Features Tell, Benefits Sell, Value Transforms – All Within Compliance

From Slogans to Significance

In many industries, marketing is a familiar face at the table, often seen as the team that shapes glossy campaigns, crafts catchy slogans, or builds sleek brand identities. But step into the world of medical devices, and marketing takes on a far more intricate, demanding, and often underappreciated role. It becomes less about selling dreams and more about navigating the tangled web of science, evidence, regulation, policy, and human lives.

The “Textbook” Approach 

Let’s begin with what many marketers are taught. In university classrooms and MBA programs, they are introduced to tidy frameworks, 3C’s (Customer, Company, Competitor) and the 4P’s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These models, while helpful, are blueprints. They work well in industries where choices are driven by impulse or desire and where buying is often emotional and there is only one stakeholder: the end consumer. 

From a “Textbook” Approach to a “Playbook” One

But then comes a marketer’s first real step into the medical device industry. Here, the playbook changes.

The 4Ps evolve into 5, and they take on entirely new faces: Patient, Professional, Provider, Payer, Policy Maker. Each group is a universe in itself, filled with diverse roles, priorities, and pressures.

All are relevant stakeholders with different levels of influence and decision making. It is marketing’s job to understand them all deeply, to speak their language, to earn their trust and to weave together a story that resonates across this complex ecosystem.

Imagine a marketer walking into a hospital for the first time, not with a pitch, but with a notebook. They listen to the surgeon who only trusts what they can prove in the OR. They observe the procurement officer who cares about cost efficiency and constrained budget. They interview patients whose lives hinge on outcomes and hope. They speak with policymakers and insurers, who see health through the lens of population data and risk mitigation. These are not just stakeholders. They are the pillars of the decision-making chain.

The Value Beyond the Brochure

Crafting a value proposition in this world is not just about product features. It’s about clinical impact, patient safety, regulatory compliance, and sometimes, emotional reassurance. The value might lie in faster recovery times. Or fewer hospitalisation. Or the environmental impact of the entire life cycle of a product. Or maybe it’s about the trust a physician feels when they reach for your device in a life-or-death moment.

Marketing on a Leash

But then comes the second twist in the tale: regulation.

Unlike consumer tech or fashion, where the boldest voice often wins, in medical devices, what you can say is dictated by the rules. These rules that vary dramatically across borders. The FDA, Health Canada, PMDA, TGA, ANVISA and others, each regulatory body speaks its own language and enforces its own vision of safety and compliance.

A product that is considered a medical device in Europe may be regulated as a drug in Canada. A marketing campaign that wins awards in Australia may be illegal in Brazil. Some countries forbid any direct communication with patients, while others allow it in tightly controlled contexts. For marketers, this isn’t just complexity, it’s constraint. A delicate dance of intention and limitation.

The Hidden Engine of Healthcare Innovation

So how does one communicate value when the words themselves are regulated?

This is where the artistry of medical marketing comes alive. It’s no longer just about “how it looks”. It’s about what can be said, who can hear it, and how it is framed, all while ensuring the message still lands with power and precision. It requires more than creativity, it demands strategy, cross-functional alignment, and a deep respect for nuance.

To outsiders, it may seem like marketing is merely window dressing. But in truth, marketing is the beating heart of the organisation, the one team that touches everything: the voice of the customer, the direction of the industry and the brand, the alignment of sales, and the boundaries set by compliance.

They are the interpreters between science and society, between engineers and end users. They are often the first to sense shifts in the market, the first to ask, “What if?” and the first to push for clarity in a world built on ambiguity. 

Systems Over Slogans

And while the job is complex, the potential is immense. 
With the right team, curious, agile, bold, marketing can help guide an organization to more than just sales targets. It can build reputation, open markets, and, ultimately, improve patient lives. But this doesn’t happen by luck or by lofty goals alone. As James Clear famously said: “You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

And in this industry, more than anywhere else, marketing systems must be strong, strategic, and sophisticated. 

From Words on Paper to Flawless Execution of a Well-Crafted Strategy: Real World Example

A very good example that demonstrates the 5Ps approach is a global leader in continence and ostomy care that recently introduced a new line of discreet, body-conforming ostomy products.

Rather than taking a one size fits all, their launch strategy was built around the 5P model: patients, professionals, providers, payers, and policymakers.

Each treated as a distinct but interconnected audience:

• For patients, the focus was on comfort, discretion, and restoring confidence in daily life, leading to a design that looked and felt less like a medical device.
• For clinicians, clinical studies demonstrated improved skin health outcomes and ease of application.
• For healthcare providers and payers, the messaging emphasized fewer complications, better adherence, and long-term economic value.
• And at the policy level, the narrative highlighted how enabling patient independence and dignity aligns with broader health system goals.

This was not simply a product launch, but it was a carefully choreographed, multi-stakeholder engagement rooted in empathy, evidence, and system-level thinking.

A powerful example of marketing done right in healthcare. 

The Marketer’s Mandate

So, to the marketers quietly shaping the future of healthcare behind the scenes, your role is not just important. It is essential. You are not just promoting devices. You are telling the story of innovation, guiding ethical growth, and bridging the chasm between invention and impact.

As Seth Godin famously said: “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.”

However, in the medical device industry, neither is enough on its own.  This is where we, the marketers, come in:

• To connect evidence with empathy.
• To turn products into meaningful transformation in patient care.
• To tell stories grounded in science and guided by mission.

Disclaimer. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Test Labs Limited. The content provided is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal or professional advice. Test Labs assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content of this article, nor for any actions taken in reliance thereon.