Brand Strategy for Medical Device Startups - Why It’s Important and What To Focus On

Over the years, we’ve worked with medical device executives who get it - “We need a solid branding and messaging strategy in place way before launch!” The companies who put in the time to define their brand strategy and value proposition early hit the ground running and never look back.

We often see that tremendous effort has been put into product engineering and the medical device’s development. But when it’s time to launch, there is little budget allocated to brand and marketing for commercialization. No matter how revolutionary your medical device may be, reaching the right niche audience and talking with them — not at them — is critical for long-term success.

In this competitive marketplace, the value of building a solid brand strategy and messaging platform pays dividends in building trust and gaining awareness. Below, we’ll dig into the importance of branding for medical device startups and the essential elements of a successful branding strategy.

Why is Branding for Medical Device Startups So Important?

Your brand is the story you tell about your company. Although clinical trials and science might serve as the backbone of your device’s effectiveness, overly clinical messaging can feel cold and won’t be as memorable without a story that quickly resonates with your target audiences. Medical device branding needs to drive home the concepts of reliability, trust, authority, compassion, and empathy.

Besides humanizing your company, great branding also boosts your startup’s prospects in many other ways. Let’s explore a few of them:

1. Build Your Brand Story and Separate from Competition

Standing out from the competition with a robust and unique brand identity helps your company rise above the fray in a cluttered marketplace. Great branding also defines your brand’s positioning and stakes a claim where your company fills the gaps other competitors have left open. 

Branding that is too technical or filled with jargon won’t resonate with key stakeholders. But if you can generate brand messaging centered on a human connection, you can demonstrate your brand’s value and how your company differs from the rest.

2. Building and Attracting Investor Interest

A comprehensive branding strategy is also crucial for attracting funding and investors. In fact, 82% of investors say name recognition is an important factor guiding them in their investment decisions. Branding that isn’t well thought out or strategized can turn away potential investors and funding. Above all, investors are looking for companies with a great value proposition that will ultimately pay dividends to shareholders. 

3. Consistency and Cohesion

Inconsistent branding, like disparate tone and voice across different communication channels or even using multiple logos, can water down your startup’s perceived value. It also makes future branding and marketing efforts harder.

In contrast, doing the legwork with your branding from the beginning makes future marketing campaigns much more straightforward. Create a brand style guide with directives for executing the brand consistently across all marketing channels. This will be especially helpful when using multiple stakeholders to execute your sales and marketing efforts.

When Should You Start to Work on Building Your Brand Strategy?

Start early and begin to build it into your pre-launch activities. This can include your investor deck and pre-launch website. Lock down your brand name and secure a URL early, finding a good URL and then waiting to purchase later is death. Spiders are crawling domain sites and will steal your URL right out from under you! If you like it, or think you may want it, buy it immediately.

Wrapping Up: Startup Med Device Branding to Drive Growth

For over 24 years, ParkerWhite has helped medical device startups succeed in the marketplace with data-driven insights. Professional branding services can be the difference between establishing a robust and trustworthy brand identity and failing to make a mark.

Are you getting ready to launch a medical device in the MedTech industry? Contact ParkerWhite to start the conversation about partnering with us to launch your brand. 

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