As Abbott prepares to enter new territory with the impending U.S. launch of the first version of its continuous glucose monitoring technology designed to be used by people without diabetes, it’s taking a very deliberate approach to marketing the sensor.
During a call with investors this week to discuss Abbott’s second-quarter performance—which included a double-digit bump in its medical devices division, with about 20% growth in diabetes care—CEO Robert Ford addressed the company’s marketing plans for the Lingo device.
Lingo was cleared by the FDA in June and is set to begin its U.S. rollout this summer. Though it’s built around the same technology as Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre family of CGMs, the over-the-counter Lingo device isn’t confined to people with diabetes. Instead, it’s meant to help anyone interested in learning more about their metabolism and building healthier habits do so by tracking their blood sugar levels in real time and receiving customized coaching based on those data.
Because that’s an entirely new population for Abbott’s devices, the company will have to take a more intensive approach to getting the word out, with a specific focus on “communicating directly with consumers,” Ford said.
“If you think about the diabetes space and how for CGM uptake, you needed both a communication with the patient, and you needed, obviously, a communication with the physician, I think that that’s still important for the non-diabetes [population],” he said. “I think that some people will want to have some sort of recognition from the healthcare professional that this might be a good investment.”
To communicate the value of the Lingo device to both doctors and consumers, then, Abbott will have to go beyond traditional television advertising though TV ads will still play a role in the outreach strategy.
“I don’t think, given our experience here, that you can just go on TV and blast TV advertising and you’ll get this big uptake,” Ford said. “You’re going to have to do some on-the-ground guerrilla marketing, let's call it, together with TV advertising to really be able to open up the market and then sustain it.”
That more hands-on approach is why, according to the CEO, Abbott has set up “a separate team completely removed from the Libre and the diabetes team” to focus solely on executing the Lingo marketing strategy.
Abbott is keeping modest expectations for how, exactly, that part-traditional, part-“guerrilla” marketing strategy will play out. Ford suggested that Lingo sales will take the shape of an S-curve, with slow uptake to start, rather than becoming an immediate success.
Lingo has already been available in the U.K. for several months. From that launch, according to Ford, Abbott has learned that “it takes some time to educate and communicate with a patient population that, while excited about having new tools to drive healthier habits, they do need some time to understand its use.”
And Abbott isn’t trying to rush the process. Ford noted that even with a “single-digit penetration rate, a few sensors a year,” Lingo is still facing a “multi-billion opportunity” among the 400 million adults in the U.S. and Western Europe alone.
“I know that everybody is focused on what the sales are in the second half,” he said. “I think the bigger picture here is, hey, there’s a really big opportunity here, and if we do it right, it’s an opportunity that will be more than a flash in the frying pan. It will sustain itself, and it could become standard.”