Medical Device branding: What is it and how to do it

22 Feb 22

Are you at the beginning of your medical device commercialisation journey? Are looking into how to rebrand your existing company?

Branding is essential to build a strong marketing strategy, so’ve written this article to answer some of the medical device branding questions we hear.

What is a brand?

A brand is the way a company or product is perceived by those who experience it.

Contrary to belief, it isn’t just a logo, tagline, or colour scheme it’s so much more than that, and those elements are simply the tip of the iceberg. A brand encompasses everything that a company is. It’s an external expression of the internal vision and mission which runs deep into the core of a company.

Brand marketing for medical devices isn’t just what your external assets look like, but also the feelings they provoke.

Medical device companies can often find themselves competing with similar companies with products that achieve similar results. The immediate urge when posed with this dilemma is to focus solely on the differences between the devices, but branding offers an alternative.

Whilst addressing physical differences is important, branding can help to differentiate your company in the minds of your audience, in a way that isn’t necessarily expressible. It’s more of a feeling – a loyalty that is created as the customer feels they know who your company is and what it stands for.

Think of a brand as being like a person. It has likes and dislikes, beliefs, and a vision of what the future will look like, and this is what audiences can relate to and connect with. Logos, colour schemes and tone of voice are just the tools used to convey this.

Why is medical device branding important?

Some companies might not prioritise medical device branding when it comes to their marketing strategy. It isn’t something that creates instant results, it isn’t easily measurable, and it can be quite time-consuming when getting started. So, what’s the point?

When strategic branding underpins all marketing activities, it forms the foundation that everything else is built on, providing direction on what your company should talk about and how you should interact with your audience.

Without a strong medical device brand strategy guiding decision making, there’s a risk of becoming a ship lost at sea with no real direction.

Connection with your audience

Consumers want more from brands than ever before; in fact nearly two thirds of consumers seek connection with a brand.

Connections breed trust, which in turn creates customer loyalty, the importance of which can’t be overstated. Look around your home at the brands you buy and consider why you buy them.

Your brand gives your customers a reason to intentionally buy from you over others. It’s far too easy for potential customers to compare multiple companies at once to decide which one to buy from, so when one stands out as having values and beliefs that are relatable, it makes a big difference.

Brand awareness and recognisability

Having a strong set of brand guidelines that includes everything about your brand, from tone of voice and logo to who the brand is, will ensure that all materials, whether online or physical, are consistent.

Consistency is the key to being recognisable, which leads to being memorable.

Ensuring that your audience can look at something your company has produced and instantly relate it to you increases the chances of being remembered and them getting in contact when you solve the problem they have. Beyond that though, having a consistent look and feel will seem more professional and, therefore, more trustworthy to potential customers.

Employee pride

Branding encompasses everything about your company, from company culture to how employees answer the phone, how they act and maybe even what they wear. This ensures that every touch point has an impact.

This also builds employee loyalty as the brand they work for aligns with their beliefs and values, providing direction and motivation.

It enables them to feel that they’re part of something special!

Looking to update your medical device branding? Speak with one of our medical device marketing experts about your brand update today

Medical Device branding strategy

As we’ve already said, branding is so much more than just how a company looks. Developing medical device branding can be split into two sections: the internal branding, so who the company already is, and then the external expression of that.

It’s vital to start with the internal brand to really understand your company and ensure the external expression is authentic.

It’s important to note that branding is not what your company wants to be but what it already is. If a company tries to portray itself as something it isn’t, it can do more harm than good as it comes across as inauthentic.

Consumers are extremely savvy these days and will disregard you quickly if they don’t believe you are being truthful.

For instance, Apple and Tesla are two extremely well-known brands, and companies often want to strive to be like them, but if it isn’t authentic, then customers may lose that connection and trust.

Internal branding

Internal branding is the culmination of your company’s purpose, vision, and mission, which can be discerned through internal interviews with employees across different positions.

The focus should mainly be on the present, but if, for example, your company is planning on doing community outreach in the future, your branding might nod to that.

Purpose

This is your goal beyond monetary gain. Not all companies necessarily have a purpose, but often medical device companies do have a strong purpose for existing, such as making it possible for patients to live longer and more fulfilling lives with their friends and family. This purpose can really help to identify your brand’s main characteristics.

Vision

Your company’s vision is where you’re planning to be in the future. It’s what you’re striving towards. For instance, phrases like, ‘in 10 years, we will be…’ demonstrate the vision.

Mission

Your company’s mission is how you’ll achieve your vision. It’s what you do every day to get there. These are often your company’s strategic pillars.

Mission and vision are interconnected and need to work together; for instance, you can’t have one without the other. Without a vision, you’ll struggle to guide your daily activities (mission), but without a mission, you have no way of achieving the vision.

Positioning

Positioning consists of getting to know your customers and how to appeal to them and then getting to know competitors so that you can differentiate your company and stand out. It’s about finding a niche. What are the customers’ needs and wants, and how can you, and you alone, address them? External interviews and competitor research can help to consolidate positioning.

Customers

It’s important there isn’t a disconnect between what you believes your company’s brand is and what the customers think your brand is because, at the end of the day, your customers are the ones you’re trying engage and appeal to.

Companies must understand their customer, their likes and dislikes and how they would want to digest information. This is where your brand really starts to gain substance as you seek to form an emotional connection with you audience by addressing their needs, but more importantly, their emotional wants. This attention to detail helps you to stand out from the competition.

Competitors

Understanding the current market and competitors is just as important as understanding your customers. You need to know not only know who your competitors are, but they also need to understand their own unique selling points, so that they can find what makes them separate from competitors.

There is no point in trying to go head-to-head with competitors; instead, it is better to create a competitive difference that is something to shout about.

A useful tool when creating competitive positioning is looking at brand categories and ladders. Companies should always strive to be in a brand category where they are in the top position. A great example of this was FedEx, who dominated the overnight delivery category.

Character

Working on character is all about developing the brand voice and personality that reflects and outwardly expresses everything that the company is.

Persona

Once a company understands its customers, it’s time to decide how they will appeal to and interact with them. The easiest way to do this is through developing a brand persona. A brand should be like a fully-fledged person that you can picture in your head. This will help to establish a clear brand voice, chosen based on the internal branding.

The book ‘Brands and Bullshit’ perfectly exemplifies this. It discusses the internal branding of Amazon, who felt their brand characteristics were best represented by a boutique concierge who would always remember their customers’ names and provide amazing service.

Having this persona guided the team at Amazon on brand elements, such as one-click purchases and remembering customers each time so that they never had to re-enter their login details. It’s fair to say that Amazon changed the game, and it was all guided by branding.

Archetypes

Archetypes can be used to help companies consolidate their brand persona and create a set of guidelines for external expression. They are a set of common personality types that are considered innate and hereditary.

It’s believed that every person fits into 1 of the 12 archetypes that were laid out by Carl Jeung to simplify archetype groupings. When using them in branding, they can give a company consistency and make them compelling to their audience.

Once a company has identified its brand’s characteristics and traits, it can look for the archetype(s) that they align with (1 archetype is always stronger than 2, but if a company is best represented by 2, ensure no more than a 70:30% split or the powers of archetypes will become diluted).

Some of the common archetypes we see in medical device marketing include:

  • The Caregiver who is driven by compassion and a desire to help others.
  • The Creator who is an innovator and non-conformist.They are known for pushing boundaries with their creativity.
  • The Sage who is a seeker of knowledge and wisdom.
  • The Ruler who has a dominant personality and desires power and control. They are exceptionally confident but also trustworthy and stable.

Choosing one of these categories will give a company a clearer image of their brand and therefore how to convey it. If you would like to learn more about archetypes for branding, we recommend The Hero and The Outlaw by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson. This is an excellent introduction to the almost magical world of archetypes.

If you want to learn more about Archetypes, we recommend our article on Archetypes in Medical device branding.

External expression

Once all the internal medical device branding is complete, it’s time to decide how this will be expressed externally so that customers can connect with it. This can be divided into two categories:

Verbal expression

This should comprise of the company’s tagline, their core messaging, their stories, and the way in which their copy is written. Is the tone always formal? Is there a playful element to it? These are some of the things to consider when creating guidelines for verbal expression of medical device branding.

Visual expression

This is when the logo finally comes into play, but it isn’t simply about looking good. All a brand’s visual elements should be an expression of the company and what it stands for. It should add to the brand story and appeal to the target customer. All elements of effective visual branding should link back to the core message in some way. For a deeper dive into external expression of your brand, check out our article on How to digitally present medical device brands.

Brand marketing for medical devices

Once you brand and its guidelines have been created, the fun can start, and it can be incorporated into everything that you produce.

Branding messages can be distributed across all channels, including social media, websites, emails, and congresses. This is how your company becomes recognisable and, more importantly, memorable.

Although there are more stages and lots of detail that go into creating successful medical device branding, we’ve outlined the main structure of brand development. If you’re looking for medical device brand analysis, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Medical device branding at Podymos

Are you aiming to communicate more effectively with HCPs and patients? Are you looking for complete medical device brand solutions? You’ve landed in the right place.

Podymos is a dedicated healthcare marketing agency, specialising in downstream medical device marketing. Our services might be a bit pricier than non-specialised agencies and freelance teams, and that’s because our exclusive focus on the medical device space equips us with specialised knowledge and expertise that others might not offer.

For compliant campaigns that align with your business objectives, we’re here to assist. Simply provide your contact details, and we’ll reach out promptly for a no-obligation discussion.

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