Coastal VanguardBrand · Advertising · Marketing

INDUSTRY BRIEF · 02 OF 04

Healthcare & Life Sciences.

Regulated industries where positioning must be defensible to the regulator, the clinician, the payer, and the patient. Long cycles, durable equity.

SUB-SECTORS

Where we work.

  • Medical Devices

    Brand-defensible to the clinician and the patient. The buying cycle is long, the reference list is everything, the regulatory shield is the brand.

  • Diagnostics

    Brand-defensible to the clinician and the patient. The clinical evidence is the proof, the brand is the trust.

  • Pharmaceuticals

    Brand-defensible to the prescriber, the payer, and the patient. The category design is the work, the brand is the equity.

  • Healthcare IT

    Brand-defensible to the CIO, the CMO, the clinician. The integration story is the moat, the brand is the operating cadence.

  • Provider Services

    Brand-defensible to the patient. The patient experience is the work, the brand is the equity.

  • Consumer Health

    Brand-defensible to the consumer. The direct-to-consumer motion is the work, the brand is the equity.

WHAT MAKES HEALTHCARE DIFFERENT

Four principles we work by.

Defensible to four audiences

The healthcare positioning has to be defensible to the regulator (the FDA, the EMA, the MHRA), the clinician (the doctor, the nurse, the pharmacist), the payer (the insurer, the PBM, the employer), and the patient. A positioning that is defensible to one audience is not defensible to the other three.

Evidence is the proof, brand is the trust

The clinical evidence — the trial, the real-world evidence, the meta-analysis — is the proof. The brand is the trust. The proof is what the regulator signs off on; the trust is what the patient buys.

The category design is upstream

In healthcare, the category design is upstream of the brand. A category that has not been designed — a category that is a sub-classification of an existing one — is a category that the regulator can re-classify. The work is the category design, not the brand.

Long cycles, durable equity

Healthcare buying cycles are long — six months to three years for a category leader, two to five years for a strategic purchase. The brand equity that compounds over the cycle is the brand equity that the company carries for the next decade.