March 2008, Issue 2
Welcome to the latest issue of the G2D newsletter!
Newsletter Contents
• Report Spotlight: Managing Customers in Changing Times: Effective Selling Through Mergers & Acquisitions
• Coming Soon: Supplier Switching Dynamics: Tips for Holding On and Breaking Through
• Upcoming Webinars: Reserve Your Space Now
• Save the Date: 2008 Life Science Industry Awards
• Methodology Spotlight: Ad Effectiveness Testing
• Blog Spotlight: Effective Strategies for Print and Online Catalogs
Managing Customers in Changing Times: Effective Selling Through Mergers & Acquisitions serves as an invaluable guide to ensuring that your customers remain satisfied and loyal through corporate mergers and acquisitions. While brand consolidation can offer great benefits to suppliers, there are also a number of potential pitfalls, from market confusion to logistical difficulties that may or may not affect the customer. This report provides crucial insights whether you are part of a deal or searching for weaknesses in your competition as they navigate a new organizational structure.
Recent years have seen a flurry of merger and acquisition and consolidation activity among life science suppliers. However, acquisitions within the life science market may have a more significant impact on the customer base, and raise significantly more concern among customers, than acquisitions in other markets. Specifically, life scientists often design their research around very specific reagents, tools, and instruments that are supplied by a limited number of suppliers -- sometimes only from one. As such, any business decisions or actions that could impact the availability of those materials to the scientist in the specific form and nature required could have a dramatic effect on his/her research. While most scientists are realists in terms of their understanding that companies will be acquired and sold, many express significant concern over the impact of ongoing merger and acquisition activity in this space on their ability to continue their research and for the drive toward new product development and innovation to continue.
Managing Customers in Changing Times: Effective Selling Through Mergers & Acquisitions provides insights from over 800 life scientists on mergers and acquisitions. In particular, the report assesses how purchasing behavior is impacted; how scientists typically learn of mergers and acquisitions; and how suppliers can allay customer concerns and better communicate changes.
This report will help you to...
- Understand customer concerns over the acquisition of suppliers of life science products, tools, and instruments
- Define the rationale behind such concerns
- Assess changes in purchasing behavior once a scientist has learned that one of his/her leading suppliers has been acquired
- Identify areas where acquiring and acquired companies fail to adequately and effectively communicate with scientists and how to improve
For more information about Managing Customers in Changing Times: Effective Selling Through Mergers & Acquisitions, visit http://www.gene2drug.com/report/auto.191.
BioInformatics will soon be publishing Supplier Switching Dynamics: Tips for Holding On and Breaking Through. This report will explain the life science market dynamics with respect to customer switching and customer retention. Specifically, this report will:
Assess the Market's Potential to Switch Life Science Brands
- Determine the percentage of scientists currently deciding to switch brands
- Identify the major reason scientists do not consider switching brands
- Detail the reasons scientists consider switching brands
- Indicate which brands scientists are considering switching from
Characterize the Who, What, and Why of Customer Switching
- Determine the percentage of scientists who actually have switched brands
- Identify which brands scientists have switched from
- Describe the advantages of new brands over old brands
The report also includes actionable information designed to help vendors attract and grow their customer base by:
Preventing and Managing Customer Problems
- Directing resources to vulnerable business areas
- Minimizing problem resolution time
- Identifying potential problems before they occur
- Training personnel to handle potential problems
- Aligning your marketing with customer needs
- Calibrating your service offerings
- Establishing a price buffer
- Developing attractive loyalty programs
- Delivering incentives that increase loyalty
Additionally, the report will contain individual brand profiles of leading life science vendors that present data on their customers' switching intentions and their customers' retention potential.
For more information about Supplier Switching Dynamics: Tips for Holding On and Breaking Through, visit http://www.gene2drug.com/report/auto.192.
Webinar
Managing Customers in Changing Times: Effective Selling Through Mergers & Acquisitions
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT)
Mergers and acquisitions are a fact of life in today's life science market and present tremendous opportunities for company growth and expansion. Yet every corporate change places customer relationships at risk and opens opportunities for your competition. What are the key strategies to retaining customers and building relationships in periods of rapid change and uncertainty? What models of customer relationship management are most effective? How can you increase sales when competitors are in a period of transition? Whether you are part of a deal or searching for weaknesses in your competition as they navigate a new organizational structure, this report is sure to be essential in 2008 and beyond. For more information or to register for this webinar please send an email with your contact information to webinars@gene2drug.com.
Webinar
Supplier Switching Dynamics: Tips for Holding On and Breaking Through
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT)
You have a solid relationship with a client and your products are integral to their research program. But one day you notice sales dropping and wonder why your calls not being returned...you have been supplanted by another supplier and don't know why. Frustrating! Or, maybe you have not been able to penetrate a high value account even though you have a superior product. What can you do to get in the door? These are the two sides of the switching dilemma. For the first time, BioInformatics, LLC examines the drivers behind what motivates buyers to switch brand allegiances. We go beyond the basics of price, service and delivery to provide a thorough analysis of the factors that create "customers for life" and enable you to take advantage of opportunities to secure new accounts. For more information or to register for this webinar please send an email with your contact information to webinars@gene2drug.com.
For more information on our upcoming webinars, visit http://www.gene2drug.com/about/events.asp.
2008 Life Science Industry AwardsThe 2008 Life Science Industry Awards will be announced at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel on June 3, 2008 at a gala event from 5 pm to 8 pm. Leading market research firm BioInformatics, LLC (http://www.gene2drug.com) and The Scientist magazine (http://www.the-scientist.com) again sponsor this year's awards.
BioInformatics, LLC created a detailed 34-question survey that enables scientists to nominate the supplier offering the best overall solution in categories that reflect the range of products used in academic, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and government labs around the world. The ballot also probes for the reasons behind the scientists' choice and for the elements that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The 2008 Life Science Industry Awards gala will be held concurrent with the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The Renaissance Boston Waterfront is located close to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center where thousands of leading scientists will be gathering and hundreds of companies will be exhibiting.
For more information on the awards, past winners, and attending the event, please visit http://www.lifescienceindustryawards.com, including categories, methodology and past winners and finalists!
To ensure that your customers are fully represented, please help us "get out the vote!" Find out how at http://www.lifescienceindustryawards.com/2008/vote.html.
Ad Effectiveness Testing
Using Customer Feedback to Evaluate Ad Concepts
Life science suppliers seek to minimize risk when launching a product by gathering evidence that the product is likely to succeed. However, many suppliers still take a large risk when launching an advertising campaign without evidence it will succeed with their target life science customers. Ad Effectiveness Testing is a cost-saving solution that uses data from actual life scientists to assess the potential impact of ad campaigns and to improve advertising return-on-investment. Results from ad concept tests may serve as either a final seal of approval for a successful ad or an impetus for complete redesign of an ad. In either case, the small investment required to undertake ad testing can justify the cost of an ad campaign or prevent unnecessary expenditures on campaigns that are likely to fail.
Uncovering Feature Importance and Best Overall Instrument Design
For Ad Effectiveness Testing, BioInformatics uses a variety of tools to evaluate print and online advertising concepts. The flagship tool in our arsenal is AdAssay, our proprietary ad testing methodology. Developed using widely accepted attributes of ad effectiveness, AdAssay can assess advertisements in the concept, pre-launch, or post-launch phases. Using this method, advertisements are evaluated by the target audience across four key factors:
- Emotional
- Intellectual
- Actionable
- Negative
AdAssay is a flexible tool that can evaluate multiple ads or a single ad, from any phase in the development process. It provides a cost-effective method of gathering feedback from actual customers before incurring the expense of ad publication. In addition, this technique is an effective tool for ads already in the field so that you can find out if they are having the impact you expected. Using this tool, BioInformatics provides the ability to conduct a quantitative, scientific analysis on scientific ads!
For more information on Ad Effectiveness Testing from BioInformatics, visit http://www.gene2drug.com/bCustom/bComm_effectiveness.asp.
Effective Strategies for Print and Online CatalogsThe researchers at BioInformatics, LLC peer through the Looking Glass to report and comment on trends in the life science tools industry. The following is excerpted from http://marketanalysts.lifescienceexec.com/.
Effective Strategies for Print and Online Catalogs
Posted March 10, 2008 by Bill Kelly
Last week, we released another new report - this time the topic is "Life Science Product Catalogs: Techniques to Increase Sales." In this report we present the perspective of over 1,000 life scientists worldwide regarding their preferences for print and online catalogs, how catalogs influence their ordering and purchasing habits, and which catalogs scientists prefer and use most frequently. Additionally, we analyzed the differences between frequent and infrequent users of catalogs to provide our clients with guidance on optimizing their reach to both groups.
The print and online catalogs from Sigma-Aldrich (NASDAQ:SIAL) are seen by life scientists as being the "most useful" and "easiest to use." However, in ranking the "most visually appealing" catalogs, Invitrogen (NASDAQ:IVGN) ranked tops for online catalog and New England Biolabs took the top spot for print catalog. Catalogs from Bio-Rad Laboratories (AMEX:BIO), Fisher Scientific (a brand of Thermo Fisher Scientific - NYSE:TMO), and QIAGEN (NASDAQ:QGEN) also ranked highly.
Our study focuses on ways that scientific and lab equipment suppliers can optimize the use of print catalogs and maximize the effectiveness of online catalogs through multi-channel integration, customer acquisition, e-commerce, creative copy, and print production. Effectively integrating the catalog into a multi-channel marketing strategy requires brand consistency, message reinforcement, and effective database management. This report will help our clients understand the shifting role of the print catalog and how to effectively use both print and online catalogs in their marketing mix.
For this study, scientists ranked the importance of a number of physical features of print catalogs. Certain eco-friendly catalog options ranked well, but scientists were generally disinterested in other "green" features. Recycled paper was considered very important, and coated paper was considered unimportant. However, annual printings of catalogs ranked even more highly than recycled paper, and scientists were generally disinterested in catalog formats that would allow for updated pages to be inserted.
Our lead analyst, Tamara Zemlo noted that we were able to compare the results of this survey with our findings from 2005, and not surprisingly, we found that online catalogs have made significant gains in that time. For instance, on average scientists now spend 30 minutes more per week using online catalogs than they did in 2005. We also found that, overall, scientists place more of their orders online now than in 2005, however, 42% of scientists indicated that none of their product orders are placed online.
To read the rest of this entry or more thoughts from Bill Kelly, visit the blog at http://marketanalysts.lifescienceexec.com/.
Thank you for reading this issue of the G2D newsletter! As always, I welcome your feedback. Send me your complaints, comments, or compliments at a.donathen@gene2drug.com.
All the best,
Amanda
Amanda Donathen
Marketing Communications Manager
BioInformatics, LLC
2111 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 250
Arlington, VA 22201
TEL: (703) 778-3080 x 14
FAX: (703) 778-3081
a.donathen@gene2drug.com
http://www.gene2drug.com
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