Market Assessment, Valuation & Pricing Dental Solution
The Client & Business Challenge
Our client was a leading medical equipment company with multiple business units, one of which was focused on a portfolio of products and services aimed at general and specialist dentists.
A prior acquisition had given the company access to a product leveraging an innovative digital technology platform, and the latest in CAD/CAM and intra oral scanning technologies. The client was planning for the global launch of the new solution. European commercial teams were enthusiastic about the opportunity. North America was more skeptical due to the the significant level of investment required to drive adoption and establish a sales team, and a more challenging and price sensitive competitive environment.
IDR Medical was commissioned to provide an assessment of the market, the commercial opportunity the technology presented and measure price sensitivity. The results provided input to prod
uct launch and pricing decisions for Europe and the US.
The key objectives of the project were to:
• Provide a market assessment, forecast and competitive analysis of each target market (including the mapping of price points of existing products throughout the supply chain)
• Identify the current use profile of existing solutions, the rational for using them, and current trends in the market
• Identify and prioritise the purchase criteria
• Measure the perceived value of the new product vs. existing solutions and quantify price sensitivity
Our Approach
The project was structured across 3 phases or research. The results of each phase were provided to the client as a report and presentation and were leveraged to inform the design and methodology for the subsequent phase.
Following a kick off meeting and a series of workshops with the commercial teams in each country, IDR Medical embarked on a period of desk research to gather data on competitor solutions, pricing and information that would contribute to the market sizing and forecast model. Data was gathered from publicly available sources, available market and analyst reports and some initial research the client team had previously gathered. 5 KOLs were also interviewed to provide insight regarding market trends and perceptions of the competitive technologies available.
Following this, IDR Medical completed 30 qualitative interviews with key customer stakeholders across Europe and the US. Interviews were with Specialist Prosthodontists, General Dentists and other individuals involved in the purchasing and decision making for the in-scope solutions. The objective of this phase was to provide hypothesis against the project objectives, a detailed understanding of the perceived value of the solution vs. incumbent technologies, and explore potential barriers and challenges to adoption. IDR Medical targeted accounts that would be high volume users of the technology. The client team was invited to observe these interviews anonymously.
IDR Medical then conducted a qualitative phase of market research. This phase consisted of an online survey with approx. 50 respondents per country and included both dental professionals and patients. The objective was to validate hypothesis from the qualitative study. IDR used a Gabor Granger pricing method to measure uptake of the solution at different price points.
Results and Impact
While the benefits of the solution were highly valued by customer stakeholders, the required pricing and competitive environment presented some significant barriers to adoption. IDR Medical provided the client with insights regarding the potential opportunity for the new solution and the challenges that would need to be addressed to succeed. The results provided critical input to product launch decisions for both Europe and the US.