To transform an idea into a product, approach decisions with a business mindset. Aspects of business, namely marketing, production, sales, finance, intellectual property, legalities, and others must be deliberated. Making a medical product isn’t just the end, it’s the beginning. Of all aspects, marketing is perhaps the most important in the overall business strategy.

Every industry has unique key performance indicators (KPIs), and the medical industry is no different. KPIs give direction on what a business ought to focus on in its bid to secure a share of the market. To succeed in any industry, you need to have a good understanding of what it’s about. Define your customer’s attributes, then design a product that’ll meet the customers’ needs. This isn’t always a straightforward process because usually, there’s a lot of research and time-consuming observations involved.

Nonetheless, you need to be strategic. It’s not enough to just get a good idea. You need to have a good medical product. You need to have a plan of execution that works. In addition, you want to make your offering as unique as possible. Success requires that you put a lot of thought into what your strategy is and where you want to position yourself in the market for medical products. Make no mistake, making an excellent product is important. However, things like design, implementation, planning, and strategy are just as important in the success equation.

That being said, here’s a brief guideline on how to turn your market idea into a medical product:

1. Product Design And Manufacture

That idea you have in mind is eventually going to be made manifest in the product you intend to sell. You want to sell a product that’s functional, effective, and well-designed. It’s worth giving adequate thought to what you want the product to accomplish because what you have in mind may not always be the most practical thing. According to medical equipment manufacturer RBC Medical, when it comes to design, you may not want to go at it alone—you could conduct some research by posting questions on public forums or send questionnaires to relevant people or businesses.

You want to make something that people are going to buy. Whether it’s a private doctor, government hospital, or private person, you still want to make sure your product works as it should while maintaining functionality. The product should be designed to deliver the best value in that regard.

Moreover, you need to consider how you’re going to manufacture this product. Are you going to be outsourcing, or are you going to build your capacity to do the product? Are you going to integrate it with automation, cloud engineering, computing, or artificial intelligence? Ask yourself all these questions because how you build your product matters. This also ties in with the costs of production, which affect the price of the final product. So, it’s worth doing some proper research to determine which production methods you’re going to use.

 2. Product Pricing And Cost Structure

Several factors determine the price of a product. But if you’re planning on entering a market, it’s most informative to analyze existing products. Observe and analyze how competitors price their products and determine where you’d want to be on the pricing spectrum.

You want your product quality, features, usability, and functionality to justify the price you’re charging. Now, different products will use different technologies and features. So, with price determination, you want to make sure that the price that you charge covers the cost of production to the extent that you make a profit. Be mindful of the break-even numbers. 

Also, remember that factors such as market position, brand recognition, and material quality may affect the pricing.

3. Financing 

These endeavors may be costly, so you might need investors to support you. You have many options—seed capital, venture capital, bank loan, and others. It’s also possible that you can finance yourself, especially in the instance that you make a product that doesn’t need a huge capital outlay.

4. Marketing

If you’re going to sell your product onto the market, you need to have a plan of how you’re going to advertise your product, bring awareness, and attract customers.

• Marketing Plan

Whether it’s a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) business model, you need to have a plan on how you’re going to sell yourself to the market that you’re targeting. If you don’t have a plan to bring awareness to your product, people won’t know. People won’t buy what they don’t know.

Therefore, you need to draft a marketing plan detailing who your potential customers are, their interests, their alternatives, their preferences, their budget, and other relevant aspects of their profile. Then plan around the customer that you have profiled. Draft a plan that sets you apart from the competition.

Another important part of the marketing plan is the marketing budget. This provides parameters within which your marketing team can maneuver. You need to have milestones that are measurable based on your targets. It’s always good to have measurable metrics. Also, you need to give yourselves reasonable milestones, especially if you’re starting from scratch.

• Marketing Strategy

A strategy is a plan of action, and it’s informed by the marketing plan. So, the marketing strategy highlights in greater detail the marketing mediums, tools, software, applications, public relations, and advertising tools used to market your product.

In that light, different companies will adopt different approaches. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. Some people even prefer doing trial and error, especially if the market is hard to define, small, or its target customers are difficult to profile.

Businesses have to develop strategies to lure customers. Once you’ve created a specific product, you need to tailor your marketing strategy to promote that product. Make advertisements or campaigns that highlight why your product is better than alternative products and why customers should choose your product. Give the customers a reason to buy your product. Ensure that whatever tools you use, i.e., promotional, advertising, public relations, software, hardware, you get the job done.

Conclusion

Transforming a market idea into a medical product requires a lot of thought and planning. This is because you need to be clear about who your customer is, what they want, what your product offers, and what problem your product is solving. So, for your market idea to gain traction, you need to plan. Use the aforementioned points as the starting point to bring your market idea to life. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. What works for one business may not work for you.