The BL[OZ]
Rules, Regulations & Medical Brands How your medical brand can stand out within the regulatory framework
By
Nirit Elyovich, MBA
, 15/08/2024
Balancing marketing ambition with regulatory compliance is no easy task for medical brands. Our latest blog explores how early collaboration between marketing and regulatory teams can transform these challenges into opportunities, ensuring your brand stands out while staying compliant. Discover the smart strategies to help your brand shine within the regulatory framework.
min read
Imagine a ballerina trying to dance with one hand tied behind her back. That’s how it often feels during a branding process at a medical company. The marketing team wants to fly high, while the regulatory team wants to keep your feet firmly on the ground, ensuring you comply with every sentence, word, and letter.
There are no good guys or bad guys in this story. It’s simply about complexities of a different magnitude that your brand needs to successfully navigate. It's a story about a road not yet taken.
When the journey takes an unexpected turn
During branding strategy kick-off meetings, we take a deep dive into your product, technology, and service. We’re looking for a fresh perspective, a promise not yet made, a story yet to be told. At this point, we get excited as we hear about groundbreaking technologies, solutions, and life-enhancing, life-prolonging products. Our jaws drop. With this WOW feeling, we continue the learning process in which we talk to customers, analyze the competition, and create a multi-participant meeting within the company to fine-tune its significant and differentiated strengths and generate outstanding benefits for its customers. As the process continues, we begin to understand the regulatory limitations. Suddenly, “Cinderella”, your extraordinary technology is being held back by regulatory limitations and is covered with “soot”.Understanding limitations and optimizing capabilities
During the process, we’ve heard “It’s a given” or “It's powerful, but I can't confirm it" more times than we can count. Responses like these made us understand there must be a better way. That’s how our new module was born. It’s placed right at the beginning of the branding strategy process, which sets the stage for an open and guided dialogue between marketing and regulatory early on.Challenging the norms
This dialogue is about helping the marketing team to understand the limitations in depth, and for the regulatory team to delve into the marketing team’s needs. It’s an authentic dialogue that creates a space to carry out activities that weren’t possible before. Understanding the precise needs opens up new perspectives and enables solutions within the boundaries of regulations. We understand the importance of compliance, but our experience shows that there are many degrees of freedom that are not being tested.It’s not about overstepping the bounds of the approved claims, but we also don’t want to take a step backward in the name of conservatism.
Sometimes it's a matter of overall wording, sometimes it's just changing one word. It's the little things that make a big difference. Stopping to ask questions often gives you a competitive advantage. Sometimes, there won’t be any flexibility in the claims you make, but at least you’ll know that you’ve turned over every stone.Structured and managed conflicts are an opportunity
Remember, whoever sits at the decision-making table wants the company to succeed and do the best they can. Inherently, conflict is not a negative; it can also be an opportunity. Don't let emotions run the process. As we often say, “Don’t be right, be smart!” As with every relationship where there’s an inherent conflict, there’s great value in professional guidance to create the conditions for a productive dialogue. To meet this need, we’ve created a special collaboration between OZ Global B2B and Leap, led by Moran Faibish, who has extensive experience in leading marketing in global medical companies. Moran has hands-on experience in bridging the gap between marketing and regulations to create deep and unique brand promises — promises that aren’t possible without providing an informed and professional framework that enables constructive communication.Play smart
The more we play smart within the regulatory limits to make the most of your claims, the more we can create a differentiated value proposition that more accurately reflects your breakthrough technology. This is how your brand will shine. We’ll be there every step of the way to guide the process, refine the messaging, and make sure your “WOW” comes through loud and clear. If you’ve nodded your head while reading this, it’s time for us to talk.If you’ve nodded your head while reading this it’s time for us to talk.
Nirit Elyovich, MBA
VP Strategy
Contact Us
Brand Strategies Tailored for Healthcare Companies
Moran Faibish
Global Marketing and Business Development Strategist
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What is Business to Employee (B2E) and how can it impact your company?
By
Guy Toledano
, 01/10/2023
Business-to-Employee, or B2E, refers to the strategies and technologies that companies use to support and engage their employees. B2E covers everything from attracting, recruiting, training, and onboarding employees, to providing self-service solutions and individualized access to essential tools or software.
min read
Business-to-Employee, or B2E, refers to the strategies and technologies that companies use to support and engage their employees. B2E covers everything from attracting, recruiting, training, and onboarding employees, to providing self-service solutions and individualized access to essential tools or software. While traditional e-commerce models such as business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) focus on sales and customer interactions, B2E focuses on providing internal support systems, resources, and tools to employees.
One of the main goals of B2E is to improve employee satisfaction and retention. When employees are disengaged or unhappy with their work environment, it can lead to lower morale and higher turnover rates, which can be costly and disruptive to a company's operations. By providing employees with the resources and tools they need to succeed, and creating a positive work culture, companies can improve retention and attract top talent.
A B2E portal is a central hub that provides employees with easy access to company-specific information and resources. This can include company news, calendars, software solutions, and employee-defined documents. The portal is often customizable, allowing employees to personalize their experience and access the information and resources that are most relevant to them.
One example of a B2E portal is an online service company management platform that allows employees to easily access information about their services or customers, as well as submit supply requests and manage their work schedule. B2E portal should also provide employees with access to company announcements, training resources, and tools for collaboration and communication.
B2E strategies can also be used to support specific departments or teams within a company, such as sales teams that need flexible access to customer information and sales tools. For example, a B2E portal might include a CRM system that allows sales reps to easily access customer data, create and track leads, and manage their sales pipeline.
There are many benefits to implementing a B2E strategy, including improved communication and collaboration, increased efficiency and productivity, and cost savings. By providing employees with the tools and resources they need to succeed, companies can create a more engaged and motivated workforce that is better equipped to meet the challenges of today's business environment.
Have a question? Want to learn more? Don’t hesitate to reach out!
Maytronics - OZ Global B2B
Branding 101 – The Branding Process Explained
By
Inbar Telem
, 03/09/2023
Want to know the secret sauce of branding? Our latest blog post has it all! Learn how inspiration fuels our journey, how design brings brands to life, and how businesses evolve through effective branding. Click here to uncover the branding recipe for success!
min read
"What does the branding process involve?" This is a question we often answer for clients and potential clients throughout the year. So, we decided to break it down into three simple steps.
Before we dive into all that, let's start with the basics – what is branding? Branding is how you distinguish yourself to your audience, communicate who you are, what you stand for, and what you sell. Branding is created by professional designers and brought to life through a name, logo, visual and textual language, and more. However, it's important to understand that branding is not just a visual differentiator; it's also about creating an emotional connection with your audience. A company's branding allows customers not only to identify it in a post, sign, or packaging but also to express emotions and attitudes toward it, sometimes without even knowing the company directly.
Step One – How to Start the Branding Process for a Business?
The start is life itself, because every day we're exposed to hundreds of messages, ideas, videos, texts, and images. Later it all comes together, and our mind begin processing all these inspirations into new, original, and unique design and language for a specific client. At Oz, we make sure our team, in this case, our designers, is exposed to diverse content worlds and various content styles. This opens up their minds to creativity, from which different brands for different companies can blossom (even if they're in the same industry, they'll create something unique and original – that's the beauty of it!). The branding process for a business begins as a strategic process where we research and analyze the brand, the product, the company, or the service – and answer the age-old questions – what is the company's vision, what makes the company special, what customers expect, and what the competition offers. To differentiate the brand effectively, it's essential to examine competitors – what visual and textual language they use, what messages they convey to the world, and what their customers think of them. During this examination, we come across tons of content and inspiration on the web, and it's a fantastic process. All the research and in-depth analysis, combined with the ideas and inspirations, meld together to form the foundation of the brand – the unique value proposition, the narrative, the promise, and the brand's values.Step Two – How to Implement the Branding Process?
This is the step everyone seems to be familiar with – the name, logo, fonts, color palette. Supposedly. Since everyone talks about this step, it's crucial to understand that without a solid foundation and thorough research, it won't work. The brand's cornerstones (based on the strategic messages, remember?) need to be creatively and visually translated into the brand's language – both in verbal elements (the brand's name and slogan) and visual elements (the logo, fonts, shapes, and colors). The brand's domain, characteristics, and values will be expressed through its visual appearance. Importantly, the design should not only be eye-catching but should also have longevity. Trends come and go, but your branding should remain stable for years. Our designers have the ability to translate the emotional world into the visual world, making your target audience express positive emotions, identify with your brand, and remember your look (for the next time they encounter you) – or in short, to create an impactful brand for you.Step Three – How Does a Business Change as a Result of Branding?
So, we've gathered inspiration, worked with a professional branding agency (like OZ, ahem), researched, and analyzed, and the designers have prepared sketches. And the most exciting part – the management approved it! So now what? Implementation! At the end of the branding process and the creation of the brand's visual language, it's time to infuse it into every marketing and reputation aspect of the company. The new language will be applied across the board – on social networks, envelopes, outdoor signs and ads, physical offices, pens and notebooks – anything that comes to mind (and if it doesn't, our client managers have plenty of ideas). Effective design is measured by its versatility. If the base has a strong and focused idea, it will be clear how to continue and develop that into the brand's language in every format – digital and print.“Branding In” in International Branding
By
Dina Gidron
, 15/05/2017
The answer lies in understanding the clear link between your B2B brand and your employees’ connection to your brand promise
min read
We’re all aware (at least most of us) of the crucial role that B2B brands with a clear correlation to core company values play in business growth and expansion. But what happens when we achieve what we want and start expanding internationally?
How can we ensure that we don’t lose or dilute our essential values and brand promise as we become a cross-continent corporation?
The answer lies in understanding the clear link between your B2B brand and your employees’ connection to your brand promise – no matter where they are in the world.By focusing on both implementing your brand in the global marketplace and strengthening your brand within your organization, you can more easily coordinate cross-continent corporate cultures and processes to define a common global branding language and presence that is consistently implemented across all touch points and markets. When Maytronics, a global leader in automated pool cleaning solutions, began to expand globally, the company looked for ways to build a strong and growing global brand while still maintaining a unique company culture, value, and DNA. With a focus on its core values, Maytronics and Oz Branding began a worldwide organizational and branding process that included the enhancing of the internal company dialog to reinforce its brand promise of Exceptional Experience.How B2B Brands Drive Sales
By
Orit Oz
, 14/05/2017
One of the most difficult parts of B2B branding is selling the brand to sales. Many B2B brands fail because they haven't been integrated into the sales force
min read
If General Electric and IBM were sold tomorrow, their brand value alone would be approximately $45 and $75 million respectively. These brand valuations sit right next to well-known consumer brands such as McDonalds and Coca-Cola, illustrating that B2B brands, similar to their consumer brand cousins, also drive billions of dollars in value and market capitalization in intangible assets of "goodwill."
Why would anyone want to spend an additional $31 million in purchase price for a brand alone? It's not just your average person who pays more for a brand. It's top-level executives too.
A 2012 McKinsey survey of more than 700 executives with substantial influence on supplier selection in the United States, Germany, and India found that consideration of the brand was a central decision when deciding whether or not to purchase.
The survey found that the brand was almost as important as the sales team in encouraging them to purchase.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/global-b2b-brands-highest-brand-value-waldemar-pfoertsch
What can we learn from this? Well, for one, that B2B purchasers are human beings at the end of day. They are a lot less value-driven than they like to think, and heavily swayed by the brand, which helps them simplify evaluating the product.
Getting the Sales Team on Board
Despite the enormous added-value of a strong brand in a purchasing price, one of the most difficult parts of B2B branding is selling the brand to sales. Many B2B brands fail because they haven't been properly integrated into – and accepted by – the sales force. To ensure that your brand is accepted by your salespeople, you'll want to make sure you're providing the answers to these questions:1. Are You Telling the Right Brand Story?
It can be helpful to first take a step back and reevaluate if your internal B2B brand story is the same of that of your customers. The same McKinsey study from above found that often the two audiences focused on completely different things --- B2B suppliers focused on sustainability, global reach, and corporate responsibility whereas customers focused on honesty, responsibility across the supply chain, and level of specialized expertise.2. Do Your Salespeople Understand What a Brand is?
Your salespeople need to understand that a brand is what happens before you enter a room and after you leave. It also provides a framework for communicating the values behind your company's product or service.3. Do Your Salespeople Understand How A Brand Can Help Them?
This is where "branding in" can be vital. "Branding in" connects the entire company to the brand promise and implements it in their day-to-day responsibilities. For starters, you'll need to make sure marketing and sales are communicating in the same language. Consider a sales and marketing workshop, where salespeople explore the meaning behind the new brand and how it can help them be more successful. One practical exercise during the workshop might be to develop a pitch book – a sales tool that should communicate what the company does, why it does it, and why it is better than the competition. This time, however, you'll want to develop it through the perspective of a salesperson who understands the value, messages, and how to communicate the company's brand.Witness Your Brand Increase Revenue
Align your sales and marketing together in building your brand by answering these questions as a company. Bring in experts to help you if possible (we know of a good one offhand) When all of the employees in your company, including the salespeople, are working together towards the same message, value, and goals, your brand value will start to climb, and your sales will too.Your Employees as Your Main Brand Ambassadors
By
Dina Gidron
, 14/05/2017
Yes - your employees. They are one of the most important success factors of your brand implementation. They are your most significant brand ambassadors.
min read
As part of our focus on B2B branding as the core of what makes your company beat – a reflection of who you are, what you do, how you do it, and why you do it — we’d like to zoom in on one of the most important factors in pulling it all together and actually making it work: your employees.
Yes - your employees. They are one of the most important success factors of your brand implementation. They are your most significant brand ambassadors.
By nurturing your employees’ connection and commitment to your corporate values, you can directly influence the strength of your B2B brand and your ability to fulfil your brand promise to your customers.
To achieve this, you need to focus efforts on:
- Only recruiting employees who believe in what you believe in.
- Engaging your employees by creating a challenging and fulfilling work environment that encourages innovation and maintains a healthy work-life balance.
From Israel to Global: Lessons Learned in Building a Global Brand
By
Orit Oz
, 14/05/2017
Mr. Eyal Tryber,CEO of Maytronics and former CMO, talks about the lessons learned from his own first-hand experience, from building a global brand
min read
Note: This is Part 3 of a 5-part series highlighting the speakers from our annual international B2B marketing conference this past November. Read Part 2 here.
At the Global Marketing Challenges for B2B Companies conference we had the distinct pleasure to hear from Mr. Eyal Tryber, CEO of Maytronics, about the lessons he and his company learned from building a global brand. As the former VP of Sales and Marketing at Maytronics for over seven years before his appointment as the CEO in May of this year, these lessons are from his own first-hand experience.
Let's start off with a bit of background about the company. A company with humble beginnings – it was founded on Kibbutz Yizreel in Northern Israel in 1983 – Maytronics has come a long way in the automated pool cleaning market. With over a billion shekels in market value, over 400 employees and operations in 46 countries and more than one million pool-cleaning robots sold, Maytronics is now a prosperous global company. The company is publicly traded both on the NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
After going public in 2004, the company embarked on a new marketing strategy: creating anchors in strategic markets. Company branches were established in Argentina, the US, France, Australia and Spain. Their strategy paid off as the company began to achieve unprecedented growth. As it grew, however, new challenges arose. First, each company branch started to create its own multi-culture, which created tension between local and global brands. Secondly, as the company grew, it risked losing its unique Maytronics company culture – stemming from its humble Israeli kibbutz origin and culture.