DEVELOPING BRAND INTEGRITY KEY FOR DEVICE FIRMS, EXPERT SAYS
The "art and science" of branding -- developing name and image recognition for a particular product and company -- is still in the developmental stages in the device industry, according to Nancy Turett, president of the health division at the public relations firm Edelman.
Yet in terms of marketability, "medical devices and diagnostics are some of the 'sexiest' technologies right now," Turett said.
Because the device industry often deals with high-end technologies for serious, sometimes invasive operations, "your brand has to have a certain amount of solemnity," she said. But "there's a difference between being serious and being boring."
Effective device marketers build brands that are understandable and acceptable to consumers, but also engaging to the physicians and hospital administrators who make purchasing decisions, Turett said. Also, to ensure brand differentiation, device marketers need to be mindful of brand pressure from competitors.
A brand is "not just what you say and how you look," but how your personnel behave, Turett said.
For example, the "old model," in which a firm's senior management only talks about the good news, is obsolete, Turett said. In the post-Enron era, shareholders and consumers hold corporate America to a higher standard of transparency.
CEOs who behave with arrogance also don't do their brands any favors, Turett said. German and Japanese CEOs generally are seen as having a "much more modest [and] humble comportment" than their American counterparts, she noted. In today's global marketplace, that kind of "brand personality" is what matters.