Scientists 'hungry for product information'

Marketing report uses psychographic segmentation to anticipate the likely behaviour of scientists specifically as it relates to the marketing media most commonly used by suppliers

Scientists have a voracious appetite for information about the products used in life science research, according to a recent report from BioInformatics.

"Because they are aware that their product choices can have a direct impact on the success of their research, scientists actively seek out information about suppliers and their products", said Bill Kelly, president of the market research and consulting firm.

"But scientists vary in how they prefer to receive information and their thinking styles are different when considering products from competing vendors".

BioInformatics's report, 'Marketing to Life Scientists: A Psychographic Analysis', goes beyond segmentation by market or regional demographics and uses psychographic segmentation to anticipate the likely behaviour of scientists specifically as it relates to the marketing media most commonly used by suppliers, such as printed catalogues, supplier web sites, direct mail, sales representatives, print advertisements and scientific meetings.

More than 1300 scientists responded to a survey in which they ranked the effectiveness of their suppliers'marketing programmes in terms of best print catalogue, website, sales force, and print advertising.

Market leaders such as Fisher Scientific, Invitrogen, Sigma-Aldrich, and VWR International all received exceptionally high marks across most categories, while other major suppliers such as BD Biosciences, Bio-Rad, GE Healthcare, New England Biolabs, Promega, and Qiagen stood out in individual ones.

Most scientists are wary of unfamiliar products and suppliers, however, an analysis of the survey data reveals that academic scientists are more likely to rely on recommendations from their peers and to consider a product's price, whereas pharmaceutical and biotech scientists are more heavily influenced by the opportunity to try new technologies and techniques.

"Customer analysis using demographics is useful and necessary", said Kelly.

"Unfortunately, the drawback of using only demographic segmentation is that it doesn't highlight differences between customers within a segment or similarities across multiple segments.

"Psychographics help us understand how customers think, learn and interact with each other and their suppliers".

To conduct this study, the respondents were first administered the scientific personality assessment (SPA), a 76-question survey specifically designed by BioInformatics to reflect the unique aspects of the life science market.

Next, the scientists completed a 33-question survey about their experiences and preferences regarding marketing communications.

Their responses to the marketing questionnaire were then cross-tabulated with their personality types to highlight differences in behaviour between different types of scientific customers.

"As in past editions of Marketing to Life Scientists, this report shows marketers how life scientists prefer to receive product information and how they react to various media.

"We then take our analysis a step further by also presenting the results according to four distinct personality types.

"Psychographics are particularly important to marketing and branding because they help companies craft messages that resonate with the core values and motivations of the targeted audience", concluded Kelly.

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