Expertise in case studies is considered a given not just among the veterans of business life, but even for newly aspiring consultants, who wish to break into the consultancy industry. Market-sizing, competitor-analysis, pricing-strategy and legal risk-assessment are all components to a standard case study which we tend to give primacy to, yet in many cases, we need to diverge from our usual framework considerably. I had the opportunity to learn this lesson first-hand, while devising a market-entry strategy for a start-up specializing in medical devices for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. What I found out during our project was that consumer behaviour cannot be universalised based solely on ‘rational decision-making’, but we need to factor in cultural influences and social pressures.
Surprisingly, what turned out to be one of the most significant factors of our business-strategy for global expansion was not price-competitiveness or product innovation, but cultural attitudes on making health-related purchases. A key issue here was ‘patient deference’ by which patients are reluctant to purchase medications and other health-related items without an explicit recommendation from their doctor. While in the United States people often go out of their way to find treatments to the health-complications faced by themselves or their loved ones, this is much less the case in Europe. This realisation had two major implications for our project.
Firstly, our distribution channels had to be totally reconfigured. In more liberalized markets, such as the US or New Zealand, we opted for direct-to-consumer product distribution, while in more conservative markets we had to rely on hospitals, care homes and doctors to distribute our devices to the end users. What we discovered is that European patients only consider a medical product credible if it is prescribed to them by their doctor. Consequently, we had to dive much deeper into the field of network-science than we first expected. Market penetration in these more regulated playing-fields are primarily dependent on the level of awareness of a product among the professional community of Parkinson specialists. Hence, we had to strategically assess which doctors and hospitals commanded the most professional prestige when distributing free sample devices. The main takeaway from this experience is that the success of a market entry strategy is often based as much on sociology as it is on price competitiveness.
Secondly, our marketing strategy had to reflect the specific culture of each target country. Our client intended to market its wearable medical device as a gift, with pristine, glossy packaging similar to that of jewellery. As a result, the product’s advertising campaign was primarily conveyed via online platforms, since the main buyers of the device were expected to be younger family-members who would purchase the device as a present to their parents or grandparents. Although this strategy worked successfully in the United States, interviews with Japanese practitioners quickly revealed that such a marketing campaign could not be pursued in the East-Asian region. As we found out, Asian culture is considerably more discrete and secretive about illness and health related issues, and so giving a medical device as a gift would be considered as an intrusion into a person’s privacy, often even within close family circles. Hence, we needed to design packaging for the Japanese market which conveyed practical common sense instead of the consumer-friendly, premium jewellery boxes marketed to Americans.
Our brief case study in the medical device industry showcased eloquently how all-encompassing the field of management consultancy is. It requires a great diversity of talents and specialisations, which we tend to underestimate. Although stable know-how in economics and business are indispensable for any consulting project, we need to acknowledge that successful projects also require consultants who can draw on niches like sociology, cultural studies, and psychology. Hence, if you are an aspiring consultant, establishing your own specific niche aside from financial economics can be the distinguishing factor, which separates you from your fellow contenders in the interview. Building up a special area of expertise, like the knowledge of an exotic language or familiarity with sociology, can make or break the success of a consulting project, and a job application as well.
Bence Borbély is a Hungarian first-year History and Politics student at the University of Cambridge whose professional fields of interest are management consultancy, public policy-making, politics and international relations.
Image: Unsplash
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