Zimmer 'Net site designed to serve as brochure, event calendar to guide users toward sales reps - Zimmer Corp

Why does Zimmer Corp., an industry leader, hide the breadth of its Web site s content with such a modest home page?

And why does it require so many clicks to get to its content?

Those are the questions a medical devices company marketer might ask after viewing www.zimmer.com. An orthopaedic surgeon, resident, fellow or allied health care professional might ask no questions and simply click away, having heard there is some good information on the site.

The most obvious answer to the www.zimmer.com design and content strategy is that the Web site is not where it's at. That is, the Web site is designed to serve as a brochure and up-to-date calendar of courses and other events sponsored by the manufacturer of orthopaedic implants.

Where it's at is in the offices of Zimmer's local sales representatives and in the courses and other educational services offered and sponsored by the company. Professionals visiting the Web site are given descriptions of various educational and practice-building services offered by Zimmer and are invited to contact their local sales representative for more information.

Zimmer's sales and marketing strategy is the classic and proven one of establishing and maintaining career-long relationships with surgeons and allied health care professionals. Thus, the company offers educational opportunities for orthopaedic residents and fellows as well as for experienced practicing surgeons and allied health care professionals.

Making it easy

With such relationships already in place, the marketing department apparently decided that the mission of its Web site should be to make it easier for its customers to find resources than to sell them. Thus, the calendars showing educational schedules are important parts of the Web site. An experienced user can go to the www.zimmer.com home page and click on "Medical Professionals." On the Medical Professionals page, the Web site visitor uses the "Fast Find" pull-down menu to find "CME," which brings up the schedule of 2001 courses.

While many medical device manufacturers offer extensive educational content, including pertinent journal articles, on their Web sites, Zimmer offers only links. If you use the "Fast Find" pull-down menu on the "About Zimmer" page to go to "Students," you are greeted with this message: "Thank you for your interest in Zimmer. We strive to provide as much content as possible on our site to assist in your studies. However, much of the information requested from students (i.e., clinical information, research and development documents) is considered confidential and proprietary to Zimmer and not available for distribution. Although Zimmer may not be able to help you, you may find the following web sites useful:" Links to other sites are then offered.

Most companies also show their creativity and industry leadership by posting numerous new product and other news releases on their Web sites. Click on "Press Room" on the Zimmer site and you find a total of nine news releases. The most recent news releases as of late January 2001, was posted in August 2000, and only three releases were posted in all of 2000.

Limited disclosure

Zimmer apparently is more concerned about disclosing competitive information than about impressing customers and potential investors in its parent company. And it may have determined that it gets a poor return on investment in producing news releases for the trade press. To stay on the right side of the Food and Drug Administration, for example, a medical device company has to be very careful about what it announces. This means releases have to go through long and expensive approval processes, and they often are more trouble than they are worth.

In the Internet age, however, good news releases are read whether the media see fit to write stories about them or not. Arthritis and other orthopaedic patients and their physicians are constantly on the lookout for promising new products and new applications for older ones.

Another disappointment is that when you click on the "World Leader" link, all you get is a list of countries served by Zimmer. Click on the United States, for example, and you get the company's headquarters address and phone number. Zimmer is not prone to puff its products on the Internet.

The billion dollar company, which is headquartered in Warsaw, Ind., and has about 3,000 employees is a subsidiary of one of the world's leading drug companies, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Donald E. L. Johnson is Chairman and CEO of The Business Word Inc., publishers of Health Industry Today, Hospital Materials Management, Health Care Strategic Management, Profiles in Healthcare Marketing, Healthcare Advertising Review, Financial Advertising Review, TWINS magazine, TWINS 5 to 12, www.TWINSMagazine.com, www.TWINS.net and www.BusinessWord.com.

COPYRIGHT 2001 J.B. Lippincott Company
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group