Science Market Update

Most of us ate turkey with friends and family in a warm house yesterday. Today many are shopping. Meanwhile on Long Island, Staten Island and the Jersey Shore, volunteer organizations are still hard at work cleaning up the mess from Sandy and helping people move their lives forward. Instead of Thanksgiving at home with family, military veterans volunteering with Team Rubicon probably ate a donated meal with fellow workers or community members. Maybe they got to rest their muscles for a day.

We launched our 5-Star Program in 2011 as a way of acknowledging and rewarding the research lab equipment sales reps at our shows who go the extra mile to make the event a success by positively engaging researchers with attractive displays, equipment demonstrations, and of course their winning professional demeanor. We take note of the vendor tables that draw in the most research attendees, who stays to the very end, and which companies are most effectively driving their product message home through their overall approach.

Some times we all wonder how good we are compared to the next guy, how great our products really are, and how well do other companies do at vendor shows, product fairs, trade shows, or whatever your business event of the moment is called.

On January 25th of this year we held our 9th semiannual Sacramento BioResearch Product Faire event on the medical campus of the University of California Davis, in Sacramento. The UC Davis Health System includes the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and the Medical Center with its state-of-the-art teaching hospital.  Also part of the Sacramento biomedical hub where we hold our events are the UC Davis Children's Hospital and the Shriner's Hospital for Children of Northern California.

We welcomed attendees from all over the Sacramento medical campus at the recent show, with the strongest turnout from these UCD departments and Shriner's:

If this year's St. Louis BioResearch Product Faire™ Event (BRPF) is anything like past BRPF events, over 400 researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and the surrounding area will attend to actively seek solutions for their research challenges. When they arrive, they will find dozens of suppliers of scientific tools and equipment ready to demonstrate their products and answer their research-related questions.  This is an important gathering in the St. Louis life science community, drawing researchers from on-campus buildings, and nearby biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

In the research science world, green is a gradient, it is a starting place from which to move in a more sustainable direction. It’s also a gradient that researchers are willing to pay more for.  Over 95% of the researchers we surveyed at an on campus life science marketing event said they would be willing to pay more for green chemistry products.

Are Our Products Green-enough?

On-campus life science vendor shows are an excellent way for researchers to discover, examine, and discuss the laboratory products they need with informed sales reps from the companies that sell those products. At Biotechnology Calendar, Inc., we work hard to make sure that the scientists who come to our vendor shows get the most out of their experience there. Our science-educated event managers understand the challenges faced by researchers in the lab --and how valuable their time is-- so we bring suppliers and their wares directly onto university campuses to demonstrate the latest and best equipment.

Participating in a science vendor show can be a rewarding experience for laboratory suppliers looking to connect with research audiences. It gives you the chance to network with top-level decision makers, and it puts you in front of prospects who could wind up doing business with your company for many years in the future.  Having said that, how do you make the most of your investment of time and money?  How do you maximize this sales opportunity? How do you assure attendees make that important connection with you and not your competitor across the way?

• Strong brands benefit from ongoing credibility and trust associated with high quality. This is especially important in the world of science experimentation where any variable that can be eliminated saves time in answering the researcher’s questions.
• Brand recognition can drive laboratory product sales as a researcher becomes comfortable with your company and products.
• A strong brand allows you to stand out from competitors with sound-alike and look-alike lab products and services.
• In general, it is easier to command higher prices for known brands with recognized high quality.
• New products from familiar brands generate interest more quickly from the active research community than similar products from unknown companies.

• Advertise using print, electronic and paid editorial content to promote your products and company
• Participate in social networking, face-to-face networking and strategic outreach networking regularly
• Garner media attention and scientific paper citations
• Participate as a company in trade shows, meetings, conferences and symposia
• Participate actively in sponsorships, partnerships and education programs

The Stevens Institute for Innovation at the University of Southern California (USC) recently released a detailed report on startup companies based on research initiated by their scientists. The study found that 39 USC startups raised more than $800 million over the past 15 years and more than $380 million of that was raised in the past 3 years, in the midst of the global financial crisis. While two companies have contributed over $100 million each to that total over the last 15 years, 18 other companies have raised more than $5 million each. Though startups that attract VC funding tend to be successful and attract large ongoing investments, funding sources have evolved from being predominantly VC-based to more broad-based, including greater reliance on private investors, government grants, and investments by corporations.  Furthermore, life science startups in particular are attracting increasingly large investments, whereas the average investment for non-life science companies has decreased.