Differentiation

Maximizing Employee Alignment and Engagement (Through Archetypes) in eClincal Marketing. Part 1 of 3

In this first of three issues I examine how to help your employees align their behaviors with your life science organization’s mission by using archetypes. Alignment is a topic that will be receiving lots of attention in the next several years, and archetypes provide an excellent vehicle for creating this alignment. I begin with a bold declaration about the worth of your mission statement.

Bringing Archetypes to Life to Drive Sales in eClinical Marketing

Archetypes have four main roles within the context of an organization’s life science sales and marketing activities. Several of these roles (alignment and communication) apply inside an organization and several (communication, resonance and differentiation) apply externally. In this issue, I’ll examine each role in turn and show how these roles support sales and marketing success in life science and biotech organizations.

Gaining Differentiation (and Pricing Power) Through the Use of Archetypes in eClinical Marketing

Archetypes are one effective way to manage the meaning of your brand-story in the minds of your audiences. Doing so effectively leads to greater differentiation and pricing power. Studies have shown that careful selection and maintenance of archetypes is related to higher profit. What are archetypes? In this and subsequent issues, we’ll introduce the basics of this fascinating topic.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast – Part 2

Culture eats strategy for breakfast – Part 2 Recent research we conducted with life science companies shows that leaders in the life sciences believe they establish corporate culture, but they do little to document this culture in a way that lasts once they leave the room. In this issue, I reveal several other surprising insights [...]

Using Two Dimensions of Positioning to Create a Competitive Advantage in the Life Sciences

Positioning is one of the foundations of effective marketing. Unfortunately, positioning is also one of the most confusing terms in marketing. (Except maybe “branding,” but that’s a topic for another issue.) And, as it turns out, when it comes to creating an effective marketing strategy for your life science organization, positioning is one of the easiest things to get wrong.

Maximizing Employee Alignment and Engagement (Through Archetypes) in Life Sciences. Part 1 of 3.

In this first of three issues I examine how to help your employees align their behaviors with your life science organization’s mission by using archetypes. Alignment is a topic that will be receiving lots of attention in the next several years, and archetypes provide an excellent vehicle for creating this alignment. I begin with a bold declaration about the worth of your mission statement.

Can you have multiple archetypes in sales and marketing in life science, drug development and biotech corporations? Can you use one archetype for each division?

Two questions invariably come up when talking with life science marketers about archetypes. The first is: what are archetypes? I’ve answered that question in many places—here’s a good introduction: Gaining differentiation (and pricing power) through the use of archetypes in life science marketing. The second question is: can I have multiple archetypes, one for each [...]

Bringing archetypes to life to drive sales in life science marketing.

Archetypes have four main roles within the context of an organization’s life science sales and marketing activities. Several of these roles (alignment and communication) apply inside an organization and several (communication, resonance and differentiation) apply externally. In this issue, I’ll examine each role in turn and show how these roles support sales and marketing success in life science and biotech organizations.

Aligning archetypes with products, services, culture or communications to drive sales in life science or biotech marketing.

In this issue, I consider the use of archetypes in driving engagement and sales. Archetypes can align with your organization’s services and products, they can align with your culture, they can align with your communications, or they can align with any combination of the three. Is any one alignment more powerful than the others in creating engagement and sales? We’ll begin our exploration by drawing an analogy between the behaviors of characters in stories and the behaviors of organizations in the life sciences.

Is it time to rebrand your life science organization, product, or service? Part five: The rebranding process (steps 1-5 out of 10)

In this issue, I examine the process of rebranding. I’ll outline the first 5 steps in the rebranding process for a life science organization, product or service. Once you’ve decided to rebrand, you should begin by developing a clear-eyed understanding of your environment, your audiences and your competitors. Then you must select a position and an archetype.

Archetypes: ‘The next trend in high-performance B2B marketing’

The recent webinar, Using archetypes in life science marketing to increase sales and margins, included an interactive discussion led by David Chapin that shed new light on how life science organizations can set themselves apart from the competition and better engage their audiences in a crowded, highly regulated marketplace. In so doing, such organizations will benefit [...]

Rebranding your life science organization, product, or service. Part three: Building a task force to rebrand your life science organization.

In this issue, I provide some guidance on the makeup of your life science rebranding task force. Having worked with many such teams over the past two-and-a-half decades, I’ve learned that some attributes are essential, and some should be strenuously avoided. I’ll begin this issue by outlining how to guide the rebranding discussion and I’ll close it by discussing the issue of timing: how do you know when to rebrand? In the next issue, I’ll provide a decision tree to help you make the decision: Is it time to rebrand my life science organization, product or service?

Rebranding your life science organization, product, or service. Part one

Isn’t it ironic that marketing, the one business function that is (supposedly) responsible for clear communication, is also the one with widespread confusion about the meaning of one of its central terms: brand? There are actually at least four meanings, all very different. So I’m going to begin the discussion about rebranding by clarifying some terminology. And then I’ll point out the eight foundational assets you must have for an effective “brand” in life science marketing. In future issues, I’ll cover the reasons to think about rebranding, discuss the team you need to undertake this effort, provide a decision tree that will allow you to determine whether it’s time to rebrand, and give you a roadmap to follow as you rebrand your life science organization, product or service.

Entering the Life Science Market – Part 1: Eight Things You Should Know

Many companies try to enter the life science market, lured by the promise of rapid growth and significant opportunity. But entering the life science market can be difficult; many companies try and fail. In this first of two whitepapers on the subject, I’ll provide an overview of some of the factors that make this market unique and identify what you can do to increase your chances of success.

Putting Your Archetype Into Action in Life Science Marketing

Archetypes are a powerful way to manage the meaning of your brand-story. Using archetypes effectively allows you to create high-performance life science marketing—leading to greater differentiation and pricing power. In past issues, I’ve outlined how to determine the archetypes of your competitors and how to choose an archetype for your own organization. Now, in this final issue covering archetypes, it’s time to put your archetype to use. Let's get practical.

Differentiate or Die

A recent deal between Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Ely Lilly shows where the life science industry is headed: Specialization. Novartis is moving exclusively to Oncology drugs, GSK to vaccines and Lilly to animal drugs. Differentiating yourself from your competition is how to grow sales and market share. Specializing is one way to differentiate. But what if [...]

Archetypes in action in life science marketing

Archetypes are one effective way for life science companies to create greater differentiation and pricing power through effective marketing. In this issue, I’ll explore an example of bringing archetypes to life throughout your marketing communications, and I’ll discuss how you can determine the archetypes of your competition.

Families of archetypes and their use in life science marketing

Summary: Archetypes are a powerful tool to guide the development of your marketing communications. In this issue, we’ll start by examining one of the sources of the strength of archetypes: pattern matching. We’ll look at the twelve families of archetypes and at the many different archetypes within these families. And we’ll discuss why you shouldn’t select the Scientist or the Innovator as your archetype.

Gaining Differentiation (and Pricing Power) Through the Use of Archetypes in Life Science Marketing.

Archetypes are one effective way to manage the meaning of your brand-story in the minds of your audiences. Doing so effectively leads to greater differentiation and pricing power. Studies have shown that careful selection and maintenance of archetypes is related to higher profit. What are archetypes? In this and subsequent issues, we’ll introduce the basics of this fascinating topic.

The life science marketing manifesto

Most life science marketing is ineffective. Surprisingly, horribly, disastrously ineffective. But it doesn't have to be this way. There are 10 commitments we can make that will transform our marketing efforts into high-performance life science marketing. Make these 10 commitments and join the movement to wipe low-performance marketing off the face of the earth.

The Marketing Mechanism of Action and the Importance of Uniqueness

There is significant misunderstanding about how marketing works – that is, of the mechanism by which it affects people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. In particular, many scientists believe that they are immune to marketing’s effects. But if scientists are immune to marketing’s effects, why do so many companies continue to spend significantly on marketing campaigns? The reason is simple: this supposed immunity is just a myth; marketing actually works. To understand how, let’s examine the marketing mechanism of action.

Marketing Challenges During M&A – Relationships Among Families of Brands – Part 3

In the last of a series on this topic, we expand the applications of the model depicting different relationships among families of brands. We look at several sectors in the life sciences and notice the similarities among the approaches used. We also discuss the use of the model as a tool for planning the changes in relationships among families of brands in the midst of life science marketing challenges, such as mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and product and service launches.

Life Science Marketing Challenges During M&A – Relationships Among Families of Brands – Part 2

We continue our discussion of the marketing challenges faced during mergers and acquisitions in the life sciences. In this issue, we return to the model we recently introduced, one that provides a way to ask and answer the key question that must be addressed during mergers, acquisitions and even product or service launches: How should the relationships among different brands in a common family be portrayed to the audience? We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the four possible answers and provide guidance for choosing one answer over the other.

Life Science Marketing Challenges During Mergers and Acquisitions — Part 1

Mergers and acquisitions are a fact of life in the life sciences. As the drug development ecosystem – which was previously vertically integrated – fragments and as the industry consolidates, mergers will become even more common. Mergers and acquisitions raise some of the most interesting challenges in life science marketing. In this issue, we open our series on this fascinating topic by identifying the key question that the life science marketers involved in any merger or acquisition must answer. We also provide a framework to understand the four possible answers to the key question.

When “Quality” Is A Commodity

Crisis and opportunity in the life science sector. Service providers in the life sciences (e.g., CROs, CRMs, core labs, firms offering preclinical services such as formulation, etc) work in a sector that is changing and changing rapidly. The Big Recession tore a big swath out of Big Pharma, leaving opportunities for smaller firms to come [...]

Whatever it is, it isn’t life science marketing

Many scientists think they are ‘immune’ to marketing. Even so, companies in the life sciences sectors often resort to standard clichés when it comes to making marketing claims. In many sectors of the life science space companies shout and scream on their web sites and in their brochures – making lots of noise. Unfortunately these efforts are completely ineffective at helping prospects choose their organization. What’s going on?

The Importance of Positioning for Life Science Companies

For life science companies, positioning is the DNA of marketing. Just as DNA guides protein expression and thereby controls much, if not all cell activity, so positioning should guide marketing activities. Just as DNA is tucked inside the nucleus, and therefore ‘invisible’ to the rest of the cell, the definition of a company’s positioning is internal and private. For this reason, positioning is widely misunderstood. This article explores the four components of positioning and provides a framework for understanding positioning’s role in marketing.

Competing during an earthquake

For life science and biotech companies selling products or services to the drug development chain, the market is in tremendous flux. The patent cliff, the contraction of ‘Big Pharma’ and increased regulatory scrutiny are causing huge seismic shifts – a.k.a., earthquakes. How do you compete effectively in this type of marketplace? This article looks at similar shifts in another industry to point the way to an effective competitive strategy for life science and biotech service companies.

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