Why Great Health Innovations Lose to Better Brands (and How to Make Sure Yours Doesn't)

A genuinely good health product, with real evidence and a real problem to solve, often loses to a competitor that is simply better known, better trusted and easier to understand.

I've seen healthcare from several angles. As a pharmacist on the front line, I've seen it from the dispensary bench and from inside GP practices. I've run pharmacies as a manager and as a Superintendent Pharmacist. I spent two years as Chief Operating Officer of a medical research charity. And I was manager and judge of the Beanstalks startup programme at GIANT Health, watching health startups pitch for their future.

The founders almost always blame the product, the price or the procurement process. Most of the time, the real problem is the brand.

This isn't about logos and colour palettes. In healthcare and healthtech, your brand is the sum of every signal that tells a cautious buyer whether you can be trusted with patients, budgets and reputations. Here's what the research says, and why brand effectiveness belongs in your growth plan rather than tacked on at the end.

1. Buyers have made up their minds before they speak to you

Most founders picture the sale happening in the meeting: the demo, the pitch, the follow-up. The data says otherwise.

Gartner's research into complex B2B purchases found that buyers spend only about 17% of their buying journey meeting potential suppliers. That's across all suppliers. If you're one of three on the shortlist, you get roughly 5% of their time.^[1]

More recent research from 6sense, surveying over 2,500 B2B buyers, found that buyers are typically around 70% through their buying process before they engage a seller. It also found that 81% already have a preferred supplier by the time of first contact.^[2] In the same study, the average buying group had about 11 people, and the average buying cycle lasted about 11 months.^[3]

What this means for you: most of the decision is made while you're not in the room. It's made on your website, your LinkedIn presence, the case study a colleague forwarded and the reputation you have with a clinical lead. That's your brand doing the selling, or failing to.

2. Most of your market isn't buying today, but will remember you tomorrow

Research by Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, published by LinkedIn's B2B Institute, gave us the "95-5 rule". At any given moment, only about 5% of your potential buyers are in-market. The other 95% won't buy for months or even years.^[4]

In healthcare this is magnified. Contracts run for years and budgets follow annual planning cycles. Procurement windows open and close. The ICB lead or practice manager who isn't buying this quarter is exactly the person who needs to remember you when the window opens.

What this means for you: if you only market to people who are ready to buy right now, you're invisible to 95% of your future customers. Brand building is how you get on the shortlist before the shortlist exists.

3. Health buying decisions are personal, and personally risky

We like to think that business buyers are rational. The evidence disagrees.

A landmark study by CEB (now part of Gartner) and Google surveyed around 3,000 B2B buyers. Across a range of commercial outcomes, personal value had about twice the impact of business value. Personal value includes the buyer's professional reputation, confidence and career. The bigger the perceived personal risk, the more emotion matters.^[5][6]

Few buyers carry more personal risk than those in healthcare. A commissioner who approves a new digital pathway, a GP partner who changes a clinical system, or a trust lead who signs off a new supplier is putting their name to something that touches patient safety. If it goes wrong, it's their reputation on the line.

What this means for you: your brand has to make the buyer feel safe choosing you. That means clear evidence, credible people, consistent messaging and a story they can repeat confidently to their own board.

4. Trust in health is fragmented, and you can't borrow it

Edelman's 2025 Trust Barometer Special Report on Trust and Health surveyed people across 16 countries. It found that none of the institutions studied (business, government, media or NGOs) is trusted to address people's health needs. In 9 of the 16 countries, a majority believe these institutions are actively undermining access to quality care. The report also found that nearly six in ten people regret at least one health decision they made based on misinformation.^[7]

For health companies, this cuts both ways. Trust can no longer be assumed. Then again, an organisation that earns it through transparency, evidence and clinical credibility stands out sharply against the noise.

What this means for you: a brand built on proof, not hype, is a competitive advantage in a low-trust market.

5. The NHS is risk-averse, so make it easy to say yes

Anyone who has sold into the NHS knows the barriers. The Promise of Healthtech, a report by PUBLIC authored by former health minister Nicola Blackwood, described the NHS as "digitally risk-averse".^[8] It found that innovators struggle to scale from one trust to the next because each one can set different evidence standards. It also found that procurement in many parts of the NHS is slow and geared to large IT vendors.^[9]

You can't fix NHS procurement on your own. What you can control is how easy you make the case for buying from you. A strong brand packages your evidence, safety credentials and outcomes into a clear, consistent story that a busy clinician or procurement lead can understand in minutes and defend to their colleagues.

What this means for you: treat your brand as a tool for reducing risk. Every unclear message, inconsistent deck or missing case study gives a cautious buyer a reason to wait.

6. Brand building is a growth investment, not a cost

One of the most rigorous bodies of evidence on marketing effectiveness comes from Les Binet and Peter Field. Their work with LinkedIn's B2B Institute analysed effectiveness cases from the IPA Databank. They found that B2B brands grow best when they balance long-term brand building against short-term lead generation. The recommended split was roughly 46% brand and 54% activation.^[10]

They also found that, in B2B, a brand with 10% "excess share of voice" (meaning its share of category advertising is higher than its share of the market) gained about 0.7% of market share a year.^[11]

Too many health startups spend almost everything on short-term activation: demo requests, trade-show leads, cold outreach. They then wonder why every quarter feels like starting from zero.

What this means for you: brand is the engine that makes your sales and lead generation work harder over time. It needs a plan and a budget.

7. In healthcare, branding is also a compliance discipline

Here is where general marketing advice falls short for our sector.

In the UK, the ASA's CAP Code says that objective health claims must be backed by evidence, including trials on people where relevant.^[12] Marketers must hold that evidence before they make the claim.^[13] Claims like "clinically proven", "the first" or "the best" need proof, and bolder claims need stronger proof.

The NHS identity is protected too. The letters "NHS" and the NHS logo are UK trade marks owned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.^[14] Suppliers can't use the NHS logo in their marketing. If they mention supplying the NHS, they must say so in plain, descriptive text, without implying endorsement and ideally not in NHS blue.^[15]

What this means for you: a great health brand is compelling and compliant. Get it wrong and you risk more than a rebrand. You risk your credibility with the very buyers you need.

So what is "brand effectiveness"?

Brand effectiveness means treating your brand as a planned, measurable business asset rather than a one-off design project. In practice, that means three things:

• Plan it: know why you exist, who has to say yes, what space you own, and what proof backs it up.
• Deliver it: apply it consistently across every touchpoint, from your website and pitch deck to proposals, onboarding and patient materials.
• Measure it: track awareness, trust and growth, and review your brand as your company evolves.

That's exactly what my free toolkit walks you through.

Get the free toolkit: The Six Step Process to Branding for Business

I've distilled what I've learned from pharmacy, clinical practice, startup operations and judging health innovation into a practical, nine-page toolkit built specifically for healthcare and healthtech companies. Inside you'll find:

1. Know why you exist: purpose, mission and values that hold up under regulation and scrutiny
2. Map everyone who has to say yes: users, buyers, clinical influencers and funders
3. Own one clear space: a positioning statement backed by proof
4. Say it so they believe it: your story, messaging pillars and compliant claims
5. Look like who you are: an accessible visual identity that doesn't borrow from the NHS
6. Live it everywhere, then measure: a touchpoint audit and the metrics that matter

Every step comes with a fill-in exercise, so by the final page you'll have the core of your brand written down.

Download the free toolkit →

Sources

1. Gartner, press release (15 September 2020) and Smarter with Gartner, "B2B sales reps: maximise customer interactions". https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-09-15-gartner-says-80--of-b2b-sales-interactions-between-su (opens in a new tab)
2. 6sense, 2024 B2B Buyer Experience Report, reported by Demand Gen Report (10 October 2024). https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/80-of-b2b-buyers-initiate-first-contact-once-theyre-70-through-their-buying-journey/48394/ (opens in a new tab)
3. 6sense study as above, plus Kerry Cunningham (6sense) on G2 Learn. https://learn.g2.com/kerry-cunningham-a-new-reality-of-b2b-buying (opens in a new tab)
4. LinkedIn B2B Institute, "The 95-5 Rule". https://business.linkedin.com/it/it/advertise/resources/b2b-institute/b2b-research/trends/95-5-rule (opens in a new tab)
5. CEB and Google, From Promotion to Emotion: Connecting B2B Customers to Brands (2013), summarised by Marketing Week. https://www.marketingweek.com/b2b-branding-where-is-the-love/ (opens in a new tab)
6. CEB and Google, full whitepaper. https://betaisthenewnormal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CEB_Google_promotion-emotion-whitepaper-full_beta_2018.pdf (opens in a new tab)
7. Edelman, 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and Health. https://www.edelman.com/trust/2025/trust-barometer/special-report-health (opens in a new tab)
8. PUBLIC, The Promise of Healthtech (Nicola Blackwood), summarised by HEFMA. https://hefma.co.uk/news/the-barriers-to-healthtech-examined-in-new-report (opens in a new tab)
9. UKAuthority, "Report identifies barriers to healthtech innovation". https://ukauthority.com/articles/report-identifies-barriers-to-healthtech-innovation (opens in a new tab)
10. LinkedIn, "How B2B marketing really drives growth" (Binet and Field). https://business.linkedin.com/en-uk/marketing-solutions/blog/posts/B2B-Marketing/2019/How-B2B-marketing-really-drives-growth (opens in a new tab)
11. The Drum, "Four arguments why B2B marketers should spend more on brand building" (2019). https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2019/11/04/four-arguments-why-b2b-marketers-should-spend-more-brand-building (opens in a new tab)
12. ASA, "Substantiation for health, beauty and slimming claims" (CAP Code rule 12.1). https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/substantiation-for-health-beauty-and-slimming-claims.html (opens in a new tab)
13. ASA, "Evidently, evidence is everything: six tips on sound substantiation". https://www.asa.org.uk/news/evidently-evidence-is-everything-six-tips-on-sound-substantiation.html (opens in a new tab)
14. NHS England, NHS Identity Guidelines, "Who can use the NHS Identity?". https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhsidentity/identity-guidelines/who-can-use-the-nhs-identity/ (opens in a new tab)
15. NHS England, NHS Identity Guidelines, "Who cannot use the NHS Identity?". https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhsidentity/identity-guidelines/who-cannot-use-the-nhs-identity/ (opens in a new tab)

This article is general information, not legal or regulatory advice. Check specific claims and campaigns with the ASA's Copy Advice team or a qualified adviser.