medtech

5 Ways Branding Strategy Drives MedTech and PharmaTech to Differentiate, Increase Trust and Achieve Higher Revenue

Medtech brands have attracted more attention in recent years because of the way they’re bringing medical benefits to consumers in more accessible ways. Part of that success is because many medtech and pharmatech brands have leveraged simple but powerful principles of branding strategy to drive their growth.

Here we’re sharing some of the ways in which medtech brands and pharmatech brands have improved their commercialisation and sales growth by using key elements of branding strategy

The fact is, these are universal principles that work across multiple industries and customer types. So whether, or not, you’re endeavouring to grow a medtech brand or a pharmatech brand, these are invaluable insights to differentiate, build credibility and achieve higher revenue.

Related: Brand Strategy: 6 Tips for Building Your Profit Growth Plan

1. Investors Prefer Medtech Brands with Clear Brand Strategy to Drive Growth

It can be very tempting in the early stages to focus exclusively on only technical development and fundraising in the hope that the branding strategy and marketing will ‘take care of itself’ or ‘come together naturally’ as you commercialise. 

However, that’s a very risky approach because you’re neglecting to apply equally important rigour to attracting the attention of your primary target audiences. Brand strategy is what you need to build credibility and differentiate from other perceived competitors to drive growth. The truth is, there are major commercial benefits to working on your brand strategy from day one because it enables you to make your ‘product’ or service stand out to potential investors and help make it more investable to them.

Developing a robust brand strategy demonstrates to potential investors that the team is commercially minded and is not just focused exclusively on the technology development.


medtech

Image via © Vivosight


A relevant case study is Vivosight, which has raised thirteen rounds of funding. It has a non-intrusive scanner which can diagnose non-melanoma skin cancer. One of the things which presumably attracts funders to the company is that it has had a clear brand strategy from its early days, including user case, brand proposition and value proposition.

Related: How Healthy Is Your Brand? 7 Vital Signs to Measure Today Using a Brand Audit Health Check

“An excellent programme that provides an informative guide on how to structure your brand’s development whether you are launching a new brand, refreshing an existing one and/or conducting a review of your brand to ascertain possible weaknesses.”

Ciarán Barry

Director

Broadview Ventures

Ciarán Barry

We know that sometimes it’s a struggle to build a brand strategy that really engages your ideal customers effectively, particularly in adversity, so we’ve developed three different ways of working with us to help you build your brand, depending on your preferences, so if you’d like us to:

  1. Build your brand for you – find out more here or get in touch [email protected] or ring +353 1 8322724
  2. Empower you to build your brand – Check out the Persona Branding Strategy Leadership Mastermind here. This is a live, interactive programme online where you work on your brand with us codifying and mapping out your brand strategy for business growth. Alternatively, join our online half-day Branding Accelerator Masterclass for a fast injection of brand-building essentials. Ask about our Personal and Corporate Leadership Brand Alignment Masterclass
  3. Want a DIY solution? Check out our how to build a brand eprogramme here and our how to audit your brand yourself eprogramme here
branding strategy

© Persona Design

2. User Personas Help Medtech Brands Get the Right Product Faster

One challenge medtech faces versus a lot of other product areas are that there are often multiple user personas or customer profiles to consider when constructing a strong brand strategy. Aside from the end-user, or perhaps patient, medtech typically needs to engage prescribers, buyers, and often experts such as health officials and other decision-makers or influencers. That is a lot of people whose purchase and usage drivers need to be considered.

A lot of product development either focuses too narrowly on a specific user need or worse yet doesn’t even focus on users at all and just focusses on technical development. This causes no end of problems when the time comes to launch or rolling the product out to market. There’s often a solution without a clearly identified problem to solve — from a target audience perspective. 

User personas help to solve this problem and mitigate risk because when you initiate brand development with a clear target audience, and build personas mapping out their needs and wants, the brand is then uniquely well positioned to address their needs on their terms, so they are far more likely to be attracted to your offering. That is true not just for user personas, but crucially for all those involved in the decision-making or who may be involved in the medtech purchase and usage consideration process, from doctors and hospital buyers to loved ones.


medtech

Image via Twitter © Consure Medical


A case study relevant to this is seen in the  Indian medtech Consure. It has a stool management kit called Qora. This is an important function for bedridden patients and doesn’t sound like a very imposing tech challenge. However, like many medtech solutions, the impact on patients and medical staff is very important because failure is unpleasant and potentially embarrassing for all concerned. Consure clearly communicates in its brand messaging that it understands not only the user persona for its product, but also includes other relevant user personas such as nursing and hospital staff who are caring for bedridden patients.

Related: Using Buyer Personas to Increase Your Business Profitability

“I really appreciate Lorraine’s energy and passion. Although good branding includes so many facets, Lorraine is able to simplify the process and make it so much more tangible for any company to put into practice.”

Lisa Kettman-Kervinen

Marketing Communication Specialist

The Switch

Lisa Kettman-Kervinen

3. Medtech Brands Use Branding Strategy to Help Communicate Their Benefits

It can be a challenge for medtech products to communicate their benefit to users because the market is crowded and many larger medical device companies have more substantial resources and budgets

A simple way for a product or service to stand out in the marketplace, whether with investors or users, is to use a strong branding strategy to take the strain.  Rigorous branding strategy enables medtech brands to communicate even a novel or difficult to understand benefit without investing heavily to do so effectively. 

For example, a well-considered brand strategy should provide direction for brand name creation and choice which can help to communicate the benefit and/or usage scenario to its target audience. A brand name is important and typically much harder to change later on than some other parts of your brand strategy, so while it may look simple, in fact, the best brand names clearly flow from the brand strategy and brand architecture.

Related: Use Psychology in Your Brand Strategy to Create Irresistible Brand Experiences and Increase Sales


medtech

Image via © NeuroMod


A case study is NeuroMod. This Irish medtech SME helps reduce the effects of tinnitus through a process of modulating how noise is heard. The brand name is well-chosen to reflect the branding strategy: modulation is a concept already familiar with people when it comes to noise control, so the brand has less work to do when it comes to educating them on its benefits.

Indeed, as seen in a video of a patient discussing the product, he characterises tinnitus as being something that went “from something that was entirely outside my control, to where there was the possibility that it would be at least a little bit inside my control”: a concept which the brand strategy seems designed to communicating, including through the brand name as one method.

Related: What’s in a Brand Name? Top 8 Successful Naming Principles Explained

“An exceptionally talented individual. Lorraine Carter, Persona Branding and Design has a wonderful ability to ‘horizon scan’ for any business and then bring them on a journey that delivers value to their Balance Sheet.”

Dave Feenan

Founder

Technology Ireland & ICT Skillnet

Dave Feenan

Are you a business leader, manager, or entrepreneur who wants to re-evaluate or build your brand strategy, so you can get the right medtech brand strategy to increase your sales? Are you curious about how to build or scale a highly successful standout brand? Join one of our branding masterclasses because they enable you to build your brand, differentiate more strongly, enhance customer experience, expand your market impact and create higher perceived value, so you can command a premium and achieve higher revenue.

In fact, the Persona Branding Strategy Leadership Mastermind is all about fast-tracking you, your brand, and your business through the brand building, agile branding strategy process using professional big-brand know-how with proven systems that get results, so you can grow your business faster and more effectively. 

The programme enables you to make your brand highly visible, different, credible, trustworthy, memorable and much loved amongst your ideal customers, so you can become more profitable and leave your competitors way behind. Be The One — your ideal customers’ favourite brand of preferred choice commanding a premium.

If you want a tailor-made solution specifically for your brand then we also provide in-house bespoke Persona Brand Strategy Leadership™ Intensives working with you and your team, so you can grow your business faster and more profitably. Contact us to discover more [email protected] or +353 1 8322724

4. Strong Brand Tone of Voice Helps Medtech Brands Stand Out

To the wider public, medtech can seem technical, abstract, and sometimes intimidating or confusing. For non-elective or required medical treatments, those issues become less problematic. However, a lot of medtech targets elective treatments or softer medical benefits which are more discretionary. In these cases, a strong branding strategy helps medtech brands stand out, differentiate, appear approachable, credible, and engaging.


medtech

Image via © Babylon Health


Traditionally, medical branding has often adopted a formal, science-based, complex and rather dry tone. Medtech can break this paradigm, and many medtech brands often do with an engaging brand tone of voice. For example, Babylon Health’s inclusive, inviting approach to health (“We’re for health, for all”) is accessible and not off-putting as some medical communication has traditionally been.

Related: How to Develop Your Brand Tone of Voice to Increase Sales

Brand Identity“Lorraine Carter has been the catalyst and an inspiration for MGI Learning to clearly define our brand.

Working with Lorraine has been both enlightening and enjoyable. Her blueprint for defining a brand is extremely comprehensive and challenged us to think very deeply about what we offer to our customers and really understand what underpins our success.

Lorraine is extremely knowledgeable, very focused, and supportive, and leads you through the process and ensured we got maximum benefits from the investment we made.”

Shona Cooper

CEO

MGI Learning

Shona Cooper

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If you’d like to discover more about building and maintaining a thriving, high-performing, highly differentiated, and profitable standout brand, then get in touch because we’d love to help you make your brand into a profit powerhouse.

  1. Schedule a chat — we can meet in person online
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Lorraine Carter is a branding expert and international speaker delivering talks that inspire and motivate along with masterclasses and workshops that inform and support transformational outcomes fast, and consultancy expertise that solves problems — using agile branding strategy underpinned by professional big-brand know-how — so you can outshine, outperform and leave your competitors way behind. 

She enables you to differentiate, achieve higher revenue, expand your market share, build IP brand asset value — make the complex easy as ABC, so you can Transform Your Brand & Increase Your Sales — Be The One, the brand that’s most credible, trusted and commanding a premium, so you’re highly profitable and leaving your competitors way behind.

Ask about the Persona Branding Strategy Leadership Mastermind — live, interactively, face-to-face online.

5. Premium Pricing is Easier When Medtech Brands Differentiate  and Build Credibility

Some medtech brands have products or interfaces which genuinely set them apart from competitors. But the fact is, many medtech brands lack much IP (intecllectual property) and are simply bundling together generic components in a way which could be replicated fairly easily, so they have no real competitive advantage and are vulnerable to downward pricing pressures and discounting

The less differentiated a product or service, the more vulnerable it is to negative pricing pressure because it’s forced to compete with the lowest contender. This is not a good strategy because you’re effectively forced into a race to the bottom unless you have commercial clout like Amazon, Pfizer, or GlaxoSmithKline.

Strong branding strategy enables a medtech company to set its offering apart from its competitors and stand out in the marketplace.


Medtech

Image via © Fitbit


Fitbit is a good example of this. There is not much in technology terms that sets the brand apart from a wide array of wearable vital signs trackers. What Fitbit did well was to bring it together under a well-differentiated brand strategy, enabling it to break direct comparison to less well-known competitors and so break free from direct pricing comparisons. 

This can be seen in its brand communication, which is distinctive, engaging at a human level, and focussed on higher-order benefits such as mental wellbeing and personalised health approaches, rather than lower-order functional benefits such as heartbeat tracking.

Related: Profitable Lessons from Luxury Brand Leaders, Brand Positioning for Premium Pricing

“If you’re interested in the brand strategy that will take you to the next level, that will put you on the market in a premium position, Lorraine Carter is the person to assist you in getting there with specific elements and with specific tools that simply work. All you have to do is focus and know what you want — she provides the tool kit you need to accomplish your goals.”

Adina Iacob

Founder, PR, Communications & Media Relations Consultant

Adina Iacob

Final Thoughts

Branding shouldn’t be an afterthought for medtech brands and pharmatech brands – in fact, it is an essential foundation stone for successful long-term business success.

Technology may be at the heart of what a tech brand stands for, but technology is an enabler not an end in itself. Consequently, medtech brands and pharmatech entrepreneurs can’t rely on technology for their success alone. 

Medtech brands need to appeal to patients, prescribers, purchasers, and other relevant stakeholders. A robust branding strategy helps them hit the mark and, most importantly, mitigate risk. Technology can be a way to deliver on the brand promise, but it has a supporting role – vital but not enough on its own for a successful show.

From the very start of your entrepreneurial journey, a consistently implemented branding strategy helps in practical ways too, when consistently implemented. It can help attract funders, the right tone of voice can engage target users and, with the right branding strategy, medtech can command more pricing power.

Medtech brands often have the right elements for success – a clear user case, compelling brand stories, and a customer audience that wills them to succeed. But these pieces don’t fall into place by accident. Instead, they need to be optimised and brought to their full potential through the thoughtful use of a robustly developed and consistently applied brand strategy.

Questions to Consider

  1. Does your branding strategy make you more or less attractive to potential funders?
  2. What user personas are most relevant to your medtech brand?
  3. How clearly do you communicate your benefits?
  4. What is unique and appealing about your brand’s tone of voice?
  5. How differentiated is your brand from its competitors?
  6. Could you use a brand audit to enable you to develop and execute a more robust brand strategy to differentiate more strongly and achieve higher revenue?

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Get in touch today because we’d love to enable you to re-evaluate and build your standout, powerhouse brand, so you can Be The One — increase your profits and leave your competitors way behind. 

Email us [email protected] or ring us +35318322724 (GMT 9:00-17:30) and ask about our VIP Leadership Brand Strategy Re-Evaluation.

brand strategy“For anyone who has a well-established business, I would totally recommend working with Persona Design because it will provide them with a new perspective on how to think of their brand. You see in different markets and industries that are overly competitive what makes the difference is knowing what exactly your business is all about and why people would choose you instead of any other competitor.

What makes you different from all the other service or product providers in the market because that’s what’s going to make your business be the No.1 choice in the range of those specific products or services that you’re providing. Also, that’s what’s going to make your brand stand out and have a long-lasting life, and thrive in the context of where you’re operating and delivering value. So totally go for it!

This framework provides you with a lot of insight and more than that, with a systematic process that’s easy for you to understand, easy for you to grasp, easy for you to work with, so you finally nail what makes you different in your business, and what you are about and what those key points are that resonate with your audience.”

Camelia Păduraru

Founder

Crafting Minds

Camelia Păduraru