Orthopedics Campaigns Vie for Consumer Market

Originally Published MX January/February 2004

BUSINESS NEWS

In a twist from traditional marketing methods, makers of orthopedic implants are now talking directly to consumers.

Two advertising campaigns released last fall marked the first time that major orthopedics companies have notably shifted their communications target from physicians to patients.

Stryker Corp. (Kalamazoo, MI) released a TV and print ad campaign for its hip-replacement implant that features golf legend Jack Nicklaus.

Nicklaus, 63, received Stryker's ceramic-on-ceramic replacement hip as part of a clinical trial in 1999. The implant received FDA approval in February 2003.

"I'm amazed at the percentage of people whose experience with joint pain was similar to mine," Nicklaus says in a company release,"and I empathize with what they are going through. Joint pain affected my everyday activities from playing with my grandchildren and helping my wife to working with my sons and enjoying the outdoors."