When it comes to building out a medical device marketing strategy, we always recommend that our clients start with the customer first. Generally we have found that most medical device marketers focus on building out a story for a generalized clinical audience. So a story for all interventional radiologists, or for all anesthesiologists.
However, to build a stronger, more targeted and more effective value proposition, it’s important to focus on specific audience sub-segments. Maybe those are the brand loyal segments, or those that are first adopters of new technology, or those that look for a specific product feature or benefit, whatever works best for your product category.
Generally there are three different ways to segment your customers – and each has their own advantages and disadvantages
DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION: Relies on physician demographics (age, geography, specialty, time in practice, etc…) or what we call ‘accountographics’ (account size, location, opportunity, etc…) when it comes to hospitals. Demographic segmentation isn’t as effective as other types of segmentation, but it is ‘easy’ to target.
BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTATION: Relies on physician or account behaviors and usage. This might be how a physician performs a particular procedure or what competitors they use most often. For accounts, behavioral segmentation could include contracting or pricing behaviors. Behavioral segmentation is easier to execute on than attitudinal segmentation, but it just gives you a snapshot of what is happening in time. It doesn’t tell you why a physician or an account makes the choices that it makes.
ATTITUDINAL SEGMENTATION: Attitudinal segmentation is based on a clinician or account’s underlying attitudes, beliefs and hopes. It’s the ‘why’ behind their behaviors. Attitudinal segmentation is more difficult to define, but it is more longer lasting.
Interested in more? Click here to schedule a call with the team
