Originally Published MX July/August
2002

ADVERTISING, DISTRIBUTION,
& SALES

Refining the
Marketing Mix

Medtech
marketers can gain a competitive advantage by incorporating patients and consumers
into their marketing approaches.

When it comes to
the marketing of medical technologies, nothing is automatic. There's no
little-pill solution that can be taken off the shelf and used for every product,
and no magic recipe that will ensure success. And to make matters even more
complex, the past decade has witnessed major shifts in the nature of the healthcare
marketplace that have had a profound impact on medical marketing.

One such shift
has been the gradual emergence of direct-to-consumer (DTC) approaches, which
have proven to be extraordinarily profitable for pharmaceutical companies. But
applying such a DTC approach to the more technology-rich and diverse product
areas of the medical device sector turns out to be fraught with its own set
of challenges.

To find out more
about how device companies are making use of this potentially profitable marketing
tool, MX spoke with three experts in the field of medical marketing (see