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Recent Articles Suite of marketing tactics energizes Respironics’ market leadership
Recent Articles Suite of marketing tactics energizes Respironics’ market leadership | Suite of marketing tactics energizes Respironics’ market leadership |
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No matter how powerful it may seem, no single marketing tool can do the entire job required for a successful product launch, according to Respironics Global Product Manager Jay Vreeland. In fact, there is a powerful synergy between different marketing tactics that feed and build on one another. And in Vreeland’s experience, public relations, which is often the least expensive way of presenting a message, can lead to significant benefits across the spectrum of marketing media and methods.
Respironics, the Pittsburgh-based maker of sophisticated sleep-aid equipment, can’t afford to be caught napping. In fact, according to company product manager Jay Vreeland, remaining at the cutting edge of its respiratory medical device market has become something of a corporate mantra. “We don’t want to be in a position of having our competition bring something to market that we didn’t see coming – something that comes out of the sky, drops down, and puts a big hurt on us,” he said. “What really wins is being ahead of the curve and driving the market as opposed to just reacting. We’re the leader in our product category and markets, so we are expected to be the innovator. “ The marketing tool kit However meeting those expectations requires more than just leading-edge technology; it also requires the innovative use of marketing tools to get the product story out to patients suffering from chronic breathing disorders as well as to the health care professionals who prescribe those patients’ treatments. That frequently involves the use of multiple techniques, often at the same time, according to Vreeland, because no single method can do the whole job. “You can’t just do advertising; or just do push e-mail; or just do direct mail as a stand-alone. That’s ineffective, at best,” Vreeland said. In fact, there is a powerful synergy between the various elements: news releases get picked up on Internet search engines which drive traffic to company Web sites which generate e-mail leads, which spawn sales calls, and so on. At the same time, there has to be an upfront plan, whether it’s a 12 or 18-month plan, a product launch, or a campaign, Vreeland said. PR matters For Vreeland, part of that plan – is to issue press releases at least once every three months. “It takes three experiences with something before the consumer reacts,” Vreeland pointed out. “If they see an ad one time, it’s probably not going to entice them much. But once they see a story or a snippet somewhere else, and you follow up with a directed e-mail or push e-mail or something like that, they start to say ‘well, that’s something I might be interested in.’” One of the greatest marketing values, Vreeland discovered, is PR Newswire, a 50-year old commercial service that describes itself as the world's most comprehensive news and information distribution network and claims a client list of 40,000 organizations worldwide who use it to reach the news media, the investment community, and the general public with their press releases. “PR Newswire is by far the best return on your investment you can get. It’s a couple hundred dollars to submit something to them, but within two weeks, you can do a search on Google and it shows up on the first page.” he said. “And with PR you can incorporate different elements: customer feedback, testimonials, and you’re really controlling the message as well.” On tour Another PR initiative Vreeland uses is what he calls a ‘media tour.’ But instead of the conventional version in which writers and editors are flown in to tour the company’s facilities, observe its clinical applications, and talk with its executives, Vreeland packs up a demonstrator model and calls on the media himself. “I went and personally sat down with all the editors from the major trade publications and journals which serve our industry,” he said. “HME News, which is the most respected news magazine in our industry, gave me a front page story, which was great. It didn’t cost me anything. I sat down and said ‘look, I’ve got something coming to market that’s huge, and here, see for yourself.’ I showed it to them, talked about it with them. “I went to Philadelphia, I went to Los Angeles. I was in Portland, Maine in December when it was minus 20 degrees, and they were thrilled to see people coming in to help. A lot of trade journals have a section in the back where they deal with new product releases; everybody gets a paragraph – a picture and 30 words. Because of these relationships I started to develop with my media tour, all of a sudden, I started getting half-pages instead of a paragraph. And since then I’ve used these relationships to help with other endeavors. I recently had an advertorial in one of them. They dressed it up nicely for me, put it into the magazine, and gave me 10,000 extra copies to distribute at trade shows.” Crafting the message Of course, paid advertising is also part of the Respironics marketing mix. For a number of the company’s product lines and business units, including its Home Care Products Division, Pittsburgh-based Blattner & Brunner is the company’s advertising agency, formulating its creative strategies and messages. “We have sales reps all over the world. We work with Blattner & Brunner to craft the message. We want to make sure the sales force clearly understands that message and can articulate it. So, for example, when a physician picks up a magazine and sees an advertisement for C-Flex and says to our local sales rep ‘tell me about C-Flex,’ that rep can respond,” Vreeland said. Online training and video conferencing with the company’s far-flung sales force is then used to make sure that level of understanding takes place. Now here’s my plan… Administratively, the process of formulating and implementing any product marketing plan falls to the product manager, whose task is to build the business case for that approach. “Nothing happens within our company until a clearly defined strategy is accepted,” Vreeland noted. “And then I take care of the financial, budgetary, and other types of things. But I have to have a clearly defined plan which encompasses not just strategy but a tactical approach – objectives and measurable goals.” “We’re not shooting from the hip. We meet twelve months before launch, six months ahead, three months, one month. And as you get closer, other elements start to feed in – the FDA regulatory strategy, or the Quality Assurance portion, all of that dovetails into what you’re doing,” Vreeland said. “But leading the charge, ultimately, is the marketing group: here’s where we’re going to go and here is why this makes sense. It’s really driven through a marketing perspective. We have 100 engineers always working on things. But if it’s something I don’t see any value in or that the market won’t see any value in, it will never see the light of day.”
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