam-paigns every day. Companies need to make sure their new product launches power-fully resonate with customers, stand out in a crowded B2B market and galvanize the right action.
The presentation began by briefly discussing how ResearchWorks’ CustomerFirst framework™ helps med device marketers keep the customer front and center to get the value proposition, positioning and messaging right the first time for a winning high stakes product launch. The eight key elements of an effective positioning strate-gy were explained:
1. Target Audience Profile
2. Unique Value Proposition
3. Think/Feel/Do Communication Objectives
4. Emotional Hook
5. Reasons to Believe
6. Benefits to Focus On
7. Product Name
8. Alignment with Corporate Brand
Dr. Engelberg then highlighted four pervasive marketing problems that get in the way of successful new product introductions:1. Positioning Strategy Gap – Most critical is figuring out where you want your
new product to live in the minds and hearts of customers, and determining how to bring it life. That’s what positioning strategy does.
2. Marketing Myopia – Don’t get so enamored of your product or service that it dominates your vision and you lose sight of your customers and what will serve them.
3. The Dreaded Firehose of Features – Watch out for the product manager who gives you a long list of features, benefits, and product specs and wants you to cover them all. The result is often a muddled campaign with no resonance and confused customers.
4. Missing the Bulls-Eye – Be careful of having a launch campaign with messag-ing that is consistent and focused, but off-target. The last thing you want is to keep saying the same thing, with none of it having impact.
Next, Dr. Engelberg presented a detailed case study of a product launch for a new-to-world digital PET/CT Scanner. Using this case study, the proven four-step approach for product launches was demonstrated.
4 Step Proven Approach for Winning Product Launches
PositioningStrategyDevelopment
Develop & validate research-based positioning strategy
Design positioning concepts, messages, visuals, & guidelines
Test and validate concepts & messaging with customers
Develop strategy and tactics for rollout and collateral
Creative Concept Development
Validation & Tool Development
Launch Strategy Development
“Our product release was a huge success, bigger than we ever imagined! ResearchWorks played a crucial role by getting the positioning and creative just right and setting our team up to execute successfully. Leads were up 52%, we had incredible press coverage by over 1,000 global news sites, and jam-packed engagement booths.”
- Marketing Manager, Philips Healthcare
The case study showed how value proposition research was performed to reveal the “sweet spot” – the intersection of what made the device both unique and valuable, and how to make the value proposition relevant to all target audiences. The impor-tance of two other positioning strategy elements in particular – the Think/Feel/Do objectives and finding the emotional hook, were showcased as well.
Dr. Engelberg illustrated the iterative creative concept development and testing process, showing how the positioning and messaging evolved until stakeholders were highly confident that the messaging was emotionally evocative, fully aligned with the Think/Feel/Do objectives, and right on target strategically. At this point, the tools ResearchWorks uses to successfully develop other creative and collateral with agreed-upon, creative-friendly guidelines, a consistent strategy and clear rationale were revealed, along with examples of the digital and print collateral that resulted.
The session was concluded by describing results of the initial launch, including a 52 percent increase in referrals, coverage in over 1,000 global new sites, a major com-petitor overheard lamenting “no, no, this is not good,” and rave reviews from the company CEO.
One powerful idea you can apply NOWYOUR
MINUTEMARKETING
Moshe Engelberg, Ph.D., M.P.H. President ResearchWorks, Inc.Your Marketing Minute© is an electronic newsletter based on the consulting, teaching, and speaking of Dr. Moshe Engelberg. Please contact us with feedback, questions, or for further information at [email protected]
ResearchWorks, Inc. is a company dedicated to helping socially minded companies get measurably better marketing results. Guaranteed. Reach us on the web at www.researchworks.com or by email at [email protected].
S P O N S O R E D B Y
How To Avoid Weak Healthcare Product Launches: Get the Positioning Strategy Right!
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“I’m so frustrated,” confided Doug, a seasoned med device product manager. “Our last few launches didn’t meet expectations. But I’m not sure why. On this next high-stakes launch, I can’t afford to fail!” Under relentless pressure to get to market fast while juggling multiple work streams, what product managers often lack is an effective positioning strategy.
Imagine you’re releasing a new ultrasound device with breakthrough technology. Should you position the launch around improved acoustics and clearer images? Or better diagnosis and prognosis? Or improved reputation, referrals and revenue?A good positioning strategy gives you the right answer and conveys exactly where you want your product to live in the hearts and minds of your customers for the best launch results. But just as important —it’s the foundation for creating visuals and messaging that strongly resonate with your customers.Getting it right requires four things:
1. Uncovering the right emotional hook and benefits to focus on through agile customer research.2. Translating the positioning strategy into a strategic framework, like our Communications Touchstone, to guide
launch plan decisions and creative development.3. Designing and validating creative concepts that use evocative images and powerful language to hook cus-
tomer interest and bring the positioning strategy to life.4. Creating practical tools for marcom to assure on-strategy messaging and creative execution aligned with the
strategic framework.
Don’t miss the mark on high-stakes product launches. Get the positioning strategy right the first time and give your team the tools they need for a winning launch.
POSITIONING
STRATE
GY
© 2015 ResearchWorks, Inc.
One powerful idea you can apply NOWYOUR
MINUTEMARKETING
Moshe Engelberg, Ph.D., M.P.H. President ResearchWorks, Inc.Your Marketing Minute© is an electronic newsletter based on the consulting, teaching, and speaking of Dr. Moshe Engelberg. Please contact us with feedback, questions, or for further information at [email protected]
ResearchWorks, Inc. is a company dedicated to helping socially minded companies get measurably better marketing results. Guaranteed. Reach us on the web at www.researchworks.com or by email at [email protected].
S P O N S O R E D B Y
When I was but a toddler, a very smart Harvard Business School professor named Theodore Levitt wrote a game-changing article called Marketing Myopia. He posited that businesses do better when they focus on meeting customers’ needs rather than on sell-ing products. Accordingly, Levitt challenged executives to answer the agonizingly simple question: What business are you really in?
His quintessential example of an industry that got it wrong was railroads. While the need for freight and passenger transportation grew, railroads shrank. They wrongly thought they were in the railroad business. They didn’t see they were really in the transpor-tation business. Why? Because they were product-oriented, not customer-oriented. As a result, railroad companies let others take their customers away.Levitt also relates how Hollywood was almost killed by television. Why? Hollywood moguls were myopic, believing themselves to be in the movie business (product-focused) instead of the entertainment business (customer-focused). Now ironically, television is the myopic industry, thinking they are in the business of making boxes, rather than providing entertainment.Though it was over 50 years ago that Levitt wrote about marketing myopia, I believe product-centric thinking still dominates in business. Consider the record industry’s struggle with online music. Or the challenges wireless technology poses to med device companies that think they’re in the business of building “boxes.” Or how public health needs to rethink its business model in light of social networking.I invite you, dear reader, to take stock: What business are you really in? Are you intimate with your customers’ needs and wants or are you obsessed with your products?
©2012 ResearchWorks, Inc.
What Business Are You Really In?? Marketing Myopia Revisited
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One powerful idea you can apply NOWYOUR
MINUTEMARKETING
Moshe Engelberg, Ph.D., M.P.H. President ResearchWorks, Inc.Your Marketing Minute© is an electronic newsletter based on the consulting, teaching, and speaking of Dr. Moshe Engelberg. Please contact us with feedback, questions, or for further information at [email protected]
ResearchWorks, Inc. is a company dedicated to helping socially minded companies get measurably better marketing results. Guaranteed. Reach us on the web at www.researchworks.com or by email at [email protected].
S P O N S O R E D B Y
How to Avoid the Dreaded “Firehose of Features” in New Product Marketing
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“We’re drowning them in product features. We can’t just talk about everything and hope something sticks!” That’s how Beth, marketing director at a large med tech company, expressed her frustration about the dreaded “firehose of features” problem.
Why do so many med tech companies drown customers with a firehose of features? Because when product managers have to be internal champions for so long to get resources, it’s hard to step out of that internally-focused mindset. Then managing the demands of multiple workstreams to get to launch makes it even more difficult to think beyond features, features, features.The good news is you absolutely can avoid firehosing your customers and instead do highly effective marketing. Start with the customer perspective. That means focus on benefits, not features, and only the ones they really value. If you’re not sure what matters to your customers, do the research to find out.Now that you have the most impactful benefits, create a storyline with emotional punch. Verify with customer research how to best express the key benefits and which storyline: a) immediately grabs attention, b) is essential to customers, c) arrests them emotionally, and d) differentiates from competitors. The results will be the foundation for successful new product marketing free of the dreaded “firehose of features.”
Here’s a great feature!
Hey, wehave this
also!And check
out thisfeature!
Did yousee all these
specs?
© 2015 ResearchWorks, Inc.
One powerful idea you can apply NOWYOUR
MINUTEMARKETING
Moshe Engelberg, Ph.D., M.P.H. President ResearchWorks, Inc.Your Marketing Minute© is an electronic newsletter based on the consulting, teaching, and speaking of Dr. Moshe Engelberg. Please contact us with feedback, questions, or for further information at [email protected]
ResearchWorks, Inc. is a company dedicated to helping socially minded companies get measurably better marketing results. Guaranteed. Reach us on the web at www.researchworks.com or by email at [email protected].
S P O N S O R E D B Y
Product launches are exciting. But it’s not easy to convert a bunch of features and benefits into a successful launch campaign.We developed the proprietary Product Launch Message Mapping System™ to reliably generate the powerful messages and visu-als needed for a “home run” launch campaign. It maps (1) the impacts you want to have on your customers, to (2) what you want them to think, feel, and do when they experience your communications, to (3) the message and visuals that accomplish those objectives. This image illustrates the mapping process within a simple, cohesive framework.
Bottom line, you effectively take customers down a path of impacts — from attention to action. What’s the best way to grab the attention of your customers? Should it be a message about becoming a leader in the field, a visual showing better diagnostics, or a promise of gaining new patients? By using our research-based system to develop, test and refine your messages and visuals, you end up finding the most effective communications for your new product or service that maps back to the impacts you want to have on your customers.The Product Launch Message Mapping System™ also builds strategic alignment between product managers, marcom, and sales. The impacts, objectives, and the creative are all derived from a careful combination of customer research and persuasion principles. The result is a launch campaign that powerfully appeals to customers, hooks them emotionally, and accelerates sales. Use it, and knock it out of the park!
Your Next Product Launch: How To Knock It Out Of The Park!
MESSAGE
VISUAL
Think
Feel
DO
Grab Attention
MESSAGE
VISUAL
Think
Feel
DO
DeepenInterest
MESSAGE
VISUAL
Think
Feel
DO
LegitimizeClaims
MESSAGE
VISUAL
Think
Feel
DO
ElicitAction
© 2014 ResearchWorks, Inc.
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One powerful idea you can apply NOWYOUR
MINUTEMARKETING
Moshe Engelberg, Ph.D., M.P.H. President ResearchWorks, Inc.Your Marketing Minute© is an electronic newsletter based on the consulting, teaching, and speaking of Dr. Moshe Engelberg. Please contact us with feedback, questions, or for further information at [email protected]
ResearchWorks, Inc. is a company dedicated to helping socially minded companies get measurably better marketing results. Guaranteed. Reach us on the web at www.researchworks.com or by email at [email protected].
S P O N S O R E D B Y
One powerful idea you can apply NOWYOUR
MINUTEMARKETING
The Emotional Hook: How to Win Your Customers’ Hearts
Imagine you’re creating a new medical device to help physicians better track patient progress. It’s loaded with new technology and cool features. You put together a strong business case. Expectations are high.You build this revolutionary device, you bring it to market, and… nothing happens. Why? Maybe you forgot the emotional hook.
The emotional hook is what connects the desire in your customer’s heart – the emotional need – to the promise your product makes to fulfill that desire.Take the med device described above. The emotional hook could be alleviating frustration from too much patient data that’s hard to use. Or pride in being the first to adopt the latest technology. Or relief from no longer having to delay treatment deci-sions.Finding the right emotional hook requires wading into the domain of feelings and emotions, even if it’s uncomfortable.We developed this 5 step process: 1) Carefully ask the right questions of the right people (not just customers!) in order to reveal meaningful problems, unmet needs and wishes, 2) identify the key customer desires they generate, 3) map those desires back to the promise of your product, 4) determine possible emotional hooks for each desire, and 5) validate which emotional hook most resonates with each customer group’s strongest desire. The process is as much art and creativity as it is rigorous science and solid strategy. The result is the missing ingredient – the emotional hook – that can make all the difference between failure and success!
© 2014 ResearchWorks, Inc.
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w w w . r e s e a r c h w o r k s . c o m
about ResearchWorks
who we areResearchWorks is a strategic consulting firm with deep roots in custom research. For over 20 years, we’ve been helping companies in the business of health to conquer obstacles, gain confidence, and achieve success in the marketplace.
We love our clients. They include med device companies like Philips, Dräger, and Beckman Coulter; life science and healthcare IT firms such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, PointRight, and Netspective; and providers and payers like Kaiser Permanente, Highmark, and CMS. Our experience runs deep.
Bottom line – we help clients save more lives and make more money.
how we helpWe do custom research, develop grounded strategy, and create persuasive messaging so you avoid mistakes, know what to do and why, and get your products and marketing right the first time.
• Innovation: Know which ideas to invest in and which to avoid • Products: Develop better products customers really want • Marketing: Create marketing that builds desire and gets more customers to buy • Sales: Accelerate sales of existing products with improved messaging • Culture: Build a culture that puts customers first so you keep growing stronger
What’s our magic? We use our intellectual firepower, behavioral science roots, and industry experience to translate advanced research into winning strategies and validated decision paths for better products and more effective marketing. Our creative team then provides you with proven tools to build your brand, shape your products and services, and go to market with powerful messaging.
we guarantee successWe are so confident we will help you succeed that we provide a money-back guarantee on every project.
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12396 World Trade Drive • Suite 313 • San Diego, CA 92128 • Phone: 858.487.8200 • Email: [email protected]