Posts Tagged ‘Medical Devices’

Device Ad-vice: Marketing Medical Devices

Nancy Beesley, our Chief Marketing Officer, kicks off a blog series that focuses on marketing medical devices with Device ad-vice: dating vs. commitment: pharma vs. devices on Pharmaphorum. Nancy’s blog really inspires excitement about marketing medical devices and why advertising in this space is truly rewarding and has become a passion.

Read the full article here.

You’ll see future entries on marketing medical devices by Nancy and other key team members at HCB Health on Pharmaphorum, so stay tuned!

Brand Research Debate: To Validate or Not to Validate?

A client recently approached us seeking advice on validation research for his brand and the importance of testing. He wanted our opinion on the following:

How important is testing the positioning/messaging and eventual creative concepts among my key targets? What are the risks if I decide not to validate?

As a Senior Account Executive at HCB Health, this is a question I hear fairly often from clients. Some of our clients won’t make a move without testing, while others see it as a luxury if they have the time and budget. This specific client request really got my wheels spinning. Not necessarily about the risks of not testing, but more about the considerations to keep in mind when deciding if validation research is right for your brand. Continue reading »

HCB Health Wins Seven Rx Club Awards

HCB Health won seven awards at this year’s Rx Club Exhibition and Awards Ceremony, an international competition recognizing creative excellence in medical advertising.

The VASER it Campaign Makes a Splash

We claimed top prize in the direct-to-consumer print category, winning a silver medal for “VASER it,” a campaign created for Sound Surgical Technologies’ VASER body shaping systems. The campaign also won an Award of Excellence in the Integrated Campaigns category, continuing a winning streak that began in April when “VASER it” received a MANNY award from the editors of Med Ad News for the best medical device campaign of 2011.
Continue reading »

Preventative Medicine for Healthcare Technology

Doctors are busy keeping viruses away from their patients — but these days humans aren’t the only ones catching a bug. As technology takes a front seat in the development of modern medicine, there are now growing concerns for the safety of hospital networks and their digital data. A 2006 article from Fierce Health IT highlights security breaches of two healthcare organizations, a perfect example of the dangers of an increased digital presence.

Malware infections threaten the safety of patients and their personal information. Unfortunately, medical software is hard to protect and is often left vulnerable because of the difficulty in installing antivirus software on medical devices. Security researchers have been able to hack into devices ranging from insulin systems to pacemakers. Continue reading »

iPad Apps: Cutting-Edge Sales Tools for Superior Products

Before joining the account team at HCB Health, I spent a number of years as a medical sales field rep. One job specifically required me to sell $275k+ pieces of capital equipment to surgeons. At the time, my only sales tools were paper-based brochures and my winning attitude. While I found success by forming positive surgeon relationships, I often wondered if superior sales tools would make me a more successful salesperson?

Today, developing those superior sales tools is a hefty part of my job at HCB Health. I make it a goal to lead the pack in terms of how our clients market to surgeons. For many of our clients, those superior tools are iPad-based.

iPad apps can be a unique, creative and efficient way to sell your product. The best of these are tailored to a client’s products, goals and sales rep needs. Below are a few different approaches we’ve taken to best accommodate various medical equipment products and sales: Continue reading »

Taking a Broad-Spectrum Approach to Healthcare Marketing

Change is everywhere.

Click the image to read the article in full.

Pharma pipelines are thinner, devices are gaining in sophistication, hospital systems are preparing for healthcare reform and insurers are looking to build their brands before 2014 health exchanges come into effect. What does this mean to us, the brilliant minds who build strategies and brand preferences for healthcare clients? Opportunity.

At HCB Health, we practice broad-spectrum healthcare marketing to gain a fuller understanding of the interconnected parts that contribute to improved health. In fact, we wrote an article about it for the MM&M Viewpoint.

Join the conversation below, if you’re so inclined. Thanks.

A New Spin on Device R&D

An article in Fast Company this month revealed a smart initiative from Stanford, bringing access to affordable medical innovation through collaborative design. It’s an interesting R&D approach, which involves reverse-engineering expensive devices that would be cost-prohibitive for use in developing countries to make affordable alternatives—like bone drills, for example.

While the story’s angle is about offering better technology access in poor regions, there is a nugget of an idea that could benefit the most advanced areas of the world. Think about it, manufacturers/marketers in the U.S., for example, could use Stanford’s India Biodesign principles to compete with other players in their device verticals, offering more affordable alternatives that still give priority to outcomes and safety. It’s worth a read—especially through this different lens.

Insert Your Device Name (Here) with Product Placement

Sales skyrocketed after Reese's Pieces appeared in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Photo credit: Jason at clicker.com)

All in an episode’s work?

Sure, product placement is nothing new. Hate it or love it, it cannot be ignored. But, one thing is for sure, there is no denying its impact.

Remember the yellow, orange and brown candy that made its big appearance during the movie E.T.? Although Reese’s Pieces were introduced in the market in 1979, it was not until 1982, when the blockbuster E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial featured the candy, that it instantly became wildly popular. Sales of the peanut butter-flavored candy shot up 65% in June, the month after the movie’s release. Continue reading »