Background

Sonosite™ is a publicly traded medical equipment firm that was spun off from ATL Ultrasound to commercialize a new technology that would make high-quality ultrasound imaging available in a miniaturized, hand-carried unit at a fraction of the cost of conventional systems.

Despite getting their first product to market on time in and receiving rave reviews from industry critics, sales just didn’t take off as quickly as they expected, despite a $10 million launch campaign targeting Cardiologists and Obstetricians.  A year later, they made the decision to hire Chris Malone and his firm to analyze their brand and develop a new marketing strategy that would significantly accelerate their revenue growth.

The Brand Relationship Solution

After carefully evaluating both primary and secondary ultrasound market data to identify issues and opportunities that would unlock more rapid growth, brand relationship research was conducted with over 800 patients and 300 physicians.   Doing so identified specific segments of patients and doctors that could be targeted for new uses of SonoSite’s innovative ultrasound technology.

In addition, research and analysis showed that Internists, Family Practitioners and Emergency Medicine physicians represented fully four times the market potential of the other physician specialties targeted previously.  In addition, both patients and these new physician targets found new brand relationship dimensions we developed for SonoSite™ to be highly appealing and desirable.

Accordingly, a new SonoSite™ brand relationship strategy and marketing plan were developed that targeted these new audiences and leveraged their most compelling purchase drivers to accelerate revenue growth.  We presented our findings and recommendations to the Board of Directors and with their strong support the plan was implemented for the remainder of the year.

Business Results

After implementing Chris’ recommendations, SonoSite™ business results accelerated dramatically, as North American revenues nearly tripled while the firm’s stock price nearly doubled within a year, adding over $125 million in shareholder value to the firm’s market capitalization.

“We retained Chris Malone and his firm to help us chart a course to greater and more rapid growth.  Since then, we’ve been extremely pleased with real value we’ve seen from our investment in their services.  We have implemented and realize long lasting improvements within our company based on their work for us, including dramatically better marketing practices that can be utilized for years to come.  Chris and his firm are far different and superior to any ‘name brand’ consulting firm out there.”

Kevin Goodwin, President and CEO
SonoSite, Inc.