Hip Implant Product: Market Segmentation

Hip Implant Product: Market Segmentation and Targeting

The ambition of marketing a competitive and innovative set of hip implant options can only be achieved through an effective identification of target markets and a cohesive understanding of segments within these markets. Based on the research provided in our product overview, we recognize that "with the hip implant being 20.3% of the aggregate market" where implant and joint replacement are concerned, there is a significant base for opportunity to new entrants such as ourselves. Because we are attempting to poach much of our own market share from such current players as Stryker and Zimmer, it is sensible to identify and seize upon the target demographics utilized to such success.

For both, the broader market is referred to as the global reconstructive market. In our case, as a company with decidedly more limited immediate resources, the focus will be trained to the domestic reconstructive market, particularly given the already identified dominance of the U.S. market in this area of medical innovation and implementation. Thus, the United States will function as an overarching demographic feature.

Beyond this defining feature, the market may be segmented into four primary target groups; surgeons, hospitals, healthcare dealers & stocking distributors. *for an overview of these targets, view Table a here below. Each of these markets carries its own characteristics and features, though some of these are likely to be overlapping given the inherently overlapping interests of all groups in the broader domestic healthcare industry.

Surgeons is a group that includes orthopedic surgeons, musculoskeletal surgeons and general surgeons who will participate in such implant procedures. This target may vary in its members, including surgeons who work in independent practices, surgeons who are part of broader healthcare systems such as hospitals and surgeons working in specialized clinical settings with hip implants are the primary focus. Surgeons enter with the primary interest of achieving the best care for their patients, and may have an attitude which is disinclined toward changing accepted technologies. Surgeons are not the greatest potential group for marketing focus given that some significant percentage will lack the authority to choose venders in a larger healthcare system.

Hospitals should constitute a larger part of the potential market. This target is also divided between general practice and specialization of hip implant procedures. Most hospitals are part of larger healthcare networks today, making decisions typically centralized and highly dependent upon shared economic interests with selected vendors. Thus, an attitude of resistance to change may also persist here, though penetration of specialty facilities in particular is a positive path to realizing a greater sale potential.