Medical Technology Positioning: What can we learn from a milk shake?

Believe it or not, in customers' eyes a milk shake and a medical product are more similar than they may appear. Customers want to "hire" each to solve a need.

In the Forbes article "Creating a Killer Product", published in October 2003, authors discuss an initially failed attempt by a fast food chain to improve sales of their milk shakes despite having completed extensive market research. They were only successful after realizing that their customers "hired" a milk shake to solve a need: add some entertainment to the boring morning commute and win the mid-morning hunger battle. Once they understood this, the fast food chain was able to market to this need and produce outstanding results.

How is the milk shake story relevant to medical products? Medical products are "hired" to solve a particular need just like milk shakes. The importance of understanding the market we compete in and why customers would "hire" our products simply cannot be overemphasized.

Most small companies have very limited promotion budgets and it is imperative that these budgets are used efficiently.