Perception is Reality

Posted by Scott Provost, Percepta

There are times each year when our clients just need a little extra help to get things done.  There are a lot of reasons that this is true – internal staffing shortfalls, impending strategic planning, management pressing project time lines, initiative de jour  – you name it.  This of course always causes stress for the marketing manager that needs to get things done within a defined time frame. 

In a former life, when I was a marketing manager at a well known biotools company, I had a project that required some “voice of customer” market research and I had no one and no time to do it.  I looked externally for the help I needed and hired a large local consulting firm with a group that could conduct telephone interviews.  I learned the hard way that, while they were well meaning, they were not familiar with the biotools industry and I ended up working very hard to help them get the interviews done.  Even with that, they botched many of the interviews by mispronouncing the technical terms which looked bad and irritated the participants.  Worse yet, I learned too late that they missed the truly valuable customer cues because they didn’t know when or how to ask a follow up question.  They just blindly moved onto the next question like a robocaller.   It would have been better if I had done it all myself which sort of defeated the purpose of getting help.  

When you need help it really pays to get someone with specific experience.  Just because a plumber works on pipes and water doesn’t mean he is qualified to fix your hydraulic lift (if you had one).   Ok maybe that is an odd example but the point is - for biotools companies seeking help with things like strategic planning (including product development), brand development, market research, public relations and social media planning you need someone with the right experience.  These are NOT cookie cutter undertakings that just any old marketing consultancy can take on successfully for a biotools company.  

While Percepta is very comfortable with most of these activities, we would not claim to be qualified in Public Relations or Social Media Planning (but we know who is and would happly refer you to them).

The lesson here is to be sure you are vetting your external support carefully and when you find a good firm, think seriously about sticking with them.  You will both benefit. 

As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome.    

I Want You - to tell us what you want

Posted by Scott Provost, Percepta

Percepta offers a lot of different marketing services besides market research, but market research seems to be a popular area of interest.  We offer a series of segment specific market research reports that are popular (The Life Science Dashboards), but we also like to publish complimentary reports a few time a year for our colleagues in the industry.  Recently we published a report on the stimulus funding for life science research in the US as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Previously we published a report on the customer’s perspective on life science manuafacturing in low cost countries.  Now we want your input.

What would you like to see Percepta focus on in the next free report?  Give us your comments below and we will choose from the best suggestions. Then we will conduct the research, write the report and post if for a free download.  The next topic is up to you so now is the time to let us know.

Sustained Growth

Posted by Scott Provost, Percepta

As everyone knows, the Great Recession or 2008 and 2009 has taken its toll on most industries and the biotools supply industry is no exception.  However, there is real evidence that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting a bit brighter.  Stimulus dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 have finally started to find their way to biotools companies’ revenue reporting.  Recently Bruker, a leading European supplier of analytical instruments with more than $1 billion in revenues, reported at an August Investor Presentation (give the PDF link a moment to load) that they have already realized greater than $10 million in stimulus funded revenues in US markets and anticipated as much of as 20% or more of their revenue could come from global stimulus efforts.  That bodes well for the biotools industry.  But the big question for all biotools companies is – will growth be sustainable or just a windfall? 

Percepta Associates recently reported that more than more than 80% of the roughly $9 billion to be distributed by the NIH as extramural grants will be hitting research budgets between now and February 2010. Ideally the stimulus will create new jobs and researchers report that new hiring is in the plans of many research laboratories.  Job creation stands a better chance to contribute to a sustained growth in the biotools industry because more researchers will presumably perform more research, which means they will use more equipment, consumables, materials and reagents.

It remains to be seen if the global stimulus efforts will promote sustainable growth, but smart biotools companies are preparing for all possibilities.  While sales departments are actively vying for the influx of funding with their current product portfolios, marketing managers should be planning for the next generation of products that will deliver true value.  Knowing what value is to the end-user is a critical part of delivering it. Has your company taken the time to understand what is important to your customers or are you assuming you know?  Trusting in assumptions is a very risky undertaking and if you have not recently polled your customers to understand their needs in detail you may be wasting valuable time and resources.   If you follow the current marketing thought leaders you will know how important it is to profile your customers and make sure you are tailoring the right message to the right end-users.  If you are not sure how to do this, Percepta can help.  Contact us any time with questions or add your comments, which are always welcome.    

Directed Evolution

There has certainly been a lot of content generated recently about the virtues of the “new marketing” and the focus on niche segments, consumer to consumer communication, and permission vs. interruption approaches.  Is it a real revolution or a fad?  The question we prefer is: what’s the difference?  So let’s see what your average dictionary says about these terms.

Revolution - noun: a sudden, complete or marked change in something

Fad – noun: a temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct, etc., especially one followed enthusiastically by a group

Certainly there are elements of both definitions that are applicable to the new marketing.  It is relatively sudden but far from complete, and it is clearly followed enthusiastically by many but perhaps too early to call permanent (though we believe it is not likely to be temporary).  It is also a marked change from the tactics of decades of marketing, especially for the biotools industry.  While some industries have embraced the tools of the new marketing such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like, and have spent countless keystrokes of content on the boundless blogisphere, the biotools industry has been slow to embrace this new realm. Why is that?  Maybe it is a problem of evolution.

In Seth Godin’s nauseatingly titled, but insightful book Meatball Sundae, he points out the importance of embracing the “fashion and stories and permission and promises” of the new marketing because the old marketing is “caveman marketing”.  He has a point.  We all are saturated with in-your-face, look-at-me, push, push, push carpet bombing marketing campaigns, or as Godin calls it “interruption marketing”.   The web has made this type of marketing easier to do – but also easy to ignore.  After all a mouse click is easier than turning a page.  Last time I looked cavemen either evolved or lost out to natural selection.

So why not play to the web’s strength and let natural selection, a well understood biological paradigm, run its course?  As all life scientists understand, natural selection relies on countless random changes leading to an eventual and inevitable successful combination creating a competitive advantage.  But timing is everything.  We prefer to think of the new marketing as a healthy dose of directed evolution.

Adapt to the new environment.  That means changing. Translated to the biotools industry, Godin and other’s are actually saying you may need to change a lot about the way you try to get your customer’s attention.  Show them your cool new stuff but don’t interrupt them (in-your-face marketing) to do so.  Be confident the cool new stuff actually is going to help your customer because permission marketing is about the customer, not your products or services.  In fact, you may need to let go and just give away some value. If they like it they will want it and come back.  If they don’t like it then you learned something valuable. 

Maybe that is not such a huge change after all.  Successful biotools companies educate their customers (translation: provide relevant and informative content) and add value (translation: risk giving something valuable away because it will be useful to customers) and gain loyalty (translation: build trust by keeping promises).

Percepta can help you evolve when you are ready.

Directed Evolution