Commercialization is the process of bringing a new product or service to market, which can be more complicated than it sounds. Commercialization involves developing plans for a device’s production, distribution, customer service structure, and more in order to support the rollout and ongoing use of the device.
A product commercialization strategy is key to maximizing the value of your device and ensuring that it ends up in front of the right audience. However, these strategies are complex and can be challenging to understand, especially for new medtech developers. Here’s what you need to know about crafting a winning commercialization strategy:
Do You Need a Commercialization Strategy?
A commercialization strategy is often necessary when a small business becomes successful enough that it can begin to compete in larger markets. If a small company develops a successful product, the commercialization process allows the company to sell the product to retailers, which has the potential to increase the company’s sales many times over. A proper commercialization strategy will lay out the financial steps required to move the new product from conceptualization through to distribution and on to sales.
Your business philosophy plays a large part in driving your commercialization strategy. Whether your company prioritizes intellectual property, equity, customer service, or something else entirely, your business values will shape your strategic goals and how you go about realizing them. Your vision for your product should help ground your operations and shed light on what your commercialization strategy ought to do next.
How to Develop a Commercialization Strategy
There are many ways to commercialize a medical product or service — there’s no one-size-fits-all option — so you can tailor your strategy to fit the specific needs of your market, product, and customer base. That said, there are a few key steps to laying a good foundation for your product commercialization strategy:
- Determine the goal of the project. One of the most important questions to answer is, “What need does this product fulfill?” Customers tend to buy products that fill a gap, so your strategy should state clearly how your product will satisfy the need you’ve identified in the market.
- Take stock of the market. You should familiarize yourself with market risk and trends, your competitors and their intellectual property rights, and other relevant contextual information. This can help you determine whether it might be more advantageous to collaborate with other organizations to increase your collective competitiveness.
- Reiterate what makes you different. For customers to crystalize a product preference, they first need to understand the differences in their options. Highlighting what sets you apart is key.
- Work backward from the window of opportunity. Knowing when your customer base is able to purchase, respond to, or interact with your product or service is another critical part of maximizing your return on investment (ROI). By working backward from the target launch date set by your commercialization strategy, you’ll be able to establish clear deadlines for when key research, financing, and marketing initiatives need to be completed in order to ensure a smooth rollout.
Master Commercialization with Kentec
Having a commercialization strategy is essential for ensuring a successful product launch and maximizing value, but building an effective strategy involves orchestrating a lot of moving parts. This can be difficult for individual medtech developers or smaller companies that don’t have the infrastructure or resources to design, create, market, and support their devices — especially those working with mother, child, and NICU medical equipment.
Kentec Medical is here to help! Our efficiency-focused approach to commercialization and product development helps you get your medical devices to market faster and more affordably than you ever thought possible. We can also uncover unique opportunities to increase the value of your devices. Our own commercialization strategy prioritizes a commitment to high-quality customer service, which empowers our customers to deliver better devices to their market bases.
To learn more about our business model and how you can take advantage of Kentec’s cutting-edge commercialization strategy, contact us today.