opportunity
Loomis Group started working with Abbott Vascular Devices over five years ago, when it was a newly created division of pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories, currently a $20-billion Fortune 500 company, with customers in more than 130 countries. At the time, Abbott Laboratories was a newcomer to the vascular device market. We quickly recognized the challenges in winning against behemoth competitors like Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Guidant and Boston Scientific.

• Cohesion: Abbott’s acquisition spree resulted in a fragmented identity, making it a challenge to understand all of its product offerings
• Relevance: By buying up technology-driven companies, Abbott inherited a lot of highly technical marketing communications pieces, which did not focus enough on the physician’s needs
• Credibility: While Abbott was a very well-known giant in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, it had to build up its reputation within the vascular device industry

idea
Loomis Group determined that Abbott had vital areas that needed improvement in order to present a compelling value to its audience comprised of:

• cardiologists
• nurses
• technicians
• patients

Change of this scale would not be easy. Loomis Group had to operate on two parallel tracks:

1. Develop and implement a long-range, physician-driven brand strategy from top-to-bottom
2. Support a relentless cycle of product launches

All the while, we were focused on doing what we do best—disrupting the category. In a market full of clichés, for example, images of happy patients, product feature-driven messages, medical-brand blue and sterile white, we had vast opportunities to create a truly unique presence for Abbott.

execution
We started by building a cohesive brand identity system across the portfolio. Because we couldn’t know how many new products would be acquired or developed, we were careful to create a modular system that could absorb whatever came our way. Years later, we are still able to easily add new brands onto the original structure. Along the way, we assessed equity of the brand names, and made changes when necessary to clarify our brand architecture.

Nothing we did resembled the humdrum logos and colors of Abbott’s peers. In fact, during an ethnographic research visit to a catheterization lab, we found that Abbott and its competitors offered their products in similar white boxes with indistinct labeling. The shelves where doctors chose their products were an undifferentiated wall of white. Our perspective was that every communication point should work hard for the brand. Our solution was a color palette that screamed, not whispered, on the shelf.

From an advertising perspective, we applied our deep target understanding. Happy patients may be everyone’s end goal, but doctors know it takes a mastery of a million tough challenges to get there. So we focused on the physician’s everyday experience, going against the grain with an in-your-face campaign featuring physician spokespeople asking tough questions, getting to the heart of the real issues in cardiovascular care.

Throughout our intensive, integrated campaign, we influenced our targets through:

• Naming
• Identity
• Collateral
• Direct marketing
• Packaging
• Advertising
• Tradeshow environment
• Interactive

influence
After five short years on the marketplace, Abbott has become a formidable player in the vascular device market. Through the development and marketing of multiple cutting-edge devices, the company’s growth has been impressive. In the fourth quarter of 2005, Abbott Vascular reported quarterly US sales to be up 33.1% from the last quarter of 2004. Global sales were up 29% for the quarter. As Abbott Vascular’s lead agency, we’re proud to be a part of this success.

Beneath the numbers, there is a different story—one that’s inspiring for those of us who are marketers. When you’ve been listening well to your target, they not only buy what you are selling, they even pay you great compliments during ad tests:

• “It’s right out there and pushes you to think.”
• “It’s like you’re talking to one of your colleagues.”

Now if that’s not relevance and credibility, we don’t know what is-especially from a physician audience who notoriously insists that they are not affected by marketing.