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Tests Available, Vets Not Using Them: How a Veterinary Diagnostics Company Used Market Research and IDIs to Understand Why Point-of-Care Tests Were Not Gaining Traction in Rural Practices

Tests Available, Vets Not Using Them: How a Veterinary Diagnostics Company Used Market Research and IDIs to Understand Why Point-of-Care Tests Were Not Gaining Traction in Rural Practices

Executive Snapshot

Client

Veterinary Diagnostics Company, Australia

Situation/Challenge

The client had developed a portfolio of point-of-care diagnostic tests for common companion animal conditions and had positioned them specifically for rural and regional veterinary practices where laboratory turnaround times were a genuine clinical problem. Eighteen months after the rural practice launch, adoption was well below the commercial team's projections. Urban and suburban practices were buying at a reasonable rate; rural practices, the primary target, were not. The commercial team could not explain the gap without speaking directly to the rural practitioners who had evaluated and passed on the tests.

Objective

Commission a veterinary diagnostics market research report benchmarking point-of-care test adoption dynamics at comparable rural veterinary practices, then conduct structured IDIs with rural practitioners who had evaluated but not adopted the client's tests to understand the specific reasons for non-adoption.

Constancy Researchers Solution

Market Research Reports combined with Primary Research & VoC through In-Depth Interviews (IDIs), a Veterinary Diagnostics Market Report benchmarking point-of-care adoption dynamics in rural practice settings, paired with 28 IDIs with rural veterinary practitioners who had evaluated but not adopted the client's test portfolio.

Impact

Market research confirmed that point-of-care test adoption in rural veterinary practices was consistently lower than in urban settings, with cost-per-test and case volume per test type emerging as the primary structural barriers. IDIs with non-adopting rural practitioners revealed that the client's per-test pricing was uneconomic at the lower case volumes rural practices ran, and that several practitioners had evaluated the tests and found them clinically valuable but arithmetically unjustifiable at the prices offered.

Client Outcome

The client introduced a rural practice pricing tier and a bundled reagent subscription model that materially reduced the per-test cost at lower volumes, and rural practice adoption increased substantially within two commercial cycles.

The Situation / Challenge

Point-of-care diagnostics in veterinary practice create value primarily by compressing the time between a clinical question and a usable answer. In an urban practice with a referral laboratory twenty minutes away offering same-day results, that compression is incremental.

The client’s commercial team had designed the test portfolio and its pricing around a broad veterinary practice average that included urban and suburban practices where case volumes were high and the per-test cost amortised comfortably. Rural practices operate at lower case volumes, which means the same per-test price has a different economic weight in their cost structure.

The commercial team’s first instinct was that the rural adoption gap was a sales rep coverage problem. The sales team had fewer touchpoints with rural practices than with urban ones.

Key Challenges

  • No market benchmarking of point-of-care test adoption dynamics specifically in rural veterinary practice settings to contextualise the adoption gap.
  • No direct feedback from rural practitioners who had evaluated but not adopted the tests explaining their specific reasons for non-adoption.
  • A commercial pricing model designed around an average that may have been structurally uneconomic for rural practices operating at lower case volumes.
  • A sales team attributing the rural gap to coverage frequency without evidence distinguishing coverage from pricing as the primary barrier.
  • No pricing or commercial model alternatives developed for the rural practice segment despite it being the primary target market.
  • Eighteen months of below-projection rural adoption accumulating without a structured diagnosis of the underlying cause.

A point-of-care test that a rural veterinarian considers clinically valuable but arithmetically unjustifiable is not a sales or adoption problem. It is a pricing architecture problem. The clinical value is already there. The commercial model is the thing that needs fixing, and fixing the commercial model requires knowing precisely what the rural practitioner’s arithmetic actually is.

Constancy Researchers Solution

Constancy Researchers established the market-wide pattern of rural point-of-care adoption and then went directly to the rural practitioners who had evaluated the client’s tests and passed on them, producing a precise diagnosis rather than a general market explanation.

Veterinary Diagnostics Market Report: Rural Practice Adoption Dynamics
  • Delivered a market research report benchmarking point-of-care diagnostic test adoption rates and adoption barriers across rural, regional, and urban veterinary practice settings in Australia and comparable markets.
  • Confirmed that point-of-care test adoption was consistently lower in rural practice settings.
In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) with Non-Adopting Rural Practitioners
  • Conducted 28 structured IDIs with rural veterinary practitioners who had evaluated the client’s test portfolio but had not adopted it.
  • Found that a clear majority of non-adopting practitioners described the tests as clinically valuable and expressed clear desire to use them.
Case Volume & Pricing Threshold Analysis
  • Analysed the IDI findings to identify the specific case volume and per-test pricing thresholds at which rural practitioners described the economics as viable, constructing a demand curve for the rural segment based on practitioner-described willingness to adopt at different price points.
  • Found a clear volume threshold below which the current per-test pricing produced an uneconomic outcome for rural practitioners.
Rural Pricing Architecture & Subscription Model Design
  • Designed a rural practice pricing tier and a bundled reagent subscription model that reduced the effective per-test cost at lower volumes.
  • Modelled the revenue impact of the rural pricing tier against the expected volume uplift from rural adoption.
Rural Market Access & Communication Plan
  • Delivered a rural market access plan specifying how the new pricing tier should be communicated to non-adopting rural practices.

The engagement replaced a coverage explanation with a pricing diagnosis and a specific commercial model fix calibrated to what rural practitioners had actually described as the threshold for adoption.

Impact

  • Market benchmarking confirmed cost-per-test relative to case volume was the most common structural adoption barrier in rural veterinary practice settings.
  • IDIs confirmed a clear majority of non-adopting rural practitioners found the tests clinically valuable but economically unjustifiable at the current pricing.
  • Practitioner IDIs produced a specific pricing threshold and case volume curve for the rural segment.
  • A rural pricing tier and bundled reagent subscription model were designed to the IDI-derived threshold.
  • Revenue modelling confirmed the rural tier would generate net positive revenue versus continued low rural adoption.
  • A direct outreach sequence was designed for practices that had previously evaluated and declined.
  • Rural practice adoption increased substantially within two commercial cycles of the rural pricing tier launch.
  • The rural segment moved from the lowest to one of the higher adoption rate segments within the client’s commercial geography.

Client Outcome

Adoption Recovery

Rural practice adoption increased substantially within two commercial cycles of the rural pricing tier launch.

Pricing Architecture Fixed

A rural pricing tier and bundled subscription model addressed the per-test cost barrier IDIs had identified as the primary non-adoption driver.

Clinical Value Confirmed

IDIs confirmed the clinical value proposition was already working, eliminating the need for product or feature changes.

Volume Threshold Identified

A specific pricing threshold for rural adoption viability was derived from practitioner IDI calculations and used to calibrate the new tier.

Revenue Model Validated

The rural pricing tier was confirmed as net revenue positive against continued low adoption before it was launched.

Direct Outreach

Previously non-adopting rural practices received targeted communication acknowledging the pricing change and inviting reconsideration.

Coverage Explanation Retired

The sales coverage explanation for rural underperformance was replaced by a specific pricing diagnosis supported by practitioner evidence.

Segment Repositioning

Rural practices moved from a below-projection segment to a growing adoption cohort within the client's commercial geography.

Market Positioning

The diagnostics company was repositioned as a rural veterinary practice partner with a commercial model built around rural practice economics rather than an urban-average pricing approach.

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