How does a huddle differ from a playbook? It's live, it's interactive and it inspires synergy! Suppliers turn to focus groups when they seek intuition, brainstorming and new ways to think about market and product development challenges. Find out below how we can help you apply "method to the madness" of a focus group discussion. And for summer reading, take a look at BioInformatics President Bill Kelly's article in the new magazine targeted toward life science executives, the Life Science Leader, and the terrific, never-before-offered sale on our 2008 marketing reports. Also, please keep in mind that the pre-release pricing on our hot-off-the-press market research report, Exploring the Epigenetics Market: Opportunities for Product Placement and Innovation, ends on July 31, 2009.

Enjoy,


Mary Follin
Marketing/Sales Manager
BioInformatics, LLC
703.778.3080 ext. 13
m.follin@gene2drug.com

Summer Sale — Shop 'til you Drop Buy One Report at Half Off — Get One FREE! Check out our spicy beach reading for the dog days of August—steamy tales of how scientists use social media and sizzling tidbits about advertising to life scientists. And who can resist the epoch tale of how to improve sales reps' performance? Buy a single report at half the original price, and choose a freebie from the remaining titles. Order up a pina colada and park yourself on a lounge chair for some smart summer reading!  This promotion ends on August 31.

Reports included in the Summer Sale: eMarketing to Life Scientists: Amplify Your Message (#07-001)
Marketing online: cheap, fast and easy. But are you reaching your target audience, or being relegated to "no—click" status and spam folders? Understand how life scientists react and respond to various eMarketing strategies including email, webinars & podcasts, forums & blogs, and banner advertisements. Over 1,000 life science professionals weighed in to help you maximize your eMarketing dollars!

eCommerce Strategies for the Life Science Market (#07-011)
Everyone does business online, but not everyone does it well. How effective is your strategy at reaching the life science community online? This report analyzes responses from 1,200 life science professionals who are authorized to purchase, and details the critical elements of an effective eCommerce strategy.

Improving Sales Rep Performance: Life Scientists' Perspectives (#07-015)
Enhance your reps' effectiveness in an increasingly competitive and electronic-based market from recruitment and training to understanding customer expectations and evaluating your sales force's performance.

Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in the Life Sciences: Boosting Profits through Exceptional Service and Support (#07-056)
"Promise only what you can deliver; and deliver more than you promise." To build enduring loyalty, you must constantly exceed your customers' expectations. Learn to engage your customers—not only to keep their business, but also to build referrals and generate new leads. Keep your customers happy after the sale by understanding what your customers expect, and optimizing your service and support staff to improve your customer service offerings. With this report you will quickly understand how to create loyal customers who are emotionally attached to your high level of service.

Marketing to Life Scientists: Capturing Customers' Attention in Applied Markets (#08-001)
Deliver the right message to the right audience. Learn the preferences of scientists in three dynamic markets: molecular diagnostics, agricultural biotech and biodefense. This report analyzes trends, needs and purchasing behavior in these applied markets. Learn what these scientists prefer with respect to print catalogs, Web sites, direct mail, sales representatives, print advertisements and scientific conferences.

Advertising to Life Scientists: Resolving the Print vs. Online Dilemma (#08-002)
This report provides insight as to how scientists perceive online and traditional campaigns. You will learn how to optimize steps in ad creation, design, placement and tracking based on how scientists are exposed to and react to advertisements.

Conference and Exhibit Strategies in the Life Sciences: What's Working Now (#08-003)
Know in advance what your customers expect and what motivates them to engage your representatives, ultimately developing new leads and driving sales. When asked: "Was our participation worth it?" be able to answer "YES!" each and every time.

Life Science Product Catalogs: Techniques to Increase Sales (#08-004)
The "green" revolution is in full swing, and many marketers are curious to see if the print catalog is facing extinction. Understanding the differences in how scientists use print and online catalogs will allow suppliers to synergize their efforts into a cohesive strategy utilizing the strengths of both formats. Learn how to maintain multi-channel brand consistency, reinforce top-of-mind awareness, and recognize long-term trends by analyzing a multi-year dataset.

Understanding Switching Dynamics: Maximizing Customer Retention in the Life Sciences (#08-006)
"Switching" dynamics play a large, but often under-examined factor in your two basic marketing and sales goals: acquiring new customers and keeping old ones. This report will help you determine when a customer is vulnerable to switching — away from you or the other guy.

Instrument Service Contracts: Opportunities for Differentiation (#08-008)
Expensive lab equipment needs to be maintained, calibrated and repaired. As customers become more demanding and instruments more complicated, use this market overview & competitive analysis to evaluate and optimize contract offerings to better meet your clients' unique needs. Balance risk, quality and cost while improving customer satisfaction and profitability.

New Report The Epigenetics Market July 31, 2009 is the deadline for taking advantage of pre-release pricing for this report.

Our latest report, Exploring the Epigenetics Market: Opportunities for Product Placement and Innovation, is designed to provide guidance to life science suppliers selling products that support epigenetic research involving chromosome immunoprecipitation (chIP).

This report will help you identify:

• Processes and techniques scientists use to study epigenetics correlated with research goals
• Anticipated change in percent of time/effort devoted to epigenetics research over the next several years
• Comparison of 2008 and 2009 expenditures on chIP consumables
• Key sources of information (i.e., scientific journals and conferences) that epigenetics researchers use to stay abreast of their field
• Throughput and multiplex expectations for chIP assays
• Prevalence of chIP kits and chIP-grade antibodies versus "do it yourself" chIP assays and researcher-validated antibodies for chIP assays
• Leading suppliers of chIP assay kits and chIP-grade antibodies
• Critical problems with chIP protocols and antibodies and the prioritization of specific improvements
• Species, clonality, and target requirements for chIP-grade antibodies
• Suppliers of non chIP-grade antibodies used in chIP assays
• Validation issues associated with non chIP-grade antibodies
• Comparison of chIP-Chip and chIP-Seq techniques
• Degree of interest in conducting whole genome analysis studies
• Leading suppliers of chIP-Chip arrays and chIP-Seq systems

Please contact me if you would like to review the questions we used to survey the scientists for this study. For more information on the scope and pricing of this report, download the free executive summary.

Strategic & Technical Intelligence:
A Prerequisite for Life Science Success Life Science Leader, July 2009
By: Bill Kelly, President and Co-founder, BioInformatics LLC

Given the dynamic nature of the life sciences industry coupled with its high financial stakes, it is prudent for a pharmaceutical company to expand its market intelligence program beyond the short-term needs of management and brand teams. Ultimately, however, a company's long-term competitiveness depends upon the skill of its researchers in utilizing cellular and molecular biology and medicinal chemistry to discover, develop, and commercialize naturally occurring proteins, antibodies, and small molecules. As the pace of biological research increases, pharmaceutical companies must increasingly monitor strategic developments in the world's scientific community in order to ensure their R&D scientists are fully aware of breakthroughs, emerging trends, promising approaches, and new platform technologies.

Data from the National Science Foundation indicates that only a small fraction of the billions of dollars pharmaceutical companies invest is directed at understanding the impact of basic scientific research on drug discovery and fostering a relationship with scientists who are engaged today in research that will inform tomorrow's drug discovery. However, forward-thinking life science executives are beginning to recognize that a pharma company's competitive intelligence program must provide access to invaluable scientific and medical insights before they are published in journals or presented at scientific and medical conferences. Read more

Bill Kelly is president and co-founder of BioInformatics LLC, a market research firm serving life sciences clients. He has 25 years experience providing senior decision makers with timely and accurate information products. He has conducted hundreds of market research assignments in support of market entry, strategic positioning, marketing, and product launch initiatives.

Market Research Expertise Focus Groups Sometimes, a survey just doesn't cut it. When market intelligence demands intuition, synergy and human interaction, suppliers turn to focus groups to gather information. The group dynamic can provide insights—and surprises—that a single respondent may not be inspired to produce. Focus group members play off each other to clarify needs, generate ideas, and reveal unexpected information that supports product and marketing strategy.

Our team of market research professionals and scientific experts has conducted hundreds of hours of qualitative research (Live Focus Groups, Web-based Focus Groups, IDIs, Online Bulletin Boards etc.) and are well-versed in all areas of study-design, project implementation and analysis. Our unique knowledge of the life science market coupled with our methodological expertise allows us to provide our clients with well-planned, smoothly run, informative discussion groups—often resulting in new trajectories and unexpected outcomes.

Some examples of topics we have explored through this type of research include:

• Product Concept Testing

• Marketing trends and needs among clinical researchers
• New Market Assessment
• Web site usability testing and functionality needs assessment

BioInformatics institutes a rigorous, time-tested process when conducting focus group projects. While our team has the knowledge and experience to take a project from inception to completion, we believe that the client is best served by working closely with the product management team.

For more information on how we can help you organize a focus group, please call me at 703.778.3080 extension 13, or email me at m.follin@gene2drug.com.

Industry Perspective Social Media, FDA and the Life Sciences Industry Posted on April 10, 2009 By Clifford Mintz on BioJobBlog Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent warning letters to 14 different pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to advise them that their approach to Internet advertising is violating federal pharmaceutical advertising and marketing guidelines and regulations. While the agency's attempt to regulate Internet-based drug advertising is laudable, the fact that warning letters were sent to 14 different life sciences companies means that there is a poor understanding of the regulations regarding use of Internet—and more recently, social media—to market and advertise drugs, medical devices and diagnostics. This isn't surprising because FDA has yet to issue any meaningful guidance on the use of the Internet and social media to market life sciences industry products. The reluctance of the agency to issue guidance is very puzzling—the use of web based-advertising and social media by life sciences companies has exploded in the past few years. Read more

Ask-a-Scientist Results Like many stem cell pioneers, Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the sheep, has embraced an alternative approach. Are induced pluripotent stem cells the beginning of the end for embryonic cloning?