SKIM appoints Robert Wucher as Senior Director - DACH region
SKIM welcomes Robert Wucher as Senior Director in Berlin to lead commercial growth and client partnerships across the DACH region.
MedTech products must evolve and innovate to keep current customers loyal and attract new users. But how do you predict which new features will resonate and drive purchase decisions?
As a leading MedTech company’s immunodiagnostics division planned their next generation of laboratory systems, they knew that needs and requirements would differ among customer types. How could they clearly define their customer segments, uncover the unique requirements of each group, and create targeted value propositions?
They turned to SKIM as a consultative partner for support with their innovation and communication strategy.
The challenge: Align product development with customer requirements
The immunodiagnostics division develops clinical tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. Their instruments are used by laboratories worldwide, including hospitals, universities, pharmaceuticals, and private commercial labs.
The company was planning a new family of laboratory systems that would provide a state-of-the-art workflow at a competitive cost of ownership. But the launch of a new instrument family meant they needed to choose the new features carefully.
“We had a long list of demands, but if we developed all of these features, our product would be so expensive that no one would buy it. We needed to identify the most relevant ones for our customers.”
Thomas Hein | Former president & board member of EphMRA
Facing this critical business decision, the team decided to dig into the perspectives of different customer groups and create segments based on wants, needs and motivations to purchase. That would help identify the right feature set to prioritize for their R&D roadmap, develop targeted value propositions and create marketing communications for specific segments.
A trusted relationship along with innovation and healthcare expertise made SKIM the clear choice to deliver actionable insights and recommendations.
“I have 30 years of good experiences with SKIM. We are always coming back to SKIM because they produce quality results on time. The entire team is fully involved, well-trained and highly motivated.”
Thomas Hein | Former president & board member of EphMRA
The solution: SKIM’s 4-step approach to segmentation
SKIM performed a thorough evaluation of the business context to develop the best way to achieve the project objectives, including uncovering the needs of lab managers and workflow bottlenecks, understanding “quality first” vs. “profitability first” orientation, identifying the most important features for each segment, and learning which features drive greater willingness to pay.
“Due to the complex subject and sample size feasibility, we needed a creative approach. We decided on a hybrid qual-quant approach, to gauge feature and pricing preferences alongside underlying motives and drivers behind choice. This mixed-methods strategy yielded more comprehensive insights that enabled us to identify and enrich the segment profiles.”
Daisy Lau | Associate Director at SKIM
After finishing the study, SKIM facilitated an interactive activation workshop attended by key stakeholders from the client’s team, with the aim to activate findings and expedite decision-making.
The approach: Fuel decisions with the right information
1. Stakeholder alignment
The project kicked off with an immersion workshop to understand how customer profiles would be used, identify existing insights and knowledge gaps, and prioritize potential segment differentiators. This type of early discussion among internal stakeholders is key to a successful project, as it provides a solid foundation for knowledge and identifies existing hypotheses.
This process ensures alignment among stakeholders around the business and insights objectives as well as desired outcomes.
2. Intelligence gathering
SKIM used an iterative framework to gather the most actionable and relevant information possible from customers in 9 countries:
- In-depth, 60-minute hybrid interviews with lab managers, delving into their decision-making behaviors, preferences, beliefs, and thought processes.
- Advanced qualitative techniques such as word association, projective exercises, and laddering to reveal both rational and implicit responses.
- Integrated quantitative surveys within the interviews to gauge feature preferences, price sensitivity, and willingness to pay.
- Collaborative debrief sessions with internal stakeholders at various moments during fieldwork, who listened to the interviews, allowing for real-time adjustments to topics and techniques based on emerging insights.
3. Insights analysis
SKIM applied advanced analytics to multidimensional data types to allow for combined interpretation. This yielded four clear and actionable customer segments that included demographic, psychographic, behavioral, product and work contexts.
“Customer insights are needed in every part of the business, and SKIM’s presentations tell the story in a way that marketing teams, R&D teams, and more will want to listen. And this is essential,” The Global Director shared.
4. Activation
SKIM facilitated a custom activation workshop designed to help the client’s immunodiagnostics division bridge the gap between insights and outcomes.
The immersive workshop brought stakeholders together to examine key characteristics of the segments, evaluate economic opportunities, develop customized value propositions for current and future solutions, and decide on next steps. The workshop was integral to decide on a path forward, as it provided a space to evaluate the findings together, match it to existing customer information, and act on these insights as a group.
“The value of the activation workshop was getting our internal staff to put themselves into the shoes of the customer and identify with their differing needs. Immediately, they could visualize which customers belonged to which segment, and they saw customers from a perspective they did not have before.”
Thomas Hein | Former president & board member of EphMRA
The outcome: Targeted strategies for innovation and communication
Through this project with SKIM, the company’s immunodiagnostics division heard the unbiased voice of the customer and gained strategies for developing a successful new product line:
- Clearly defined customer segments, including purchase motivations and economic potential, which can be applied across company divisions
- Prioritized features, including purchase intent and willingness to pay
- Targeted value propositions for each segment
- Attainability matrix that ensures solutions are viable
- Alignment on product development strategy and next steps
The company is now working to prioritize these segments and assign current customers to them to facilitate targeted communications.
“For this partnership with SKIM, my expectations were high, and they were fully met. What sets SKIM apart is the unique passion of their teams to deliver the best quality. They are always looking for the right solution to address the business question.”
Thomas Hein | Former president & board member of EphMRA
3 key takeaways
The company’s product launch preparation, driven by actionable segmentation, offers valuable lessons for other companies:
1. Deep dive beyond demographics: True customer segmentation goes beyond surface-level data. The immunodiagnostics division and SKIM focused on understanding the “why” behind purchasing decisions. This allowed them to uncover distinct needs and motivations, leading to highly targeted value propositions.
2. Embrace a multi-method approach: Relying on a single information source can provide a limited view. The strategy combined qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, and stakeholder workshops. This multi-faceted approach provided a comprehensive understanding of customer needs and preferences, ensuring robust and actionable insights.
3. Prioritize activation and alignment: Insights are only valuable if they translate into action. The activation workshop facilitated by SKIM was crucial in bridging the gap between information and strategy. By bringing key stakeholders together, the immunodiagnostics division ensured alignment on product development, communication, and ultimately, drove a customer-centric approach across the organization.
To learn more about how our approach can help you gain clarity on customer segmentation for your next innovation, schedule a consultation with our experts.
