branding or lead generation? - laboratory · pdf file · 2014-12-02the linus group...

THE RIGHT MIX IN MAXIMIZING REVENUES FOR LAB PRODUCTS

FEBRUARY 11, 2014HAMID GHANADAN - PRESIDENTTHE LINUS GROUP

BRANDING OR LEAD GENERATION?

PRESENTED BY:

AGENDATHE DYNAMICS OF THE LAB MARKETTHE TRADITIONAL MODEL OF SCIENCE MARKETING

BRANDING VERSUS LEAD GENERATIONPERSUADING SCIENTISTS

BUILDING A BALANCED MARKETING MIXTHE SIX COGNITIVE SHORTCUTS THAT PEOPLE USE TO MAKE A DECISION

PREPARED BY THE LINUS GROUP

THE BRAND/PRODUCT MARKETING PARADOX

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Science Marketer

“My job is to maximize revenues.Why should I bother with branding?”

Most companies concentrate the majority of their activities on short-term revenue generation. Whether companies believe in the power of brands or not, the majority of budgets are at the product marketing level, where marketers have an obligation to demonstrate Return on Investment. In fact, in our survey of the state of life science marketing, brand building and management ranked fifth on a list of 8 priorities, and only 12% of all outbound messages were brand messages.

In these organizations, brands are typically managed, meaning through controlling the form factor of communications; these are templates and look-and-feel schemas that are usually resisted amongst product marketers, because they feel too boxed in and unable to truly express their specific value propositions through.

And who is to blame the product marketers? They have hard numbers they need to hit. They have very stressed sales teams that are under tremendous, unprecedented competitive pressure, banging on their doors. They need to achieve their revenue objectives. Brand building should be someone else’s job. With someone else’s money.

Right? Well, not completely.

I call this the brand/product paradox. And this line of thinking produces several negative effects.


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As a marketer or a commercialization executive, chances are you are focused entirely

on generating revenue opportunity for your company’s products or services.

What are your biggest obstacles?


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Company Perspectives

Customer Perspectives

Competitors Perspectives


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Company Perspectives Not enough resources

• Shrinking budgets makes it difficult to rise above the fray

• Smaller staff and lack of technical expertise

• Organizational complexity

Typical Obstacles:

Competitors Perspectives Unprecedented competitive pressures

• Massive consolidation

• Channel exclusivity

• Product parity and commodi#cation

Customer Perspectives In complete control

• More difficult to reach, and even more difficult to build relationship with

• Equal (or greater) power in communication than the company

• More demanding of transparency


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How do you succeed in such a difficult, rapidly changing landscape?


THE TRADITIONAL MARKETING MIX

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Let’s build the traditional marketing funnel through tactics, as practiced by most science companies.

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OUTBOUND

ONLINE BANNERSADVERTISING

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Typical marketing programs involve a series of outbound tactics to drive “awareness” of the offering through channels such as tradeshow appearances, advertising or direct solicitations.


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OUTBOUND LEAD GEN.


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In most companies, outbound tactics are measured by the number of leads generated.


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OUTBOUND LEAD GEN. NURTURE OPPORTUNITY

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In some companies, leads are then nurtured in order to generate “sales opportunities” through follow-up communications using content and promotions. This used to be a function of sales, but more and more, this function is now part of marketing’s domain.


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OUTBOUND LEAD GEN. NURTURE OPPORTUNITY SALE GROWTH

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Once leads are converted to opportunities, they are then handed off to a sales channel for conversion and growth. Marketing still supports this function through sales enablement tactics.


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This traditional funnel is slowly shifting with two major technology shifts.



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SOCIAL MEDIA

Virtually every science marketer (93.2%) is currently

engaged in some sort of social media activity.

This traditional Social media has changed the front part of this funnel. Marketers can now cultivate a market and use social media for managing outbound, lead generation, nurture, all the way to opportunity generation.



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Over half (56%) of science marketers are currently

(36%) or are planning to implement automation in

the next 12 months.

The other major shift


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Close to 70% of companies’ discretionary marketing

budgets are spent by this stage.


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Typical lead generation success rate

across all channels: ~1% - 2%


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Is your marketing mix as optimized, efficient and productive as you need it to be?


BRANDING VS. LEAD GENERATION

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The Dangers of Lead Generation

1. Your brand is synonymous with a technology.

If you are successful with your product marketing efforts and the brand isn’t managed properly, your brand becomes associated with a product. Not necessarily a bad thing, until the company wants to diversify in order to maintain its growth strategies. I can’t tell you how often we are approached by companies who complain that they’re only known for one major product, and that their brand is hindering them from entering new markets, or even from being able to sell other products to their own customer base. “They only think of us for product X, and never think of us for product Y” they lament. I dare say, this is a self-created problem.


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2. Product-line Messages Compete with One Another.

The second problem has to do with the paradox between product-centric marketing and brand-centric templatizing and policing. Two ads from the same company appear in proximity with one another. One touts reliability, while the other touts innovation. A third ad, from another product line touts ease-of-use. Which is it? While all of the ads look the same, and may even employ the same tone, they’re demonstrating different things. In total, the company stands for nothing. A truly wasted opportunity.

Here’s why it’s a wasted opportunity.


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3. Your brand becomes de"ned my your market.

Here’s the third, and perhaps the most troubling effect of the brand-product paradox.

Every company has a brand. It stands for something. If you don’t define it, your competitors will define your brand for you. “those guys are the cheap knock-offs,” they’ll say. Or “Yep, that technology sounds great, but we haven’t heard of any actual installations in a customer’s lab that’s working.” This will most likely create a reactive stance by product marketing, who will go into full-tilt boogie to combat those “vicious lies” from the competition. Too bad the company’s brand didn’t stand for reliability, for example, in such a way that customers would have a difficult time believing that a company who had historically been known as reliable would put out a product that didn’t perform, raising the suspicions about the competitor, and not about your brand.

Most companies I know go to great lengths to control all of the information about themselves. The company’s brand is totally in your control. Why not control it to your advantage?

It actually pays to manage your brand. Literally.


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The Opportunity:

Brands impute. Marketing Slogans Raise Skepticism.

Brands have the ability to motivate people to action. On the other hand, slogans and headlines actually have the exact opposite effect.


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26%39%

et me describe a research project that demonstrated this. A group of researchers exposed a cohort of shoppers to brands that stood for luxury (such as Jaguar) and savings (such as Walmart), and then asked them to go shopping online for unrelated products. Wouldn’t you know it? The companies that were pre-exposed to luxury brands spent 26% more than a control group, whereas the group pre-exposed to savings brands spent 39% less. Wouldn’t you like to have that level of control over your customers?


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Save Money. Live Better. The Power of Luxury.

29% 26%

Here’s where the research became even more interesting: They took another batch, and instead of exposing them to brands that stand for luxury and savings, they exposed them to headlines and slogans that encouraged savings or luxury, prior to shopping. Here, the slogans had the exact opposite effect: The group exposed to luxury slogans actually bought 26% LESS than the control group, and the ones exposed to savings brands spent 29% MORE than the control group.

Do you know why? Because no one trusts a slogan. They see it as biased attempts of manipulation. But brands are symbols of experience. They demonstrate the value through time, instead of just saying it.


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"At the end, we ended up buying Waters. ey just provide that extra 10% mojo."

Respondent 11—Principal InvestigatorTechnology & Budget Approver/Large PharmaUnited States


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Your brand isn’t what you say. It’s what you do.


WHY?

HOW?SOME PEOPLE KNOWHOW THEY DO IT

WHAT?

VERY FEW PEOPLE KNOWWHY THEY DO IT

EVERY SINGLE PERSON KNOWSWHAT THEY DO

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.


THE GOLDEN CIRCLES


SINEK

WHY?

HOW?

WE MAKE COMPUTERS WHAT?


THE GOLDEN CIRCLES


SINEK

WE BUILD THEM FROM PRE-FABRICATED PARTS TO GIVE YOU LOTS OF CHOICES

HOW?



THE GOLDEN CIRCLES


WHY? WE BELIEVE IN CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO

BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED, SIMPLE TO USE PRODUCTS

HOW?


SINEK

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http://youtu.be/rdIWKytq_q4

http://youtu.be/rdIWKytq_q4


THE GOLDEN CIRCLES


WHY? GOOD IS NEVER GOOD ENOUGH

WE PUSH THE BOUNDARIES HOW?

WE MAKE PREMIUM ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENTS

WHAT?


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PERSUADING SCIENTISTS

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EMOTION

LOGIC

EGO

HUMAN DECISION DRIVERS What is the truth?

How will I feel?How will others view me?

As humans, scientists are generally driven by not just logic alone. Emotion and Ego play a big role in every decision that we as humans make.


CURIOSITY

SKEPTICISM


The practice of science trains the brain to dynamically go back and forth between curiosity and skepticism.


SUBJECTIVITYOBJECTIVITY

CURIOSITY

SKEPTICISM


If we boil down the logic/emotion spectrum, we can plot it against the scientific brain and create a map that tells us how a scientist might act if presented with information (or ‘stimuli’)



CURIOSITY

SKEPTICISM

CCreativity

FFiltering




CURIOSITY

SKEPTICISM

HHypothesis CCreativity

VValidation FFiltering


2. EXPLORATION 3. EVALUATION

FC

FH

FV

1. RECOGNITION


The scientific buying journey starts with recognition about a need. Here, creativity must be activated.

It then progresses to exploration of all the paths that are available. Here, the scientist is looking to form a hypothesis.

Finally once a hypothesis is reached, then the scientist will evaluate the commercial options. Here, he is looking to validate his hypothesis.

2. EXPLORATION 3. EVALUATION1. RECOGNITION

FC

PERSUASION

FH

PERSUASION

FV

PERSUASION


Typical marketing programs use the same type of slogans that activate skepticism.



3. EVALUATION1. RECOGNITION

FC

FH

FV

2. EXPLORATION1. RECOGNITION

TO ENABLE A HYPOTHESIS, MARKETERS NEED TO PROVIDE BALANCED CONTENT, DEVOID OF BIAS.

EDUCATIONTO ALLOW VALIDATION OF HYPOTHESIS, MARKETERS NEEDS TO SIMULATE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

PERSUASIONTO ACTIVATE CURIOSITY, MARKETERS NEED TO ASSERT A PROVOCATIVE POINT OF VIEW.

LEADERSHIP

√ √


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LEADERSHIP EDUCATION PERSUASION


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Your brand isn’t what you say. It’s what you do.

Leadership is your brand.


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1. RECOGNITION 2. EXPLORATION 3. EVALUATION

TO ENABLE A HYPOTHESIS, MARKETERS NEED TO PROVIDE BALANCED CONTENT, DEVOID OF BIAS.

EDUCATIONTO ALLOW VALIDATION OF HYPOTHESIS, MARKETERS NEEDS TO SIMULATE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

PERSUASIONTO ACTIVATE CURIOSITY, MARKETERS NEED TO ASSERT A PROVOCATIVE POINT OF VIEW.

LEADERSHIP

1. Challenge the Status Quo. Reframe the world.

2. Provide guided education. 3. Tailor the offering to take control of the sale.


BUILDING A BALANCED MARKETING MIX

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"Leadership is earned through acts of service. A leader is the servant to his community."

Hamid. And many others.


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Bring thought-leadership to your community as an act of service.


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SITUATION ANALYSISMarketing campaign development requires objective, actionable insights about the interrelated dynamics.

COMPANY DYNAMICSThe various assets that the company is bringing to market, which include differentiating technology, or brand loyalty.

Assessment Methods- Interview with Company Stakeholders- Content Audit- SWOT Analysis

COMPANY


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COMPETITIVE DYNAMICSThe competitive content and offerings that comprise the collective market conversation.

Assessment Methods- Competitive Communications Analysis- Social Media Analysis

COMPANY

COMPETITION


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CUSTOMER PERCEPTIONSThe beliefs, biases, and behaviors of the target audiences.

Assessment Methods- Market Research (especially qualitative studies)- Social Media Analysis- Big Data AnalyticsCUSTOMERS

COMPANY

COMPETITION


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SYNTHESISA narrative about the world that is close to the unbiased truth.

CUSTOMERS

COMPANY

COMPETITION


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COMPANY DYNAMICS

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

POSITIVES NEGATIVES

INTRINSIC

EXTRINSIC

COMPETITIVE

COMPANY 1COMPANY 2COMPANY 3COMPANY 4

APPLICATIONS

TECHNOLOGYSERVICE & SUPPORT

WORKFLOW45%

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

BRAND & OTHER


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COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS

COMPETITIVE

COMPANY 1COMPANY 2COMPANY 3COMPANY 4

APPLICATIONS

TECHNOLOGYSERVICE & SUPPORT

WORKFLOW45%

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

BRAND & OTHER


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ATTRIBUTE A

ATTRIBUTE –A

ATTRIBUTE BATTRIBUTE –B

Narrative 1

Narrative 3 Narrative 4

Narrative 2


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ATTRIBUTE A

ATTRIBUTE –A

ATTRIBUTE BATTRIBUTE –B MY CO

A COD CO

B CO E CO

C CO


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July 31, 2013

CUSTOMER DYNAMICS



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July 31, 2013

CUSTOMER DYNAMICS

INNOVATORS2.5%

EARLY ADOPTERS 13.5% EARLY MAJORITY 34% LATE MAJORITY 34%LAGGARDS

16%


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CUSTOMER DYNAMICS BRAND USAGE IN A SUBSET OF THE YEAST COMMUNITY!CELL BIOLOGY IMAGING"

Vytas BankaitisTexas A & M

Jeremy Thorner UC Berkeley

Charlie BooneU. Toronto

John PringleStanford

BRAND AOTHER BRANDDISTANCE = DEPTH OF COLLABORATION

Dave DrubinUC Berkeley

Scott EmrCornell


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SYNTHESISA narrative about the world that is close to the unbiased truth.

CUSTOMERS

COMPANY

COMPETITION


ARCHITECTING EFFECTIVE MARKETING PROGRAMS


ARCHITECTING A CONTENT-CENTRIC CAMPAIGN

1. Develop a pro forma funnel and identify the speci!c goals of your objective.

2. Determine the barriers that will impede progress through the funnel.

3. Develop the necessary content that will facilitate movement through the funnel.

4. Determine the optimal channel mix for funnel activity.

THE FOUR STEPS TO A STRONG CAMPAIGN ARCHITECTURE



AUDIENCE SIZE LEADS NURTURE OPPORTUNITIES CUSTOMERS

Total number of labs or customers

Leads we need Opportunities from leads per month

Sales success rate Target number of customers

35,000 7,575 20% 33% 500

Extrinsic Calculated Measure of campaign strength

Measure of sales strength

Constant

1. CREATE A PRO FORMA FUNNEL AND IDENTIFY SPECIFIC MILESTONES.

This is an exercise that is best done in close collaboration with sales.



EDUCATION PERSUASIONLEADERSHIP

2. IDENTIFY BARRIERS THAT WILL IMPEDE YOUR PROGRESS.

Brand AwarenessReachCompetitive NoiseNovelty/Uniqueness

Peer ValidationScienti#c CredibilityCommodity Status

Brand CredibilitySales Team CoverageDemo IntensityDemonstrable Support



3. DEVELOP THE BEST CONTENT THAT WILL OVERCOME THE BARRIERS.

Start Here

What content would lead your audience to your conclusion?How will you obtain this information?How much of the information can you repurpose through time?


In mapping the content, it is always best to start with the educational content.

The educational content typically demonstrates the proof points behind your assertion in the marketplace.

It also requires the most heavylifting for the campaign

Last, it de!nes the technology machinery you will need to build for your campaign.




Then Go Here

What content will get the attention of the audience segment we are looking for?What kind of interaction will it inspire?


Much of the leadership content revolves around the big debates and !ssures in the market:

GWAS vs. NGS is a well-documented debate, for example.

Top-down vs. Bottom-up proteomics is another.

In developing a leadership message, focus on a thought-provoking message that cuts the market like a knife, AND focuses on needs. Effective leadership content often inspires debate. Embrace con#ict.

Make sure you don’t alienate people. There’s a big difference between being provocative and being deprecating.

Most companies don’t have enough con!dence in themselves to be great leaders in the marketplace, and they hide behind hyperbole.




Finally, Go Here

What is the most direct way to simulate the feeling of becoming our customer?What are the indirect ways to simulate the customer experience?What do sales teams need?


In developing the persuasive content, think about this: When customer is evaluating you, solving his scienti!c challenge is table-stakes. What often pushes him over the fence is how accurately you can demonstrate how you will take care of him as a customer. What will the relationship be after he’s made the purchase?

Develop the most direct type(s) of content in order to simulate the customer experience.

Here, brand is often an important part of the evaluation cycle.


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4. DETERMINE THE OPTIMAL MARKETING MIX OF TACTICS


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Critical facets to developing a strong content architecture:

First, engineer the future state. Then dissect the future state into speci"c, measurable speci"c milestones. Architect the path to reach each speci"c milestone.

Stay laser-focused on each speci"c milestone.

Let your assumptions about barriers dictate the content you need to develop. Let the content dictate the vehicles you should employ.

Apply budgets to your biggest bottlenecks.


SIX COGNITIVE SHORTCUTS

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The human brain does not rely on logic to make decisions.


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1.Reciprocity People feel more obligated to say yes to those who you owe.

1. People feel more obligated to say yes to those who you owe. “Restaurant: Waiter gives a ‘gift’: A mint right at the same time as the bill, diners provide a higher tip value (3% higher). If two mints were provided, tips quadruple (14%). If waiter provides a single mint, pauses, turns back and brings a second mint, tips increase by 23%. Be the first to give, and make sure it’s personalized and unexpected.


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2.Scarcity People want more of the things they can have less of.

2. People want more those things they can have less of. British Airways discontinued the Concorde, then sales went through the roof. Twinkies? It’s not enough to tell your benefits. It’s important to show what’s unique AND what they stand to lose by not considering your proposals.


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3.AuthorityPeople are more likely to listen to an authoritative !gure.

3. Authority commands a ‘yes’ more often than those. People give change for a parking meter much more readily to someone in a uniform than someone not. Problem is, how do you command authority? Researchers find that someone doing it for you is the best way. Doesn’t matter the introducer is connected, or is even likely to benefit from the relationship themselves. Receptionist who drops the colleague’s expertise increased the number of contracts significantly (20% rise in appointments and 15% more contracts)


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4.ConsistencyPeople strive to be consistent with their past actions.

4. People want to be consistent with their past actions. Researchers found that few people would be willing to erect an ugly sign on their lawn indicating “Drive Slowly”. But in another neighborhood, families were 4X more willing to erect the exact sign. Why? Because 10 days previously, they had received a postcard on in the mail with the front saying “Drive Slowly” and the back instructing them to display this small postcard on their home window. The small card was a pre-commitment. Try to get voluntary, active and public commitments in writing as a prelude to the main commitment. IE: Reduced missed appointments just by asking patients to write down their own appointments on the appt card.


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5.LikingPeople are more likely to agree with others who resemble them.

5. People do business with people they like. What does this mean? We like people who are similar to us. Who pay us compliments, and who collaborate with us towards a common goal. In an experiment where two groups were asked to negotiate, one group was told “time is money. Get down to negotiations”. 55% were able to come to an agreement. In the second group, they were told “before you being negotiating, exchange personal information with each other and identify a similarity you share in common. then begin negotiating” Here, 90% were able to come to an agreement, and the average value of the negotiations were on average 18% higher value to both parties. Look for areas of similarities.


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6.ConsensusPeople look to actions of others and follow social norms.

6. Consensus, or Social norms. People look to the action of other, especially when they’re uncertain. British tax collection.


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Cre ate a n ex p e r i e n ce to impute your value proposition and provide a shortcut for your audience to say ‘yes’.



CONVERSION-FOCUSED

WEBSITESLEAD QUALIFICATION &

SEGMENTATION

COLLATERALCONTENT-TO-COMMERCE

CAMPAIGNSBRANDS THAT ACCELERATE

REVENUES

Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.” —Albert Szent-Györgyi

branding or lead generation? - laboratory · pdf file · 2014-12-02the linus group...

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