Making the-complex-compelling-creating-high-performance-marketing by letruongan.com

“Few are able to distill the complex down to a simple concept. It requires
part art, science, and hard work to deliver a well-honed position and brand
message. David accomplishes this on an ongoing basis and in Making the
Complex Compelling goes further, simplifying and delivering the
complexities of life science marketing in a well organized blueprint. Dare to
engage...”
–BRIAN REGAN, VP Marketing, TearScience
“This book does an excellent job of demystifying the marketing process for
non-marketers. The chapters on positioning and branding are especially
valuable as these are probably the most misunderstood and misused topics,
considering their importance at all stages of a company’s development.”
–MALCOLM THOMAS, President and CEO, Arbovax, Inc
Making The Complex Compelling is an absolute must-read for life science
executives trying to grow and differentiate their business in today’s
crowded, competitive marketplace. David does an excellent job simplifying
complex strategies in a concise and compelling way, and illustrates
beautifully with many real world examples. Most importantly, these
principles work. Applying them to my company allowed us to grow at a
CAGR over 100% for 7 years and then sell to an S&P 500 company. This is
a highly recommended, enjoyable read for anyone in the life science field
responsible for commercial operations or marketing.
–TODD GROSSHANDLER, Owner, Enthalpy Analytical
“Whether you agree with David’s somewhat proactive statement that the
level of marketing in today’s life sciences is “appalling”, his new book
Making the Complex Compelling will certainly resonate with both novice
and veteran marketers, alike. It contains a level of practical detail that will
challenge you to consider how good your marketing practices really are.”
–ANDREW L. BERTERA, Executive Director of Marketing, New
England Biolabs

“David Chapin distill his years of design and life-sciences marketing
experience into a highly readable conversation for those interested in or
responsible for any aspect of marketing in the life-sciences industry. From
entry-level marketer to the marketing executive in the C-suite, there is
actionable information that can be used to turn contacts into clients. This
book will help you make your complex marketing story compelling to
potential customers, including those who don’t yet know your firm. And
David does a superb job of simplifying this complex topic and providing a
compelling solution to the life-sciences marketing challenge.”
–DICK BLACKBURN, Associate Professor, Associate Dean,
Undergraduate Business Programs, Kenan-Flagler Business School,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“As a scientist who tends to think analytically, this book opened my mind to
how marketing should be done based on our customer’s point of view. The
information in this volume is very useful; it is wonderful to have a
marketing resource that is tuned to the specific challenges of marketing life
science companies.”
–RICHARD SOLTERO, President, InstantGMP
“Marketing in the life sciences is a paradox in which communicating in a
targeted concise way is seemingly in conflict with the thirst for deep
analytical knowledge from a scientific audience. But at a time when the
majority of the buying decision is completed over the internet, via word of
mouth and on reputation alone, before the first engagement even occurs, it
is essential that the life science marketer is skilled to establish a consistent,
concise, and differentiated brand position that meets all seven of David
Chapin’s stated success attributes. This is extremely difficult to do in a
regulated, commoditized arena.
With his wealth of experience and deep understanding from working with
life sciences companies, David Chapin has constructed the manual on life
science marketing strategy with Making the Complex Compelling. His book
is littered with real life examples and practical steps to create and
implement an effective and compelling life sciences marketing strategy.
This is a quick and easy read for those looking to add value for high-
performance.”

–NICHOLAS SPITTAL, Senior Director, Global Commercial Affairs,
Chiltern
“David Chapin’s systematic and scientific approach to life science
marketing always ends up being truly inspirational. As marketers we are
sometimes dazzled by cleverness and sizzle, but the depth revealed in
Making the Complex Compelling will give you insights into what it takes to
develop and deliver campaigns that stick and deliver, consistently.”
–ALLAN MOHESS, Sr. Director Clinical Informatics, bioMérieux
“For someone that hasn’t worked with David Chapin, Making the Complex
Compelling outlines the necessary steps that enable life science companies
to keep moving forward in a sustainable way. The value to the organization
is at least as important as the product or service they are selling. Each step
in this book has components of “education, inspiration, and reassurance”
embedded within it, so that the reader self-identifies and sees the value in
developing their marketing the way it’s described.”
–ANTON LEWIS USALA MD, President and CEO, CTMG, Inc.
“Marketing by nature is complex. The approach, insights and examples that
David uses in this book have been instrumental in helping me position my
business for profitable growth. I would highly recommend this book as
required reading for any marketer or executive looking to understand how
marketing can impact your company.”
–BRIAN KERSLAKE, Global Marketing Director, Kimble-Chase
“David Chapin makes a compelling case for why brands and marketing are
critically important, and offers practical insights about what managers
should do about it. This book will inspire firms in the life sciences to craft
brand strategies that can creatively enhance value for long-term success.”
–JON BOHLMANN, PH.D., Assoc. Professor of Marketing, Poole
College of Management, North Carolina State University
“In Making the Complex Compelling Chapin has crafted a powerful “GPS”
to help brand managers and their organizations optimally navigate the

waters between science and marketing.”
–MARTIN DOYLE, Director Marketing Operations and Strategic
Business Planning, GlaxoSmithKline

courageous thought leadership content
Rockbench Publishing Corp.
6101 Stillmeadow Dr.,
Nashville, TN 37211
www.rockbench.com
Copyright ©2014 David Chapin
All Rights Reserved
Interior and cover design by Faceout Studio
Interior illustrations by David Chapin and David Storey
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014956399
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60544-035-4

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1:
Challenge, Chaos, and Opportunity
Chapter 2:
Marketing versus Science
Chapter 3:
The Myth of Marketing Immunity
Chapter 4:
The Tragedy of Undifferentiated Claims
Chapter 5:
How People (Really) Buy
Chapter 6:
The Marketing Mechanism of Action (MMOA)
Chapter 7:
Position–Your Marketing DNA

Chapter 8:
Crafting Your Positioning Statement
Chapter 9:
Your Brand-Story
Chapter 10:
Using Archetypes to Clarify Your Brand-Story
Chapter 11:
The Ladder of Lead Generation (LOLG)
Chapter 12:
Content Marketing
Chapter 13:
Content Strategy, Creation, and Maximization
Chapter 14:
Measuring Marketing ROI
Chapter 15:
Conclusion–High-Performance Life Science
Marketing
Epilogue:
The Future of Life Science Marketing

Acknowledgments
Appendix 1:
Relationships between Families of Brand-Stories
Appendix 2:
Marketing Performance Assessment
Index:

Preface
Who This Book Is For
If you’re responsible for marketing your products and services in the life
sciences–specifically the sector devoted to discovering, researching,
developing, and shepherding drugs and medical devices from discovery and
invention up through the regulatory approval process–this book is for you.
If you are a marketer at (or the owner of) a company involved in
discovery, preclinical, or clinical trial activities related to pharmaceutical
and medical-device development, this book is for you.
If your offerings include pre-regulatory-approval life science equipment,
instrumentation, products, or services that you want to market success-
fully–this book is for you.
This book does not address direct-to-clinician or direct-to-consumer
marketing of pharmaceuticals, nor does it address retail health-care
marketing, such as hospitals, etc.–these are special cases. While many of
the concepts presented here are applicable, the strategies and tactics
necessary to satisfy the specialized regulatory requirements in these cases
are beyond the scope of this work.
What this book will provide is a wealth of information–information you
need to ensure that the marketing created by you (or the partners you enlist)
will be high performance.
Why I Wrote This Book
There is a significant amount of ineffective marketing in the life sciences.
Bluntly put, it’s appalling how poor these efforts are. One aim of this
volume is to create a common understanding of the proper roles and goals

of marketing among professionals working in the life sciences. Another is
to provide tools to enable marketers in this sector to improve their own
organizations’ marketing efforts. To that end, I have written this book as a
strategic guide to doing it yourself. To the extent that this is successful, I
have achieved one of my aims.
As a by-product of these efforts, I hope that improved marketing will
yield greater efficiencies along the drug and medical-device development
chain, enabling the sector to speed the introduction of therapies that are
more effective and less expensive. This is a lofty goal to be sure, but one
that will benefit all of humanity.

Introduction
I’ve been involved with marketing for the life sciences for more than two
decades. During that time, when I’d ask people why they chose their career
path, the most common answer was some form of either, “I was interested
in helping people” or “I got drawn in by the science.” I’ve never heard, “I
got in it for the money.” To say this in another way, their decision was often
driven by a desire to change lives for the better.
When developing effective therapies to enable these changes, however,
there are two main failure points. The first is the lack of proven efficacy.
The second is the lack of money. Thousands of promising therapies have
gone untested and undeveloped because of the lack of money. Addressing
the first problem (provable efficacy) requires great science. Addressing the
second problem (lack of money) requires something else entirely.
Many life science products and services–and the businesses built around
them–flounder because the creators believe that delivering great science
will solve both problems: proving efficacy while simultaneously promoting
differentiation, attracting the attention of potential investors and customers,
and driving sales. This is drastically–and tragically–incorrect.
Instead of making the complex compelling, the typical scientific
approach to communication and marketing tends to make the already
complex even more inaccessible and unintelligible.
So how do you make the complex compelling? How do you create high-
performance marketing? This book will show you how.
I’ll set the stage by looking at the challenges and opportunities in the life
sciences today (chapter one). I’ll examine how the traditional scientific
mindset, while well suited for doing science, is poorly suited for creating
high-performance marketing (chapters two and three). Then, I’ll visit the
foundation for all high-performance marketing–differentiation (chapter
four). And I’ll examine the buying cycle, because understanding how
people buy is fundamental for creating effective marketing (chapter five).

The core concepts of creating high-performance marketing come to light
when I discuss positioning (chapters six and seven). The tools to create your
own positioning statement are covered next (chapter eight). Then, I’ll
discuss your brand-story (chapter nine), the use of archetypes (chapter 10),
and the ladder of lead generation (chapter 11). Once you have mastered
these topics, I’ll move into more advanced subjects, such as content
marketing (chapters 12 and 13) and measuring ROI (chapter 14). I’ll
conclude with a look at how all these strategies and tactics work together to
create a high-performance marketing effort (chapter 15). At the end, I’ll go
out on a limb and foretell the future of marketing by predicting future trends
(epilogue). For further study, there are two appendicies with some
additional information on brand families and a performance assessment.
I’ve written this book as a guide; if you put into practice the principles
covered here, you’ll be able to develop and implement high-performance
marketing strategies and tactics. There are plenty of examples throughout;
I’ve included these so you can learn from others’ experiences. Here’s to
your success in making the complex compelling!

1
CHALLENGE,
CHAOS, AND
OPPORTUNITY
Several years ago, Forma Life Science Marketing (the company I run) was
hired by a laboratory to diagnose and treat significant issues with its
marketing and sales. It was having trouble getting traction in the
marketplace; growth had stalled.
Using Forma’s diagnostic tools and processes, we determined, among
other things, that its industry sector was fragmented–with a few large
competitors, and many small ones, each offering similar services. Each lab
owned equipment that was essentially the same. Each lab used this
equipment to develop assays to test patients’ blood samples for evidence of
the efficacy of drugs being administered during clinical trials, or for
evidence of potentially harmful side effects that would stop the trials in
their tracks.
Forma’s diagnosis showed that, as in all such cases, there was significant
regulatory scrutiny of the assays and of the data coming from the assays. So
all labs had developed similar work processes for fear of drawing unwanted
regulatory scrutiny. In addition, all labs produced similar results.
The stakes for their customers were large; the difference between a drug
that makes it through the regulatory approval process and one that doesn’t
can be huge–millions or billions of dollars, not to mention the careers
involved. The risks for their customers were high; hundreds or thousands of
compounds fail for every one that makes it through regulatory approval.
Each lab claimed that it was different, offering better service than
everyone else. But realistically, while there were some differences between
the labs that became evident once you were a customer, there were few

differences that could be verified before a purchase. They all used similar
equipment and similar processes to produce similar results. Simply put, it
was hard for customers to find any reason to hire one lab over another.
Without any meaningful differentiation, competition tended to focus on
price. Falling prices drove service levels down, which increased the mistrust
potential customers felt about the marketing claims of superior service
offered by almost every competitor.
This situation is not unusual. In the life science sectors related to the
development of drug and medical devices (extending from discovery
through preclinical to clinical trials), high stakes and high risks are
common. The competition is fierce. But regulatory scrutiny tends to
produce homogenization of both the work process and the work product.
How can any provider be seen as unique (the foundation of successful
marketing and sales)?
This situation, which looks so dire, is a marketer’s dream.
High stakes, high risks, and undifferentiated competitors set up a
situation in which high-performance marketing can make a real difference.
Indeed, working closely with our client, Forma was able to identify key
differentiators, define a unique value proposition, create a unique brand,
articulate the brand in a compelling story, and express all of this through
high-performance marketing tactics.
After introducing this new marketing, our client experienced an annual
growth rate of greater than 100 percent for several years running, during the
middle of the Great Recession. It attributed this growth, in no small part, to
our high-performance marketing efforts. One competitor’s salesman came
up to the lab’s booth during a trade show and said, “We hate you guys.”
When asked why, the salesman responded, “Because you have something to
talk about.”
The lab was eventually sold to one of the largest competitors in the
sector, leading to a handsome payout for the owners.
Yes, there are significant challenges in life science marketing. But the
chaos of the sector means there is also a lot of opportunity. You can
compete successfully and this book can help you do so. First, you must start
with a clear understanding of the competitive environment.
Challenge, Chaos, and Opportunity

The life science industry is in turmoil–a blend of crisis, confusion, chaos,
and opportunity. Developers of life science products and services must now
navigate a globalized market, increasing costs of development, and
constantly evolving technology.
As if that’s not enough, old business models are disintegrating and new
ones are emerging. Regulatory climates are in flux. And these are just a few
of the many trends that are impacting the development of life science
products and services, including scientific instrumentation, drugs, and
medical devices.
Your marketing decisions will be affected by these changing external
factors (or they should be), so it is useful to take a closer look at the most
significant trends that already are impacting your business.
Globalization: The development of life science products and services is
maturing as an international business. Discovery, testing, and
manufacturing are now less limited by geography and political boundaries.
While this globalization brings increased competition from global suppliers,
it also gives life science organizations access to talent and resources they
did not have before.
Disintegrating Business Models: When Henry Ford started making cars,
his operations were vertically integrated. For example, Ford owned a sheep
farm in order to control the quality of wool for his seat fabrics. For decades,
the major pharmaceutical companies operated in a similar, vertically
integrated manner, controlling everything from the early discovery of new
technologies and compounds all the way through the final marketing of
instruments, approved drugs, or medical devices.
Today, life science companies are increasingly focused on a few core
competencies and so the outsourcing of secondary or tertiary aspects of the
business has become the norm. The life science development ecosystem is
now composed of suppliers and partners that provide research,
development, toxicology, ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and
excretion), formulation, CMC (chemistry, manufacturing, and control), and
more. As the market has become more and more connected, employing
others to perform functions more efficiently, faster, and at lower cost has
become nearly frictionless.

Partnerships, preferred vendors, functional service providers, and crowd-
sourcing are growing trends in the life sciences, changing and diversifying
the ways organizations can monetize their expertise.
Rising Costs: To discover, develop, test, validate, and bring to market
drugs, medical devices, diagnostic assays, scientific instruments, and other
products and services in the life sciences is already expensive and there is
every indication it will become even more so.
Depending upon whose figures you believe, it can cost anywhere from
one to two billion dollars or more to bring a single drug from discovery to
final FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval. These figures do not
include any ongoing costs, such as marketing. While developing a medical
device, instrument, and diagnostic assay may not be as expensive, the costs
are still significant.
Decreasing Efficiencies: The efficiency of drug development (measured as
the number of products that achieve regulatory approval divided by the total
cost of all drug development) is trending downward, and has been for
decades. The industry is searching for solutions to address the fundamental
inefficiencies in the development process.
Decreasing Revenue: The so-called patent-cliff is a fact of life. As patent
expirations for blockbuster drugs loom (or have already come and gone),
increased competition and reduced revenue is the order of the day.
A Rising Standard of Efficacy: Blockbuster drugs such as Lipitor are very
effective at treating their target conditions. This makes introducing a new,
more effective drug even more difficult, particularly when the new drug
will be subjected to research focused on comparative effectiveness.
As these blockbuster drugs come off patent, it may be so difficult and so
expensive to find a replacement compound that meets all the criteria for
blockbuster status that companies abandon the attempt. For example, Pfizer,
maker of Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug for years, abandoned its
research and development of compounds that could outperform Lipitor.

Economic Challenges: The effects of the Great Recession will linger for
years. This near-meltdown was global in scope and revealed many
weaknesses in the life science financial ecosystem. With credit limited,
many start-up companies face “shorter runways” and have less development
time before needing to make the “launch or abort” decision. Venture
capitalists continue to hoard their money and invest only in the most
promising opportunities. Financing is harder to get, making it that much
tougher for start-ups–the plankton of the life science ecosystem–to reach
profitability.
Regulatory Uncertainty: Regulatory bodies are being subjected to growing
scrutiny and increasing political pressure. Expectations for patient safety are
growing. The number of new drug approvals is decreasing. New regulations
are being considered or are pending. And proposals are being made to
overhaul regulatory functions. There is a large political battle being fought,
and the end result is anyone’s guess. The FDA is undergoing an initiative to
increase transparency. With this much confusion in the marketplace,
divining the future is extremely difficult. Thankfully, the news is not all
bad.
New Discoveries: James D. Watson and Francis Crick published their
discovery of the molecular structure of DNA in 1953. Up until the 1970s,
scientists thought that 99 percent of a human’s genetic code was “junk.”
Now, only a handful of decades later, the genetic code is being revealed as a
very complex system of genes, switches, regulators, and amplifiers. Teams
of scientists have created man-made DNA and replaced the naturally
occurring DNA of a cell, opening up vistas previously unimaginable.
These new discoveries, among others, have led to the creation of many
new industry sectors, serving markets whose names end in -omics:
genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, cytomics, kinomics, lipidomics,
epigenomics, etc.
Despite temporary restrictions on research in certain areas (e.g., stem
cells), the pace of discovery continues to gain momentum, and will continue
to do so for the foreseeable future. The opportunity to capitalize on these
discoveries is significant and the number of those opportunities will
continue to expand.

New Technologies: New research tools are being introduced every year,
replacing existing standard tools. New technologies are being brought on
line. New diagnostic tests are being approved. New assays are being
developed. Which of these will win and become accepted by the
marketplace? Which will lose and become footnotes?
Rising Demand: The world’s population is getting older and an aging
population places greater demand on the health-care system. The ability to
diagnose and treat more diseases also is growing and so the expectation for
access to health care, drugs, medical devices, diagnostics, and treatment
will increase as well.
At the Intersection of Challenge and
Opportunity: Marketing
Maximizing opportunities while minimizing the impact of confusion and
chaos requires life science organizations to focus their efforts and
understand their unique value. They also must somehow communicate their
complex offerings in ways that are compelling to prospects and influencers.
That “somehow” is marketing.
As relationships between internal departments are replaced by
relationships between separate but connected businesses, marketing
provides a vital link. Marketing can convey advantages, drive the adoption
of new technology, enable successful competition in a globalized market,
and connect customers with the unique value offered by individual
companies. Marketing can help differentiate your business in a crowded
marketplace.
Surprisingly, there is very little effective marketing in this sector,
particularly business-to-business marketing. Many firms are making
marketing claims that are not unique, not meaningful, and not compelling.
That means that life science firms that get their marketing right have a huge
opportunity to dominate their market space.
For many organizations, however, differences in the worldviews of
marketers and scientists get in the way of getting it correct. And too often

these differences result in marketing decisions that actually impede business
success. The good news is that the two worldviews can coexist, each
profiting from the strengths of the other.
High-performance marketing can help counteract
the increased competition and globalization of the
life science sector.
Granted, getting life science marketing right isn’t the only thing
necessary for success. You also have to have great science, proper
financing, inspired leadership, and motivated employees, among other
things. But this book isn’t about all that; it’s about marketing.
In the next chapter, I’ll examine in detail the differences between the two
worldviews, and consider how marketing can affect audiences so you can
set goals, develop strategies, create high-performance tactics, and
implement your marketing plans–while prospering from it all.

2
MARKETING VERSUS SCIENCE
Fundamental differences in the worldviews of marketers and scientists can
lead to decisions that impede or even derail life science marketing efforts.
Time and again, I’ve seen scientists’ lack of understanding of marketing
leading to poor decisions that cause mediocre, or worse, no results.
This lack of understanding by scientists springs from the scientific world-
view, which respects different behaviors and values than the marketing
worldview. Scientists often distrust marketing because they believe that its
goal is to manipulate behavior–theirs and others–while at the same time
believing that they are immune to marketing’s effects.
Conversely, marketers’ lack of understanding of how scientists view the
world can result in marketing campaigns that fail to resonate with their
intended audience.
Unquestionably, these worldviews give each discipline its power. Science
is great at solving certain types of problems, and marketing is great at
solving other types of problems. But when the scientific worldview is used
to try to solve marketing problems, difficulties ensue.
In this chapter, I’ll dive deeply into the worldviews of science and
marketing to help you understand the differences and bridge the gap
between the two. Let’s begin with science.
The Worldview of Science
To begin this discussion, it is important to agree on the answer to a
seemingly simple question: “What is science?”
The word science is derived from the Latin root scientia, which means
knowledge. There are two common definitions. First, science is a branch of
knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically

arranged and showing the operation of general laws. Second, science is the
systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through
observation and experimentation.
The exact definition is not as important as the worldview behind the
definition. Both of these definitions reflect the five major priorities of the
scientific worldview: to comprehend, to describe, to predict, to be complete,
and to be systematic.
The Five Priorities of Science
To Comprehend: Science is the systematic extension of curiosity. “How
does that work?” is a question that goes back to the dawn of time, and
whether the subject of the question is the rising of the sun or the workings
of mRNA, the fundamental quest to comprehend is at the root of science.
To Describe: With the priority of comprehension comes the need to
describe: to be able to explain the answers to those questions located on the
horizon of current knowledge. Without the ability to describe,
comprehension is limited to one individual.
Science begins with the individual scientist, but much of its power comes
from the collective efforts. As Isaac Newton observed, “If I have seen
farther than most, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”
Without a description that can be passed from one scientist to another, there
are no “shoulders” on which to stand.
To Predict: Prediction is how science tests its ability to comprehend and
describe. Without a refutable prediction, no advance is truly possible. As
Karl Popper (a preeminent philosopher of science) once observed, “A
theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific.
Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice.
Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or refute it.” 1
To Be Complete: The goal of comprehension has a corollary: completeness.
The quest to comprehend and describe a biologic mechanism of action and
then to use that understanding to predict the system’s behavior is only
valuable to the extent that the comprehension, the description, and the
ability to predict is complete. This drive for completeness, for total

understanding, for the ability to describe the system down to the smallest
detail, is built into the discipline of science.
For example, when reviewers submit comments on a proposed
submission to a peer-reviewed journal, they point out the unanswered
questions in the author’s work because they want the author to complete
what they perceive to be an incomplete picture.
Additionally, the regulations that govern much of the drug-development
industry, such as those of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the
EMA (European Medicines Agency), among others, require a large measure
of completeness, and those agencies are not shy about asking for additional
information.
To Be Systematic: A systematic approach is critical in science, as the
discipline seeks to push back the boundaries of the unknown, and essential
to the formulation and posing of increasingly sophisticated questions. A
systematic approach is also necessary to tease out answers and meaning
from a mass of experimental conditions and variables swimming in a sea of
seemingly irrelevant and distracting background noise.
Even with this systematic approach, the answers that do emerge are often
subtle or even misleading and new answers almost always lead to still more
questions. For this reason, scientists’ approach to the question-asking
process must be systematic, because it is only by being systematic that they
can hope to be complete.
These five priorities can be summed up as a belief; scientists value
knowledge. They believe in putting knowledge first. An anecdote will make
this clear. Several years ago, Forma was approached by an organization that
had been started by a scientist on the faculty of a prestigious university. His
goal to comprehend the workings of the cardiovascular system led him to
describe a better system for predicting the likelihood of coronary disease
among certain patient populations.
As these things tend to go, the discovery had moved off of the research
bench and into the business world as a corporation. The company, however,
was having trouble getting traction with physicians (the primary audience).
It approached us with a strictly tactical need that centered on the use of a
particular graph.
This graph summarized the science behind years of work, and the
scientist and his team wanted it to be featured prominently on every

possible marketing touchpoint, including their trade-show booths and
brochures. They even wanted the graph printed on the back of their business
cards! Company leadership believed that telling the story of the graph
would compel their audience to change their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors
and lead to more sales.
I asked them to tell us the story of the graph. Their reply involved quite a
bit of explanation. In fact, it took more than a half hour to tell the entire
story the first time we heard it. To make matters worse, the details were
presented first.
The story we were told was complete–excruciatingly complete. Once we
understood the graph and all its implications, the meaning began to unfold.
But while the graph summarized the results of the data, it didn’t describe
the mechanism of action. And as we learned through later research,
physicians had to comprehend the mechanism of action before they would
be motivated to change their diagnostic and prescribing behaviors.
The graph was a beautiful thing; it represented deep insight and the
culmination of years of work. It summarized, clearly and systematically, the
nature of cardiovascular risk and used this knowledge to predict risk among
patient populations. But stressing this knowledge in and of itself was not
enough to change behavior. Something more was needed. Something that
was outside the scientific worldview, but at the core of the marketing
worldview.
The Worldview of Marketing
For the sake of symmetry, here is a general definition of marketing.
Marketing is the identification of a need in the marketplace, and the
matching of a product or service to that need at a profit. Again, it is
important to look behind the definition to the priorities of marketing and the
worldview embodied by those priorities.
There are five major priorities in the marketing worldview: to
communicate, to educate, to inspire, to reassure, and to influence. As you
will see, some of these priorities conflict with those of the scientific
worldview.

The Five Priorities of Marketing
To Communicate: Rather than striving for completeness, marketing’s goal
is to communicate clearly. Clear communication should lead to audience
comprehension, which is the first step in influencing someone’s attitudes,
beliefs, or behaviors.
In science, the audience’s ability to comprehend is secondary to the
complete description of the issue at hand. For example, the author of a peer-
reviewed paper cares less about how long it takes his audience to read and
understand the paper than he does about whether the paper is a complete
description of the issues. In contrast, marketing is less focused on
completeness and more focused on clear communication.
To Educate: Marketing has shifted in recent years and one of the major
shifts is the increasing focus on education as a goal of marketing efforts.
This change can be directly connected to the now ubiquitous nature of
information.
In this new role of educator, marketing helps prospects learn about their
situation, needs, and potential solutions. For instance, as I will cover in
chapter five, early in the buying process prospects often are unaware and
either don’t realize, or don’t believe, they have a problem.
In this case, marketing can help these unaware people start to realize that
their life could be better, that problems do exist and solutions are available.
Marketing can also help prospects differentiate between solutions, and draw
clear distinctions so they can accurately judge which offerings are most
appropriate to their situation.
To Inspire: Marketing can help prospects determine that their needs can be
addressed and that their situation can be improved. One of the steps in
doing this is to inspire prospects and help them imagine how their lives
could be better. As in the education step described above, inspiration is one
of the key steps in the buying process.
To Reassure: Marketing can be a source of reassurance, helping prospects
understand that the choices they are making are the right ones. Reassurance
is a crucial step in the buying cycle. Once prospects distinguish between

alternatives, marketing can help them choose a solution and remain
confident that it is right for their situation.
To Influence: The main goal of marketing is to influence attitudes, beliefs,
or behaviors. But those with a cynical view of marketing often think of it
not as influencing attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, but as manipulating them.
It is this perception of marketing as manipulation that concerns many
people, scientists included, causing them to distrust the whole process and
anyone involved in it. To be sure, some people in marketing have not done
the discipline any favors, especially those who continue to actively boast
about their ability to manipulate unwilling audiences!
Marketing does have influence, however, and it can be surprisingly
powerful. Given this fact, it is all the more important for science to
understand marketing and to be able to harness its power to communicate,
educate, inspire, reassure, and influence its audience.
Rather than putting knowledge first, marketing’s overarching priority is
to serve the needs of its audiences. In marketing, the audience, rather than
knowledge, comes first.
Marketing and Science Have Different
Goals
Nearly all scientists would scoff at the notion that marketing is a science.
While great strides have been made in describing human behavior in the
marketplace, the general laws of human behavior are not really laws, at
least not in the same way that the laws of genetics are laws. Human
behavior is not universal, and observation and experimentation in the
marketing sphere doesn’t always yield strictly reproducible results.
Some marketing experts disagree and would claim that marketing is a
science, in the sense that there are theories that can be postulated and then
tested via observation and experiment.
Rather than attempt to referee this rather pointless argument, I’ll point
out that arguing whether marketing is a science or not really misses the
point, which is that marketing and science have very distinct fundamental
goals that derive from their different world-views. Science seeks to

understand. Marketing seeks to be understood. Science seeks to
comprehend, describe, and predict while being systematic and complete,
and marketing seeks to communicate clearly, educate, inspire, reassure, and
influence.
Science seeks to understand and puts knowledge
first; marketing seeks to be understood and puts
the audience first.
Science aims to communicate, but places the onus of understanding on
the audience. Conversely, marketing seeks to communicate clearly and so
assumes the responsibility for ensuring that audiences can easily
comprehend its message.
These two worldviews are very different. And misunderstandings
between each discipline’s practitioners have encouraged a sense of
opposition–hence the title of this chapter. But I believe this sense of
opposition is ill founded; science and marketing must coexist, and an
understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of both worldviews is the
place to begin.
The Graph’s Hidden Story
Remember the graph that summarized years of results from studying
cardiovascular risk? While the graph described the nature of risk among
patient populations completely, a quick look at the company’s profit and
loss statement was proof enough that the complete story was not especially
effective at influencing anyone to change their behavior (that is, buy the
product). What was missing? A focus on clear communication to the
audience.
By telling the story in a way that took a long time, that focused on the
small details, and that was complete, this company was putting the
scientific knowledge first, treating communication with the audience as it
would treat communication in a peer-reviewed journal article. This

approach would be valid if physicians changed their attitudes, beliefs, or
behaviors only when presented with complete, detailed, peer-reviewed data.
But this is not the case.
To put clear communication with the audience first (rather than the
complete depiction of knowledge) required telling the story of the graph in
a different way. And once we did so, sales accelerated. The organization’s
sales exceeded the established goals, something that hadn’t happened in
four years.
A Science and Marketing Worldview
Matrix
To summarize, marketing and science have different worldviews. To market
scientifically based products and services to technically trained audiences,
you have to understand the similarities and differences. The differences can
cause a series of fundamental problems that, left unchecked, will impede
and even neutralize the effectiveness of your marketing. This table offers a
quick comparison of the two worldviews.
FOR THE DISCIPLINE
OF . . .
SCIENCE MARKETING
The general goal is to . . . Comprehend Communicate
So that its practitioners can .
. .
Describe and
predict
Influence attitudes, beliefs,
or behaviors
In one word, this discipline
wants to be . . .
Complete Compelling
So the focus is typically on
the . . .
Details Big picture
And the communication is . . . Thorough A summary

1 Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations (London: Rutledge and Keagan
Paul, 1963), 33-39.

3
THE MYTH OF MARKETING
IMMUNITY
“I Don’t Look at Logos”
For some research Forma conducted on behalf of a client, we recruited
several groups of research scientists who were using a particular class of lab
products. We were interested in their responses to the general marketing
efforts of the competitors in this market segment, and to the marketing
efforts of our client in particular.
One question involved testing for brand awareness, specifically corporate
symbols, to which one focus group member responded, “No, I do not look
at logos.” Several other members of the group immediately seconded her
statement.
Now, if you walk into any lab, you’ll find corporate trademarks on just
about every item in the place. From the pipettes to the chromatographs to
the cover of the lab notebooks to the back of the Post-it notepads, corporate
trademarks are everywhere. It is impossible not to look at corporate
trademarks, so it’s hard to believe that this respondent meant exactly what
she said: “I do not look at logos.” What she probably meant to convey was
something like this: “While there may be lots of logos around, I can and do
ignore them.”
After further discussion, it became clear that this respondent felt that the
marketing efforts of this product segment just did not affect her. She
thought she was immune to marketing. Many other respondents (both male
and female) expressed the same sentiment, and their comments made it
clear that they had a generally negative impression of marketing.

Now, scientists are not alone in believing they are immune to marketing
efforts. This sentiment is shared by a wide section of the general population.
But through my experience, I’ve discovered that many scientists believe
they possess particularly strong immunity. Those scientists feel that the
rational thought processes embedded in their discipline confers some sort of
extra special protection against the “insidious and generally negative”
nature of marketing.
As you’ll see shortly, some recently published, peer-reviewed research
proves that marketing immunity is a myth.
Marketers and Audiences Escalate the
Situation
I believe that the idea of immunity to marketing is as ludicrous as the idea
of immunity to the effects of atmospheric pressure or capitalism. Marketing
is part of the structure of our society. We all come in contact with marketing
messages every day.
Despite their prevalence (or maybe because of it), we have learned to pay
very little conscious attention to these messages. We experience most of
them as annoying petitions–poking us, prodding us, banging away to attract
our attention. And we get tired of being bothered all the time, so we develop
thick “mental calluses.”
We have become so adept at tuning out marketing that marketers have
learned that to get our attention they have to “poke” harder. They poke and
prod harder; we develop thicker calluses. We develop thicker calluses; they
have to poke and prod even harder–an escalating cycle.
Back in the days of only three television networks, marketing could work
by interrupting people (it’s still called a commercial break after all). And
interrupting still works, to some extent, doesn’t it? Who isn’t annoyed by
those flashing banner ads at the top of web pages? But if you are like most
people, you can’t help but read some of them, even as annoying as they are.
Thus, interrupting still works on occasion.
Escalation Results in Sophistication

Because we don’t like interruptions, we develop sophisticated filters that
distinguish between useful information and what we consider to be noise.
And in response, the marketers vying for our attention develop more
sophisticated methods of attracting attention. And then these methods end
up training the audiences to become ever more selective in what they pay
attention to. It is a continuing struggle: marketers want the attention of the
audiences, and the audiences don’t want their attention hijacked.
To get a glimpse of how far this war for attention has come, look back at
some of the advertisements in magazines from the 1930s. For example, an
ad for ordinary yeast declared, “‘Tired out, run down persons become
completely changed,’ says physician of Germany’s greatest free hospital.”
This language and the claim itself feels quaint and, in many ways, naïve. In
the intervening decades, as the audience members (and their filters) have
become more sophisticated, the marketing efforts required to reach
audiences have also become more sophisticated.
Clear evidence of marketing sophistication was seen in the discussion
with the participants of the focus group I mentioned earlier. Their ability to
decode visual messages was extremely fine-tuned, and this ability was
shared by every scientist in the group.
To give just one example, despite the statement that they “do not look at
logos,” the respondents had a fascinating discussion about which of the
several corporate trademarks from key competitors looked the most out of
date.
They could read significant meaning into the choice of colors. They could
decode meanings in images and shapes. They could apply this sophisticated
visual processing to ads, catalog covers, corporate trademarks, websites,
and brochures. They were drawn to certain messages and designs, and were
uninterested, or even repulsed, by others. Whether or not they consciously
paid attention, these scientists were sophisticated consumers of marketing
messages.
The culture these scientists grew up in, so dominated by visual
communication, had taught them very sophisticated skills in seeing and
consuming this same visual communication. Yet these same life science
researchers were convinced they could control their own responses to these
marketing messages.

The Myth of Immunity
Recent research 1 shows that marketing messages have clear effects outside
of our control. In fact, you don’t even have to consciously register
marketing messages to be affected by them in profound ways. Researchers
at Duke University and the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada,
found that exposure to brands changed the behavior of the viewer. This
effect extends beyond purchase behavior. The most amazing thing about
this change in behavior was that it was triggered by subliminal messages.
That is, the viewer did not have to consciously register the stimulus to
exhibit the change in behavior.
The research was conducted like this: Subjects were given a standardized
test that measured their ability on a particular trait. In this case, the traits
being measured were honesty or creativity. The subjects were also
questioned about several corporate trademarks. One set of corporate
trademarks was associated with the particular character trait being
measured, either honesty or creativity; the others had different character
traits, but were neutral with respect to the traits being measured.
Subjects were then divided into two groups and shown a series of
numbers, one at a time, in sequence. They were asked to keep a running
sum. Interspersed among the numbers were corporate trademarks from one
of two companies. These corporate trademarks were purposely shown too
quickly to be consciously registered. In fact, in subsequent questioning, no
respondents reported seeing any images amid the number sequence.
Upon completion of the running sum, the participants were tested for an
increase in behaviors related to the personality trait. The results were
significant: Participants subliminally exposed to the corporate trademarks of
a brand associated with creativity exhibited more creative behavior (on a
double blind test designed to measure such behavior) than participants
exposed to the corporate trademarks of a brand not associated with
creativity. Similarly, participants subliminally exposed to corporate
trademarks of a brand they associated with honesty, displayed more honesty
in subsequent tests than did participants exposed to corporate trademarks
that had no such connotation.
The subliminal presence of the corporate trademarks changed
participants’ behavior, and the effects were present even when the subjects

were completely unaware of the presence of any marketing message
whatsoever.
In the words of the researchers, “Brand exposure can shape nonconscious
behavior.” The authors conclude, “Participants responded to brands by
behaving in line with the brand’s characteristics, and did so with no
conscious awareness of the influence.” So, even those who believe that a
rational world-view grants them immunity can be profoundly affected by
marketing.
How does this apply to life science marketing, which typically involves
selling sophisticated products or services to technically sophisticated
audiences? There are two key implications:
No One Is Immune to Marketing: The authors of the research state, “ . . .
we believe consumers are unlikely to have the ability to successfully guard
against brand-influence, given the capacity such efforts would require and
the fact that much of brand-influence likely flies under the radar of
consumer attention.”
Marketing Cannot Manipulate People into Doing Anything: While no one
is immune to marketing, no one can be unconsciously manipulated into
doing something they don’t want to do either.
The research I’m referring to doesn’t prove this statement, but the
researchers found that the effect on behavior is strongest when the audience
values the characteristics embedded in the brand image. When the audience
does not value, or does not possess a “chronic motivation” to exhibit the
characteristics embedded in the brand, there will be little or no effect. Their
conclusion: “It is not thought to be possible to create a new motivated state”
via brand exposure. In other words, the fears of marketing’s ability to
manipulate people into doing something they would not otherwise want to
do are unfounded.
Peer-reviewed research has shown that no one is
immune to marketing.

The ability to influence attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, however, is one of
the many reasons that marketing has a powerful place in business. Granted,
marketing alone may not be sufficient, but it is certainly necessary.
No great company has ever succeeded without paying close attention to
marketing, and this is true whether your audience has a rational worldview
or not. But while marketing’s strategic importance should not be doubted,
the tactics you use in your marketing do indeed depend upon whether your
audience has a rational worldview or not.
Marketing Does Matter
The bottom line is that marketing does matter. How much?
Remember the story of the company that came to us with a graph? Well,
when we began helping that company, they hadn’t achieved their sales goals
in four years. We developed a clear marketing strategy and some fairly
standard marketing tactics, and focused on communicating clearly to their
audience first and foremost. By understanding marketing and putting their
audience–rather than knowledge–first, the company was able to achieve
(and even exceed) their sales goals.
Marketing is powerful. It can help you bridge the gap between your great
science and your business-related goals. To get the most out of marketing,
however, you must understand its power, its limitations, its priorities, and its
worldview and how all these can be used to drive your commercial success.
Failure to do so results in low-performance marketing. In the next
chapter, I’ll examine how making undifferentiated claims impedes your
ability to promote your organization and its products and services. You’ll
see how unique claims enable an organization to be perceived as truly
different and therefore valuable; differentiation is at the very heart of high-
performance marketing.
1 Grainne M. Fitzsimons, Tanya L. Chartrand, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons,
“Automatic Effects of Brand Exposure on Motivated Behavior: How Apple

Makes You “Think Different,” Journal of Consumer Research 35 (June
2008): 21-35.

4
THE TRAGEDY OF
UNDIFFERENTIATED CLAIMS
The following language is quoted from the websites of various companies
all serving the same (or closely related) life science sector. The names have
been changed so these companies remain anonymous.
Based on our experience and expertise, Company W will provide
faster results of your high-quality sequencing at very affordable
prices.
There is some additional language on the home page, but the quotation
above obviously represents this company’s core claim. Here’s another, from
a different site:
Company X is synonymous with scientific excellence and high
standards as we continue to provide our customers with industry-
leading service quality . . . Company X takes great pride in
consistently providing high-quality results with fast turnaround
times; meeting and frequently surpassing our client’s stringent
requirements.
And another:
Our commitment to operational excellence allows us to quickly
and securely deliver the highest-quality results to our clients. We
are an extension of our client’s laboratory by providing

outsourcing solutions with the quality and trust expected from an
in-house provider.
And another:
With competitive pricing, reliable service, and high quality, and
attentive care to our customers always on our minds, we strive to
provide only the best, while always seeking ways for
improvement.
The Need for Differentiation
Marketing is the identification of a need in the marketplace, and the
matching of a product or service to that need at a profit. The examples
quoted above all show that a need has been identified. It should be easy to
figure out that the need used in this example is genetic sequencing. So, half
of the definition of marketing (identifying a market need) has been fulfilled.
What about the other half: helping customers address (buy) a solution for
the identified need? Here is the tragedy: these claims do not help customers
accomplish the purchase of a solution at all and so are a waste of the time
and precious attention of the audience.
Let’s look at these claims in detail, by translating them into plain English:
“Based on our experience and expertise, Company W will provide faster
results of your high-quality sequencing at very affordable prices.” In other
words: “We have experience and expertise. We are quick. We provide high-
quality results. We are very affordable (cheap).”
Think for a minute about this firm’s competitors. Would any firms claim
that they do not have experience and expertise? Would any claim that they
are not quick? Would any claim that they do not have high quality? Would
any claim that they are not affordable? No. All will claim that they have
experience and expertise, that they are quick, that they provide quality
services, and that they are affordable. So, all of the firm’s competitors will
make the same claims.
Claims that do not differentiate your organization, your service, or your
product are meaningless, ineffective, and a waste of time for both you and

your audiences.
“But wait,” you may protest, “not all of those firms will be providing
products or services of equal quality. Some will be superior to others.” That
is exactly right. In fact, given enough firms in the marketplace, there will be
a bell-shaped curve describing the variation in quality of products or
services, with a few firms providing very high quality, a few firms very low,
and the majority somewhere in the middle.
Figure 1. Despite a normal distribution of the quality of the product or
service, all companies, if asked, will claim that they provide high quality.
Claims that are not verifiable before a purchase are undifferentiating and
actually create buying resistance.
Imagine that a potential customer with money to spend asked any of
these firms the following question: “I am ready to buy, and I will only work
with a firm that can provide high quality. Do you provide high quality?”
Every single firm would say yes. Even those firms on the low end of the
bell curve would say yes. Whether they believe the statement or not is not
the issue, nor is the quality of their products or services. The fact is all firms
will claim that they provide high quality.
So, if all firms make this identical claim, how does this claim distinguish
one firm from any other? Answer? It doesn’t.
Spend a few minutes browsing the websites of CROs, preclinical labs,
CMOs, formulation labs, management consultants, qPCR suppliers, flow
cytometers–just to name a few examples–and you will find many claims
that are not differentiating and thus cannot be effective.

»
»
While this problem is more pronounced for service providers than it is for
companies that sell products, there are many examples that can be found in
product-oriented companies as well.
Ironically, many of the sectors with the most blatant examples of
undifferentiating–and therefore ineffective–claims are sectors where the
governing regulatory bodies (e.g., the FDA) do not regulate marketing
claims.
For example, Forma worked with a lab whose marketing claims were not
regulated by the FDA. The organization’s leadership could not bring
themselves to select a single set of differentiators. At each stage of the
project, the leadership would argue among themselves, ultimately changing
their decision about “what makes us different,” despite evidence from
market research. This new direction would invalidate all work done
previously. Without agreed-upon and stable differentiation, no budget,
however large, could make their marketing effective.
High-performance marketing highlights your
offering’s unique value and thereby attracts
audiences.
High-performance marketing must be based on truly differentiating
claims. This makes it easy for prospects to choose your offering over the
offerings of others by showing them that your firm is indeed different,
distinct, even unique.
High-performance marketing is achieved through a four-step process:
First, you identify the differences between you and “those other
guys,” which results in an effective position.
Second, you articulate these differences clearly–that is, you
communicate these claims of distinction in (verbal and visual)
language that your audiences understand.

»
»
Third, you test these claims to ensure that they are effective and
defensible.
Fourth, you express (or promote) these claims through various
channels, executing the tactics of your marketing plan.
Do all of this correctly, and people will raise their hands and step out of
the anonymity of the Internet to have a sales conversation.
But they won’t raise their hands for just any claim. For example, one
insurance salesman might have red hair, but identifying, articulating,
testing, and expressing this distinction doesn’t really help draw customers to
the firm or prompt them to buy, because when it comes to purchasing
insurance, the audience just doesn’t care about hair color–this claim is not
important or compelling.
It is crucial to make claims that actually distinguish your organization
and are important, believable, and compelling to your audiences. This
sounds simple, but judging from the claims typically made in the life
sciences, it isn’t that easy to accomplish. Many life science organizations
simply do not understand how marketing actually works. As a result, untold
amounts of time, resources, and attention are wasted without achieving any
of the results that high-performance marketing can produce.
To create high-performance marketing, you must first understand how
people buy. Let’s explore that process now.

5
HOW PEOPLE (REALLY) BUY
There is a great deal of misconception about buying, but because of its
importance to corporate success few subjects have been written about more
intensely. And in this case, the buying experiences I am talking about are
not retail purchase decisions for negligible amounts (“Hmm, do I really
want to buy that soda?”). The discussion here addresses large-ticket items
purchased through a long sales cycle and assisted (i.e., mediated) by a
salesperson.
Much of the current literature on this topic focuses on the reasons for
buying, and looks at motivating the sale through a variety of factors, such as
deprivation, obligation, fear, or temptation (to name just a few). This focus
requires a deep understanding of the psychological makeup of the buyer.
Today, buyers can remain unidentified right up until the last minute, thanks
to the prevalence and quantity of free information, which allows them to
compare offerings anonymously. So while probing the psychological
makeup of the buyers may be helpful once they abandon their anonymity,
marketing frequently does not have this luxury.
For this reason, it is useful to look at buying from another perspective,
not one of psychological manipulation of the buyers, but one of supporting
the buyers as they progress through the buying cycle. To do this, you need
to look at buying behavior from a slightly different viewpoint; you need to
view it through the lens of change.
Buying is an experience that requires people to commit to change
(though they may not think of it that way consciously). People (your
customers) commit to pay you money for something that they believe will
provide the benefits they desire. In doing so, they are committing to a
change of some kind.

Buying is a commitment to change.
As I’ve already mentioned, the motivation to change (to buy something
from you) can occur for a number of reasons, including inspiration,
deprivation, obligation, education, or temptation. Whatever the
psychological reason for change, researchers have shown that all people
undergoing change progress through distinct stages.
Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model of
Change
There are many models of behavioral change, but the one that translates
most directly to purchase behavior is Prochaska’s transtheoretical model of
change.1
Prochaska’s model reinforces the idea that salespeople can’t force anyone
to buy something, but they can help make it easier for people who are ready
to buy (or to progress from one stage to another in the buying cycle) to take
the steps (make the changes) necessary to do so. In this model, the
motivation to buy is defined as a state of readiness to move from one stage
of change to another. The Prochaska model offers a predictable pathway for
behavioral change.
Understanding the pathway of purchase behavior enables you to
effectively assist your buyers in progressing from one stage to the next by
helping you understand how much you need to communicate with them,
when you need to communicate with them, and what type of
communication they need.
Stage One: Precontemplation
Individuals in the precontemplation stage (those who are unaware) deny
that there is the need for change and therefore have no intention to commit

to change in the near (or even distant) future. At this point, they resist
change.
A prospect in this stage might be content with the current situation or
might be in denial about the need for change: “We don’t need a new peptide
synthesizer; the solution we have works just fine.”
Stage Two: Contemplation (Research)
Individuals in the contemplation stage (i.e., researchers) acknowledge that
there is an issue and begin to contemplate the need for change. They
wonder about possible solutions, and seek information about these
solutions.
Figure 2. In Prochaska’s model, there are six stages to permanent change:
precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and
termination. To affect people’s purchasing behavior, you have to know what
stage they are in.
During this stage, there is still little overt commitment, and individuals can
remain in this stage for quite some time.
A prospect in this stage will begin to research information about
alternatives: “The increase in demand is starting to overwhelm our
equipment. I wonder if there is a faster machine out there, and what a new
one would cost?”
Stage Three: Preparation (Evaluation)

Individuals in the preparation stage (i.e., evaluators) plan to take action in
the near future. There are increasing signs of commitment, including a shift
from focusing on the past to focusing on the future and a shift from
focusing on the problem to focusing on the solution. This is the evaluation
phase, during which the individual is figuring out how to solve his or her
problem. This is the stage in which a goal is selected. The preparation stage
can be brief, as momentum builds quickly toward the next stage, which is
action.
A prospect in the preparation stage will start to develop goals and a plan
for action: “I’ve allocated time to visit the websites of the top three
suppliers, and my goal is to talk to these companies before we have our next
budget meeting.”
Stage Four: Action (Purchasing)
Individuals in the action stage (i.e., purchasers) exhibit the most overt
change in their behaviors. As the action stage is the one in which
commitments are made, this is the stage in which most sales efforts (and
sales training) are focused. However, individuals at the preceding stages
also need support, and providing this support can increase the number of
individuals who ultimately do take action.
A prospect in the action stage will have resources assigned to the project
and will be actively involved in addressing any problems that arise: “We are
ready to buy, but we have a concern about the terms of the contract.”
Stage Five: Sold (Maintenance)
Change does not end with action; otherwise, the first trip to the gym after a
commitment made on New Year’s Eve would be sufficient to ensure
attendance all year long. The commitment must be maintained, and any
lapses must be addressed. The legal system even takes this stage into
account when it specifies a time during which “buyer’s remorse” may cause
an individual to change his or her mind without legal penalty.
A prospect at this stage will sign a contract and be involved in the post-
sale details: “Delivery and setup will be on the 14th, and training will start
on the 15th.”

Stage Six: Advocacy (Termination)
This final stage is the goal for the change process; at this point the change is
permanent.
A prospect in the termination stage will be committed to the change:
“The purchase addresses my needs so well that I’ll only use this supplier in
the future.”
Marketing and the Stages of Change
People in the first stage (precontemplation) are not important targets for
marketers. After all, these people don’t recognize that they have a problem.
And the last two stages (maintenance and termination) are less important
for marketing, because at this point the purchase has been made. So for
most of the rest of this book I’ll focus on stages two, three, and four:
contemplation (researchers), planning (evaluators), and action (purchasers).
To successfully influence prospects’ purchasing behavior, you need to
know what stage they are in on the continuum of change. What people need
to help them move forward varies depending on the stage they are in.
Illustrating the Model
Now that you understand the basics of the Prochaska model, let’s examine it
to see how it applies to a real-world example. Let’s begin with your own
experience; I’ll use a major purchase, such as buying a car, to see how valid
this model, which equates buying with change, might be.
Are you currently in the market for a new car? Are you thinking about
buying one? If you are like most people, the answer is no. You are
reasonably content with the car you currently own. Given this attitude–“I’m
not interested; don’t bother me”–what stage are you in? You are in stage
one (precontemplation). At this stage, you might be interested in some
general educational material about cars, but you are definitely not
interested in any sales-related material.
But maybe your car is getting a little old. At this point, you might start to
notice new cars. You might find yourself paying attention to ads or noticing

cars on the street. At this point, you have no commitment to change; you are
in stage two (contemplation). You can stay in stage two for quite a while,
years in fact. To move to the next stage, you need inspiration. This
inspiration might come from a trip to your mechanic (“Oh no, I need a new
transmission”), or it might come from reading a review in an online forum,
or seeing a neighbor drive by in a new car.
If you are actively in the market for a new car, you are in stage three
(preparation) or stage four (action). At these stages, you are actively
planning for a new car, and you seek reassurance. Most buyers at this stage
will be comparing specifications, such as warranties, horsepower, etc., to
ensure they minimize their chances of making a mistake.
If you are like most of the hundreds of people to whom I have lectured
over the years, you’ve found yourself in one of the stages I’ve just
described at some point. You’ve seen that the model aligns with how you
last bought a car. Buying is a commitment to change.
Figure 3. To assist prospects in moving thro ugh the buying cycle, educate
early, then inspire, and, finally, reassure. Make communication short and
sweet early, and more complete later.

What Is Needed at Each Stage of the Buying
Process?
Prospects in the early and middle stages of change (precontemplation and
contemplation) need to increase their perception of the positive aspects of
changing. Increasing the perceived positive aspects of change (that is,
increasing the pros, rather than decreasing the cons) can help inspire people
to believe that change (and the resulting benefits) are both possible and
worth the effort. Prospects in the later stages of change (preparation and
action) need to decrease their perception of the negative aspects of
changing. Reducing the perceived negative aspects of change (that is,
decreasing the cons rather than increasing the pros) provides the
reassurance they need to feel comfortable moving forward, knowing that
they are on the right track.
The unaware (those in precontemplation) need education. Educational
communication should be strictly educational, with no sales “flavor.”
Researchers (those in contemplation) need inspiration. Inspirational
communication should focus on the benefits of purchasing, communicating
with only a few details. Evaluators and buyers (those in planning and
purchasing) need reassurance. Communications designed to reassure will
need to be more complete than communications designed to inspire. Late-
stage buyers need more details, so longer communication is appropriate
with them. You will want to focus communications on how the benefits will
be delivered or achieved.
Early stage prospects (the unaware in
precontemplation) need education. Middle-stage
prospects (researchers in contemplation) need
inspiration. Late-stage prospects (evaluators in
preparation and purchasers in action) need
reassurance.

The Value of Understanding How People
Buy
Prochaska’s model provides quite a bit of valuable guidance that should
inform your marketing efforts. First, buyers progress through several
discrete stages on the way to a final purchase. At each stage, their actions
vary and you can determine what stage they occupy by behavioral clues,
such as the types of questions they ask. At each stage, they need different
types of information, and the purpose of communicating with them is
different.
The type of support you offer your prospects must differ depending upon
the stage of the buying cycle they currently occupy. The unaware need
education. Researchers need inspiration. Evaluators and purchasers need
reassurance.
Now that you understand how people buy and the types of support they
need, I’ll examine the process by which high-performance marketing
produces changes in audiences’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors: the
marketing mechanism of action (MMOA).
1 James O. Prochaska, PhD, et al., Changing for Good (New York: William
Morrow, 1994). Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching brought this model for
change to my attention.

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6
THE MARKETING MECHANISM
OF ACTION (MMOA)
To describe the framework and various components of marketing and how
they function together, I’ve borrowed a term from pharmacokinetics: the
mechanism of action.
In pharmacology, the mechanism of action is the specific interaction
through which a drug produces its biological effect. Following this analogy,
the marketing mechanism of action (MMOA) is the specific chain of
interactions through which marketing produces changes in audiences’
attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. The MMOA occurs within a framework
composed of five key components:
Organization
Brand-story
Touchpoints
Audiences
Environment
Let’s take a look at each one in detail.
Organization

At the center of each organization’s universe are its mission, vision, values,
and objectives. These beliefs are typically expressed through a strategic
plan intended to inform and guide the organization’s actions and purpose
and (hopefully) its public-facing communications.
Internal alignment of these strategic elements within the organization
provides consistency vital to the plan’s success. But to achieve success,
something else is needed to complete the picture. In addition to a strategic
plan– and optimally, as part of it–there must also be clear differentiation
between your organization’s products and services and those of your
competitors. Without differentiation, your organization and its offerings will
be perceived as a commodity, which means there will be only a few ways
for you to compete–for example, on price (read: lowest), on delivery (read:
fastest), or on a few other attributes.
Figure 4. The five sections of the MMOA are organized in concentric rings,
orbits if you will, that start with your organization at the center and expand
all the way out to your environment. Please note that the concentric circles
could be centered at any stage of this diagram; for purposes of clarity they
are centered on the organization.
Successful differentiation–carefully chosen, clearly defined, and
embedded throughout the entire MMOA–creates a unique space in the
minds of your audiences, a space that they associate only with you. The
process of creating this unique space is called positioning.
If your position is the defined, unique space you decide to occupy in the
minds of your audiences, then the space you currently occupy there is your

image. It’s important to understand the difference. The position is a choice
you make; it represents the perception you want your audiences to have of
you. The image is the perception the audiences actually have of you. The
position you select may or may not match your current image. In other
words, what you want to be known for may not be what you are known for
now. If that’s the case, don’t despair. There are many reasons for this and
many ways to address it. But in every case, successful positioning leads to a
clear, unique image, one that will influence your audiences’ attitudes,
beliefs, or behaviors.
Successful, proper positioning and internal alignment (consistency)
provide the essential foundation for all high-performance marketing.
Brand-Story
Immediately outside the organizational center of your marketing universe is
the next ring: that of the brand-story. Marketers are fond of buzzwords, and
few words have as many different meanings as brand. One of the problems
with the term is that one of the most common meanings refers to the visual
representation of the company, such as your logo, corporate signature, or
trademark. This means that rather than representing the entire public face of
the organization, the word brand has come to represent only the
organization’s visual component. And to make matters more confusing,
some marketers are abandoning the term brand for other terms, such as
narrative or story.
There are many meanings of the word brand, and I’ll clarify the three
main definitions in chapter nine. For now, I’ll use the term brand-story to
refer to your organization’s unique verbal and visual representations–the
core of its public face. I’m using this term to ensure that you think about
more than just the visual part of your marketing.
To be successful, marketers must control their brand-story, ensuring that
it aligns with the mission, vision, values, and objectives of the organization.
The brand-story must articulate the position of the organization.
Touchpoints

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Touchpoints are those places where your audiences come into contact with
your organization in any form (such as your brand-story)–where they touch.
Touchpoints are avenues for your audiences to learn about your position
and your brand-story; to be educated, inspired, or reassured by your
organization. In fact, touchpoints by definition are the only way an audience
can learn about your brand-story.
A touchpoint can be something obvious, such as an ad, a website, or a
trade-show booth. But the places where you and your audiences touch can
also be more subtle–for example, an invoice, the packaging of the
disposable portion of your product, the instruction manual, a casual
conversation with a salesperson on the floor of a trade show, even a mention
of your organization on a social media site such as LinkedIn. All are
touchpoints.
Each of your organization’s touchpoints convey a message, however
subtle, about your organization and your brand-story. Thus, each also is an
opportunity to influence your audiences. Touchpoints can be divided into
four basic categories:
Earned exposure
Content marketing
Paid exposure
Personal interactions
Since each and every touchpoint is an opportunity to influence your
audiences, to be successful your brand-story–which articulates your
position– must be expressed consistently across all of your touchpoints. In
other words, all of your messaging as well as your visual appearance must
be consistent and clearly related–otherwise you risk confusing your
audiences. Without consistency, you’ll lose out on the cumulative effect that
occurs as touch-points reinforce each other, combining to shape your
desired image in the minds of your audiences.
Audiences

You may have noticed that I have been using the word audiences (plural)
rather than audience (singular). I say audiences because you actually have
many different types of audiences besides your customers. And they all are
bombarded by marketing messages from you and your competitors.
Your customers, while important, are only a small segment of the people
who will come in contact with your brand-story. And customers also are
only a small segment of the people who will play an important role in your
brand-story’s success.
In addition to your customers, you are also communicating with your
potential customers. And let’s not forget your investors and potential
investors, your suppliers and potential suppliers, your employees and
potential employees, the media, the regulatory agencies, and even the postal
carrier and other delivery people, the janitorial staff, and any other people
who happen to come in contact with your brand-story.
But that’s not all. There also is a large set of digital entities that are
paying attention to your touchpoints, such as the search engines that send
out “spiders” to “crawl” across your website, analyzing and interpreting
your digital presence. Taken all together, these many groups form the
audiences for your organization. Some will obviously generate more
revenue than others. The key is to remember that you don’t have just one
audience; you have many audiences.
Now, audiences is not the perfect word, because it implies that all these
different groups are sitting quietly in their seats, waiting for you to say
something. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. The analogy
works better if you envision them as a collection of middle-school students.
They are all busy, chattering away among themselves or looking out the
window, focused on any other subject than you. They have their own
concerns. Getting their attention is not always simple or easy; holding it can
be even more difficult.
So, once you realize that many audience groups will come in contact with
your brand-story, you must craft high-performance marketing to address
most, if not all, of these groups. Ignoring any group, whether primary,
secondary, or even tertiary, depending on their potential role in your
success, could prove disastrous.
For example, early stage life science companies that are dependent on
venture funding cannot focus only on customers while ignoring investors,

or the media, or the regulatory agencies, or employees, as all these
audiences ultimately will play a key part in the company’s success.
To be successful, marketers must understand the diverse needs of each of
their audiences, and have a systematic process of communicating with them
and obtaining feedback from them.
Environment
The outermost ring of the MMOA is the environment within which your
audiences work–their business sectors. As part of the environment, there are
many other factors that will play a role in the success of your marketing
efforts, such as competitors, social influences, market trends, economic
influences (from the sector and from the overall world economy),
technological changes, and the regulations that govern the industry–just to
name a few. Each can affect the success of your marketing and the business
success of your organization.
To prosper, marketers must navigate changing environmental conditions
while staying consistent in their brand-story as they attempt to educate,
inspire, and reassure their audiences.
The MMOA in Action
Let’s recall the stated marketing goal–to influence audiences’ attitudes,
beliefs, or behaviors in a certain way. To achieve this goal, you activate the
MMOA, which works like this: Your organization’s position is articulated
in your brand-story, which is expressed through multiple touchpoints. The
impressions from all these touchpoints are combined and distilled by the
audiences to create a specific image in their minds. This image can
influence the audiences’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, which also are
affected by their environment (including competitors).
This seems simple, doesn’t it? It is, in theory. Start by picking a position.
Articulate this position in your brand-story. Express your brand-story in
your touchpoints. And finally, measure the images created in the minds of
your audiences. Simple and straightforward.

The reality of marketing is more complex. Successful, high-performance
marketing requires careful consideration of each of the components of the
MMOA. The proper position must be carefully chosen, considering the
fundamental values and vision of your organization, the business
environment, and your competitors’ positions. Your position must meet
seven key criteria to be effective (more information on this will appear in
the next chapter).
The Marketing Mechanism of Action (MMOA) is
the specific chain of interactions through which
high performance marketing produces changes in
your audiences’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.
Your brand-story must then express your chosen position clearly and
succinctly. Your touchpoints must articulate your brand-story clearly and
consistently, while making it accessible and compelling to your audiences.
Your audiences’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors should be measured and the
knowledge gained should be used to modify some (or all) of the previous
activities in the MMOA.
A Caveat
The MMOA does not describe the mental processes by which audience
members change their internal attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors when coming
in contact with one or more touchpoints. Such a description would venture
well past marketing into discussions of psychology, personality, and other
behavioral sciences.

Figure 5. The MMOA begins with a carefully selected position, which
must be clearly and carefully articulated in your brand-story. Your
touchpoints must then express your brand-story consistently. The audiences
will end up with an image in their minds, and if you’ve managed this
process carefully, this image will match your chosen position.
But you don’t need to understand these subjects to find the MMOA
useful. Let’s look at this from the audiences’ point of view. When audiences
look at you, or more specifically, when they look at or listen to your touch-
points–which express your brand-story, which articulates your position–
they are looking for clues to help them decide what to think about you and
your offering. They want to know how to classify you mentally. “Is this
organization worth paying attention to or not?” and “Are they different, and
if so, how?”
Understanding how the MMOA works enables you to influence the
answers to these questions, but only if you harness the power of the MMOA
by getting the following aspects of your marketing lined up correctly.
First, proper positioning is vital. If you don’t choose a position that meets
the seven fundamental criteria (clear, unique, authentic, sustainable,
important, believable, and compelling–as I’ll cover in the next chapter),
your marketing will always be hamstrung.

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Second, this position must be clearly articulated in your brand-story.
Without clear articulation, your audiences won’t understand what you are
trying to tell them.
Third, each and every touchpoint must express your brand-story
consistently. This is particularly important for employees; each must
understand the position of the organization and how it is articulated in the
brand-story. Without consistency, your audiences will be confused.
Fourth, you must understand your audiences, and what they find
important, believable, and compelling. Ignoring one or more audience
groups could threaten your ultimate success.
Fifth, you must understand your environment, and keep up to date on the
many factors that can change your competitive landscape, such as
regulatory issues, technological trends, and competitive behavior.
An Example
To illustrate the MMOA in action, it may help to examine how it works via
the story of a fictitious life science company, SpeedyTech Corporation.
SpeedyTech is the developer of equipment that helps research scientists
conduct experiments in the lab. It has invented a breakthrough technology
that enables its equipment to deliver results in half the time–a huge
competitive advantage. The company dubs this technology the Frequency
Analyzing Spectrum Test, which has a convenient acronym: FAST. It
carefully crafts a position, which I’ll summarize as, “Our FAST equipment
gives you the fastest results.”
SpeedyTech develops a brand-story around this position, including the
tagline, “FASTest results.” It develops touchpoints to convey this message
to its audiences. SpeedyTech is careful to use the tagline and messages
about this new equipment consistently. Intent on getting the word out to all
its audiences, it does the following:
Develops a website that is rich in content about the advantages of this
new equipment.
Develops and deploys e-mail blasts to drive audience members to this
website.

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Gives podium presentations about the groundbreaking science being
developed with its equipment.
Writes articles for trade publications.
Exhibits at trade shows.
Taps social networks to spread the word about everything it is doing.
Develops a monthly publication that features the science of some of
its best customers.
Uses promotional tactics to drive adoption of the technology, such as
referral programs and discounts.
Uses key opinion leaders to drive awareness about its technology
through webinars and presentations at conferences.
Uses marketing automation to track and measure visitors’ behavior
on its website, and then communicates to them based on their
behavior.
As a result of these efforts, the word spreads. Audiences come to
associate SpeedyTech and the FAST product with the fastest test results
available. Inquiries about the equipment start to increase. Editors and
reporters want to interview the inventor of the technology.
About 18 months after FAST’s introduction, SpeedyTech conducts
market research and determines that 63 percent of the population of
potential users associates this equipment with the concept of “fastest
results.” And both the number of inquiries about the product and the deals
closed to purchase it continue to increase.
This is the MMOA in action: a position is chosen, which is then
articulated clearly in the brand-story, which is expressed consistently in
touchpoints and thus influences the attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors of the
audiences.
Alas, the story of SpeedyTech doesn’t end there.
SpeedyTech salespeople are reporting that they have begun to lose
business to Lightning Lab, a small start-up competitor that has developed

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and recently introduced new technology that offers even faster results at
better resolution! Lightning Lab’s website shows its own product side by
side with a recognizable silhouette of SpeedyTech’s product, along with the
time-to-result figures–and asks the simple question, “Who really has the
fastest results?”
Suddenly SpeedyTech’s position–“Our FAST equipment gives you the
fastest results”–is in doubt. And the brand-story embodied by the
tagline–“FASTest results”–is no longer a believable promise, because
someone else’s results are faster. Pouring more money into marketing
tactics, such as displaying “FASTest results” on a larger trade-show booth,
won’t help. SpeedyTech now has a choice to make. Does it acquire the
smaller competitor (at a premium) to ensure that its position and the brand
promise remains intact, or does it choose a new position and attempt to
retrain all its audiences that the company no longer stands for the “FASTest
results” but something else? Either choice is distasteful and expensive.
SpeedyTech’s dilemma can be traced to one key deficiency in its
MMOA– its position. Its position–“Our FAST equipment gives you the
fastest results’–unintentionally left the door open to competitive advances.
The moral of the story is that each component of the MMOA requires
specific and particular attention.
At the environmental level, monitoring of trends and competitors is
crucial.
At the audiences level, the effectiveness of the touchpoints must be
constantly assessed through monitoring of the audiences’ images of
the organization’s offering.
At the touchpoint level, the brand-story must be expressed
consistently.
At the brand-story level, the position must be clearly articulated.
At the organizational level, care must be taken to ensure that the
position meets certain specific criteria: it should be clear, unique,
authentic, sustainable, important, believable, and compelling. I’ll
elaborate on these criteria in the next chapter. Unfortunately,
SpeedyTech chose a position that was neither unique nor sustainable.

While the MMOA is simple in theory, developing and implementing
high-performance marketing requires adherence to a set of principles that
have been tested by real-world experience.
In the following chapters, I’ll cover these principles and dive more
deeply into the components of the MMOA and explain them in detail,
starting with your position, which is, in effect, the DNA of all your
marketing efforts.

7
POSITION–YOUR MARKETING
DNA
In chapter six you saw how the marketing mechanism of action (MMOA)
works to create a unique space in the minds of your audiences and that the
first step in the process of creating this unique mind space–or image–is
positioning. Successful positioning leads to a clear, unique image, one that
will influence your audiences’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (and,
ultimately, spur them to some action).
Like most marketing terms, position (or positioning) has multiple
definitions. I’ll use this one: positioning is your organization’s conscious
effort to select attributes that you want your audiences to associate
exclusively with your offering.
To understand how positioning works, consider a living cell. The cell’s
DNA controls most of the cell’s activity. A cell’s DNA is locked inside the
nucleus–effectively hidden from the rest of the cell. Its effects are only
visible through intermediary mechanisms, such as RNA and protein
expression. Your position is essentially your marketing DNA.
Unlike a cell, you actually can choose your marketing DNA by choosing
your position. And given that the function of your position is to differentiate
your brand from your competitors in ways that are important, believable,
and compelling, the position you choose is very important. In fact, selecting
an effective position is the fundamental starting point for your marketing
efforts, and absolutely critical to the success of all your marketing
initiatives.
Though the articulation of your position (in your brand-story) and the
subsequent expression of this brand-story (in your touchpoints) will be
publicly visible, the exact position your organization selects should remain
internal or private to your organization. This position is the controlling link

between your organization’s strategic competitive advantage and its tactical
marketing efforts, just as DNA is the controlling link between the cell’s
overall purpose and its protein expression, and therefore its metabolism.
In this sense, your position is the core of your marketing plan. Your
position should remain private–lest competitors attempt to thwart your
plans.
In more than two and a half decades of working with life science
companies, I’ve only had a few clients who provided a clear, concise,
effective, robust positioning document at the start of an engagement. More
often, clients provide one of two things, either their mission and vision
statements (which are for public consumption and typically don’t provide
enough guidance to direct and support the marketing function in making
distinguishing decisions) or an unfocused goal statement that is being
inconsistently and ineffectively communicated through taglines, messaging,
and brand-story.
Your position is the DNA of all your marketing
efforts.
The lack of effective, robust positioning statements and the prevalence of
poor substitutes is evidence of how difficult effective positioning is to
accomplish. Unfortunately, marketing activities that aren’t driven by a
unique position are pretty much guaranteed to produce mediocre marketing
results. Without a position that is unique, customers have no reason to see
your offering as anything but a commodity.
Choosing a unique and defensible position, however, can lead to great
success. For example, Forma was hired to help develop marketing tactics
for a midsize service organization serving the clinical trial market. This is a
highly commoditized sector; many competitors’ websites use language that
sounds similar enough to seem identical. This organization wanted to
increase its success in landing new business.
Through careful examination of the organization’s business practices,
Forma identified one area where its offering was indeed distinct. It provided
a significant and tangible benefit for the organization’s customers.

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This was a marketer’s dream: there were strong, verifiable customer
benefits from an offering that was unique in the market. This was a strong
strategic foundation. At a meeting with the customer’s entire team,
everyone agreed that the organization should use this position as the
foundation on which to build high-performance marketing efforts. The next
steps were to articulate these benefits in the brand-story and then express
this brand-story consistently across the entire ladder of lead generation.
Before Forma was even able to take these steps, the CEO modified the
company’s sales presentation to incorporate the new position. The very first
time she used this new approach–the day after our meeting–she closed a
sale with a new customer.
What made this company’s new approach successful? Its corporate
identity didn’t change and the existing tactical expressions (the touchpoints)
it was using were no different than its competitors’ tactics–every competitor
had a website, every competitor went to the same trade shows, etc. What
made the difference was a position that met the key criteria for effective
positioning. The success of the company’s marketing efforts can clearly be
traced to this unique position.
It is important to take the time to identify your position, one that meets
all the criteria for successful positioning.
Successful Positioning for Life Science
Companies
There are seven criteria for a successful position. All seven need to be
present. Miss one or more and your marketing efforts will likely produce
only mediocre results.
By the way, these criteria also apply to the marketing claims you make
and, if you are doing your job right, hopefully to the resulting image created
in the minds of your audiences. So, your position, your claims, and the
resulting image must meet the following criteria:
Clear
Unique

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Authentic
Sustainable
Important
Believable
Compelling
Let’s examine each of these in turn. Your position must be:
Clear: Life science marketing must be based on a position that is clear and
obvious. To achieve this, all claims must be examined as if they were being
perceived by your audiences.
For example, it is common for early stage life science companies to
spend a great deal of time promoting the scientific minutia that
distinguishes their offering from others. In doing so, they often overlook the
importance of speaking to the community of investors, a key audience for
whom the science has to be simplified and clarified. To be successful, your
position must be clearly stated and clearly understood.
Unique: Your position should draw clear distinctions between your firm (or
your offering) and all others. If your position does not clearly differentiate
you from your competition, your organization and its products or services
will be perceived as a commodity and your default differentiator will be
price.
Firms that promote unique claims are perceived as different. The theory
of supply and demand suggests that when something is unique, it can
command a higher price, so positioning your firm or your offering as unique
will ease the pressure on your profit margins (or allow you to increase your
sales volume).
Uniqueness is the most difficult criterion to fulfill for service-oriented
life science organizations. Regulatory agencies often monitor both the end
results and the process by which these organizations develop and deliver
their services, which leads to homogenization and commoditization.
However, there are dozens of ways to be seen as unique. Examples
include size of the organization, technology, area of expertise, history (e.g.,

“We invented this technology”), price, reputation, method of delivery, etc.
How you are seen as unique is in many ways less important than the fact
that you are seen as unique.
Authentic: Your position must have a firm grounding in the truth. It must
reflect what your firm actually can provide to your customers.
Exaggerating claims may gain you the initial sale, but once customers
realize that you can’t deliver on what you promised, they will not buy from
you a second time. Nor will they refer you to anyone else. In fact, they may
actively tell people not to work with you.
When it comes to the relationship between a buyer and seller, trust must
be ferociously protected. And nothing destroys a customer’s trust faster and
more permanently than the discovery of exaggerated or false claims.
An example of a suspect claim: “Our employees are dedicated to
producing quality results.” This claim is not verifiable before purchase, so
no one can tell whether it is authentic or not.
Sustainable: Marketing campaigns have different durations. Some last
decades, some disappear as soon as the next trade show closes its doors.
Whether your specific marketing tactics last a long time or not, your
position must be sustainable.
A classic example of unsustainable marketing is the Ponzi scheme, where
customers are promised a guaranteed return on their investment, without
realizing the money they invest is actually used to provide returns to earlier
customers.
The marketing claims that you make are promises to your prospects: “If
you buy from me, I promise you’ll get benefits one, two, and three.” Your
customers will take these promises seriously, which means you must do
likewise. You must keep these promises–now and in the future. A promise
you can’t fulfill is a promise you shouldn’t make.
An example will drive this point home. Forma was working with a firm
that had a broad offering, and as we were defining its specific claims, we
discussed whether it wanted to be known as the firm with a broad offering,
or as the firm with the broadest offering. The first option (“We’re the ones
with a broad offering”) is an easier promise to keep, but one that is not
unique or compelling. The second option (“We’re the ones with the
broadest offering”) is more unique and compelling, but represents a promise

that is harder to keep. The distinction is subtle, but critically important to
the future behavior of the organization. A commitment to having the
broadest offering requires matching or exceeding competitive offerings,
now and in the future.
If you view your marketing claims as promises to your prospects (and is
there really any other way to view them?), then your promises must be
sustainable.
Important: Your position should ultimately be meaningful and important to
the audiences. To be effective, your position should be composed of claims
that are relevant and that address something they value.
It is possible to have differences between two offerings that are not
important to the audiences. A red-haired insurance salesman is one such
example; being red haired is indeed a difference, but not one that is
important to the audiences.
One company that Forma worked with insisted that a photograph of its
product be front and center on all marketing materials. Customers weren’t
buying this product because of the way it looked, but because of the results
it provided. The appearance of the product was mundane and wasn’t
important to the audiences. Highlighting an irrelevant feature (such as a
product’s appearance) doesn’t help communicate the product’s real value to
the audiences. Your position (and your marketing communications) must be
based on what is truly important to the audiences.
Believable: Stating a marketing claim doesn’t ensure that prospects will
perceive it to be true, particularly if they cannot verify your claim before
they purchase.
Claims such as, “We have high quality,” “We provide reliable service,” or
even “We have the best people in the sector” are actually quite difficult to
verify before purchase. Consequently, your audiences will tend to discount
these claims, even if they happen to be true.
How can claims be verified before purchase? There are several ways,
including independent reviewers, statistical summaries, or testimonials. An
independent reviewer can provide a learned opinion. For example,
Consumer Reports can test a wide array of digital cameras and report on
which one is the easiest to use. Statistical information also can be useful:
“We asked the owners of all cars, and they reported that Brand X had the

lowest after-sale repair costs.” Or a previous (or current) customer can
provide a testimonial: “I’ve used lots of labs. This lab amazed me with its
speed of delivery.”
If your claim can’t be verified in advance, then using independent
reviewers, statistical summaries, or testimonials can be a reasonable way to
demonstrate the believability of your claims. Without these methods of
verification, your claim will arouse suspicion among your more skeptical
(or experienced) prospects.
A position that is not believable will make it harder for you to establish
an effective image in the minds of your audiences.
Compelling: The goal of your position is to create a unique image in the
minds of your audiences–which will give you the opportunity to influence
their attitudes, change their beliefs, or motivate them to action. Your
position needs to clarify why your brand exists and how it will help buyers
achieve their goals.
There are many ways to motivate people. There are negative ways, such
as fear, envy, and greed, and positive ways, such as altruism. Claims such as
“50 percent off” or “free shipping” can motivate the audiences through cost
savings. Claims such as “money-back guarantee” can motivate the
audiences through reassurance.
All these claims might be motivational, depending upon the attributes of
the audience you are trying to reach.
All Seven Criteria Are Necessary
It’s not enough for your position to meet one criterion. It must meet all of
them. A position that is important to your audiences but not unique or
believable will not be as effective as one that meets all seven criteria: clear,
unique, authentic, sustainable, important, believable, and compelling.
Ask Your Audiences
It is important to view these seven criteria through the eyes of the
audiences. In other words, you might believe your position is clear, but that
doesn’t really matter–your audiences must find your position clear.

Jeff Bezos (of Amazon) is famous for bringing an empty chair into
meetings to represent the customer. Understanding your audience is crucial
when creating high-performance marketing, which is why market research
can be so informative to determine what the audience finds clear, unique,
authentic, sustainable, important, believable, and compelling.
Your Position Will Be Narrower Than Your Entire
Offering
To be effective, the MMOA relies on an effective position, one that meets
these seven criteria. There are several points that you should understand
about your position before proceeding further.
First, defining your position is more useful for outbound marketing than
it is for inbound inquiries. Outbound marketing is typically designed to
reinforce a particular image in the minds of the audiences: “We can help
you with this type of problem.” Outbound marketing is interpreted by the
audiences as more of a statement than as a question. In contrast, inbound
inquiries–such as “Can you help me with this problem I’m having?”–are
often the start of a dialogue.
Second, outbound statements must be simple and condensed. Your
audience isn’t paying much attention, so your communications must be
tightly focused. You must distill your communications to focus on the most
important point: your uniqueness. There simply isn’t room to include
everything you offer.
You must select a position that is unique. Without
uniqueness, you’ll be seen as a commodity, with no
pricing power.
In other words, an effective position will often be narrower than the
scope of your entire offering. Your position does not need to, nor can it
effectively, encompass your entire offering. What makes you unique will be
narrower than every service or product you might possibly offer. One

1.
2.
common way to define your position is to focus on a subset of your
offering. Major brands take this approach quite frequently. For example, car
companies typically make a wide range of cars, including luxury cars,
sports cars, family cars, and economy cars. But their position in the market
is often defined quite narrowly. They will focus on performance, safety, or
luxury, but not all three. Trying to create an image that covers all three
attributes would be horribly expensive, and confusing to the audiences, who
might not understand that any single car can represent all three attributes.
Your chosen position will be the basis for the creation of an image in the
minds of the audiences. As such, it can be, and probably will be, narrower
than the scope of your entire offering. Mergers and acquisitions are the
prime examples of this point. The new, combined organization has a very
wide offering, but it must distill this offering into a single position. This
position must meet the seven criteria.
The Heart of Effective Positioning:
Uniqueness
Your position must meet all seven criteria, but of these seven the most
important one is uniqueness. Ironically, this is the one that life science
companies (due in part to regulatory requirements) have the most trouble
accomplishing.
To avoid the profit-killing consequences of commoditization, your life
science offering must be unique–or at least perceived as unique. Ideally, no
competitor should be able to claim it is offering anything like it. You might
have to define your offering very narrowly to achieve the goal of true
uniqueness, but if you are not seen as unique, you’ll be seen as a
commodity.
In most cases, there are only two ways that your organization can
demonstrate uniqueness:
Through the unique benefits that your product or service delivers.
Through the reasons to believe that you provide to demonstrate why
your offering is the best choice.

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Your position will be stronger if the benefits your product or service
delivers are actually unique, but that is not always possible, particularly in a
regulated environment. In that case, the uniqueness of your position could
be derived from a combination of factors, such as addressing a particular
market and a particular set of reasons to believe. In Forma’s experience, the
most difficult part of positioning for life science companies is ensuring that
your benefits are truly unique.
How to Identify Your Unique Benefits
The following five-step exercise can help you better understand the
importance, and the difficulty, of defining unique benefits.
It can be very helpful to do this exercise in a group. Gather together
individuals representing different functions within your organization, such
as business development, marketing, or operations, and make your way
through the following steps. Get those people in a room and grab a pad of
paper and a pencil.
Step One: Create a list of all the benefits that a customer receives when
buying a product or service from you, no matter how large or small.
Together, brainstorm on all the different possible benefits that customers
receive. No benefit is too small; it may be that you offer free Guatemalan
coffee to all visitors to your office–that’s a benefit, right? There are many
possible benefits that a product or service can offer a buyer. I’ve listed a few
possibilities here to prime the pump:
Performance benefits, such as speed, efficiency or delivery
Results benefits, such as effectiveness, competitive advantage, or
accuracy
Intangible benefits, such as social status, differentiation, or innovation
Financial benefits, such as cost, return on investment, or delayed
terms

It is important to be both as specific and as comprehensive as possible
when creating this list.
Step Two: Divide the list of benefits into two categories: those that are
verifiable before purchase by a prospect, and those that are not verifiable
before purchase by a prospect.
For example, the cost of your product or service, the speed of operation,
and the accuracy of the results are some examples of benefits that should be
easy for prospects to verify before purchase. Benefits that might be difficult
to verify independently before purchase include the quality of a product or
service, the status a customer may acquire by making a purchase, the
response time to inquiries to the support desk, or the total amount of
experience possessed by a group of employees. All of these things may be
more difficult, if not impossible, for a prospect to verify before purchase.
Step Three: Remove from both lists all those benefits that are also available
from your competitors.
To get this information, you may need to spend some time researching
your competitors’ offerings. Once you have a clear understanding of the
benefits available from your competition, review the lists of your own
benefits and strike from your lists those that your competitors also offer.
Through my experience, I have found that it is very hard for companies
to be brutally honest at this stage. Yet identifying the benefits that make you
unique is the entire point of this exercise, so I urge you to approach this step
from another point of view: as if you were a prospect.
Better yet, put yourself in the shoes of all those prospects that thought
about buying your products or services but didn’t. From their point of view,
look at the lists of benefits. Which benefits are truly available from both
you and your competitors? Strike those from the lists.
What will be left? Two lists of unique benefits–benefits that are available
only from your organization. One list will be of unique benefits that are
verifiable before purchase; the other list will be of unique benefits that are
difficult or impossible to verify before purchase.
Step Four: Start with the list of benefits that are verifiable before purchase.
Is anything left on the list?

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If not, you’re not alone. For companies selling services in the preclinical
and clinical sectors, the answer is frequently no. For companies selling
products in the discovery sector, the answer can be yes, and those unique
benefits are frequently tied to the products’ technical specifications or
performance metrics.
However, if it turns out there is nothing left on the list of benefits
verifiable before purchase, this situation demands serious attention! Without
unique benefits to offer your prospects, your offering is a commodity. It is
hard to imagine a worse situation for a marketer.
But wait, what about the list of benefits that are not verifiable before
purchase? Don’t these benefits prevent your offering from being seen as a
commodity? The answer is a strong maybe or a weak yes–depending upon
your optimism. The fact that these benefits are not verifiable before
purchase will make any marketing claims related to these benefits suspect.
That’s because simply stating a claim doesn’t make that claim true.
(Remember the tragedy of undifferentiated claims from chapter four?)
Prospects will judge all your claims in light of their verifiability. They may
still choose to believe those unverifiable claims, but doing so will require a
leap of faith on their part.
Let’s look at a retail example, one from a low-trust purchasing
environment. The name (and implied claim) “Honest Dave’s Used Cars”
won’t guarantee that the customers see the dealer as honest. That is, stating
the claim doesn’t make the claim true. Claims have to pass consumers’
“smell test”– and the best way to accomplish this is to make claims that are
verifiable before purchase. And honesty, like quality, is one attribute that is
very difficult to verify before purchase.
While the many sectors associated with the life sciences are higher-trust
environments than the typical used car lot, the fact remains that benefits
(claims) that are not verifiable before purchase don’t have the same
marketing power as those that are.
Claims that are typically unverifiable before purchase are those related
to:
Quality
Attitudes (e.g., persistence, motivation, or attention to detail)

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Relationships (e.g., partnership, responsiveness, or personalized
service)
The amount of experience among employees
Reliability of service
In some cases, it is possible to provide metrics that substantiate these
claims. For example, the claim “Our manufacturing facility has never
received a warning notice of any kind from any regulatory body, such as the
FDA” could be used as a way to substantiate a claim of quality or attention
to detail. A survey of past purchasers could provide metrics that substantiate
a claim of reliability. But without some type of substantiating metrics, the
claims listed above are typically unverifiable before purchase and therefore
ineffective.
Step Five: If there are items that remain on the list, order them according to
their importance to a prospect’s purchase decision.
While the cup of Guatemalan coffee that I mentioned may be a unique
benefit, it probably doesn’t influence your prospect’s purchase decision
very much, so it should be put low on the list.
What if There Are No Unique Benefits?
If you have completed the steps above, and you have no unique benefits, or
if your unique benefits are not actually that important to the purchase
decision (like the Guatemalan coffee example), you have three choices.
Each choice will have its own challenges and rewards.
Choice One: Go back to the drawing board. Look at your original list of
unique benefits. It may be that you overlooked some benefits, or that you
can combine several existing benefits into a single unique benefit (“While
some competitors may offer benefit A, and some others may offer benefit
B, we are the only company that offers both benefits A and B”).

EMPTY LIST SYNDROME
If your list is empty, don’t despair. In many life science sectors
(preclinical and clinical services, for example) it is actually not
unusual to find there are truly no unique benefits that are verifiable
before purchase.
There are two main reasons that this happens. The first is that in
the preclinical and clinical sectors, the regulatory bodies (FDA,
EMA, etc.) examine a company’s work product as part of the drug
or device approval process. This regulatory scrutiny leads to
uniformity of deliverables, and to general consistency in the method
of obtaining those deliverables.
To put this another way, the regulatory bodies strongly encourage
standardization of work product and work process throughout the
entire sector. This standardization is part of the scientific method
(which at a basic level isolates cause and effect by changing only
one variable at a time). Standardization also makes the job of
reviewing submissions less complex. The end result is that it is
difficult to claim that the work product or work process will be truly
unique.
The second reason for the scarcity of unique benefits is that the
high cost of drug or device development combined with the high
risk of biological failure (where the molecule or device just doesn’t
work as planned) motivates a strong desire to reduce risk in all other
aspects of the development process. This also encourages
standardization in work product and work process.
There are unique benefits in some life science sectors. These
unique benefits tend to be more common with products than with
services. The good news is that if you really can’t find any truly
unique benefits, you can address this issue using other methods.
Choice Two: See if you can create some unique benefits by identifying
some “white space” in the marketplace where you will have few

competitors. What do your customers want that no competitor is currently
offering? Market research can often provide hints to point you in the right
direction.
If you have struggled to identify unique benefits and your list is still
blank, you will have to accept the fact that the differences between you and
your competitors are not that significant. In this case, you will have to
accept that the commoditization forces at work in the sector are too steep to
overcome and compete on price or speed of delivery or some other factor
that isn’t very differentiating.
The obvious distastefulness of this option points to the importance of
unique benefits and why it is well worth looking very hard to identify them.
Choice Three: You can manufacture some uniqueness. If your list of unique
benefits is empty, then you will not be able to find and highlight the
uniqueness in your position. This is common among large, service-oriented
companies (like large clinical research organizations). In this case, you can
create uniqueness in the mind of the customer by using your brand-story to
help draw distinctions between you and your competitors.
There actually are many other sectors where the offering is almost
identical; for example, fast-food restaurants, soft drinks, and large CROs.
Some sectors are good at creating uniqueness in the minds of their
customers. Most people do not have trouble distinguishing between the
brand-stories of Coke and Pepsi or between McDonald’s and Burger King,
despite the similarities in their products. In these instances, a clear
difference in the brand-story has been translated by the customer into a
perceived difference between the two offerings.
One disadvantage of this approach is that you will have to work harder
and spend more money than if you had authentic, unique differentiators.
Also, for technically minded audiences, this approach can feel like the most
“soft and squishy” aspect of marketing, so it can be difficult for many
technically trained people to understand and manage.
If you find yourself in this situation, you may be interested in examining
the subject of brand archetypes–an effective and systematic method for
managing the meaning in your brand-story. We’ll cover this more in chapter
10.

The Real World
Choice three demands different marketing strategies and tactics than
choices one and two. In choice three, there are no unique benefits; in
choices one and two, you are able to identify truly unique benefits that are
verifiable before purchase. Typically, real-world situations do not neatly fit
into these extremes.
For example, it will rarely be the case that you will have such strong
unique benefits that you will have no need to rely on your brand-story. It is
also rare to have absolutely no unique benefits and have to rely completely
on your brand-story to create a distinct image.
Regardless of the approach, it’s important to acknowledge that defining a
position that meets all seven criteria (clear, unique, authentic, sustainable,
important, believable, and compelling) is the hardest strategic work in all of
marketing. It is also the most important: deciding what makes your offering
truly unique and embedding this into a position will allow you to
differentiate your offering from all others.
Effective Positioning Is the Foundation of
All Successful Life Science Marketing
When life science companies enter new markets or introduce a new
offering, it is rare for the creation of a marketing strategy to get much
attention. Instead, the focus tends to be on sales or the execution of key
marketing tactics. While this may be practical, it often leads to false starts,
mixed messages, and the unintentional establishment of a position that does
not align with the best long-term interest of the organization. This is a waste
of resources. To be successful, life science organizations need to create a
clear, effective marketing framework from the beginning, and ensure that all
subsequent marketing efforts reinforce it.
Take the time to establish your organization’s position, ensure that it
meets the seven key criteria, and then hold to it. While the tactics used to
convey aspects of your position will vary over time, the position should stay
firm.

Organizations that offer life science products will often focus their
positions around their products and specifications (so-called speeds and
feeds). Organizations that offer life science services often have a more
difficult time defining their positions precisely. Without technical
specifications to rely on, more work and insight may be required to pinpoint
the most effective position.
Now that you (hopefully) understand the importance of positioning (the
“why”), in the next chapter I’ll examine what’s involved in the construction
of your positioning statement (the “how”).

8
CRAFTING YOUR POSITIONING
STATEMENT
Your position must be clearly defined, and then shared throughout the
organization. The best way to do this is with a positioning statement.
Even experienced marketers struggle with writing a high-performance
positioning statement, so I’ll provide a template in this section that can
serve as a starting point for creating your own positioning statement.
First, let’s talk about what a positioning statement is (and isn’t). Your
positioning statement is:
Private: Your positioning statement is a strategic document that is not for
public consumption. (The public face of your position is your brand-story.)
Precise (But Not Necessarily Pretty): Because your statement is private,
you don’t need to worry about making the language sound beautiful or
catchy to your target audience. Positioning statements can be long; by the
time you include enough modifiers, qualifiers, and proof points to ensure
the statement is written precisely, it can take most of a page, or even more.
In Compliance: Your positioning statement must meet the seven criteria of
high-performance, effective positioning. It must be clear, unique, authentic,
sustainable, important, believable, and compelling.
Strategic: The primary purpose of your positioning statement is to act as a
filter for making internal decisions about your organization’s external
marketing activities. When used correctly, the positioning statement will
guide not only the choice of promotional messages, but also many other
choices related to marketing, such as product mix.

Your positioning statement is not public. It is a
private, strategic guide to high-performance
marketing success.
What Your Positioning Statement Is Not
Your positioning statement is not your organization’s tagline, elevator pitch,
or the introductory paragraph on your website. Such messages are public
facing, an articulation of your private position in customer-facing language,
which communicates your organization’s uniqueness in a clear, unique,
sustainable, authentic way that is important, believable, and compelling to
your audiences.
The Positioning Statement Template
There are many possible templates for positioning statements. You can get a
good start toward creating a solid statement by using this template (adapted
from Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore) as a framework–filling in
the blanks with the details of your specific situation. Here it is:
For (the target audience), Brand X is the (the market context), the
only one that (the unique benefit[s] delivered), because (the
reasons to believe).
Let’s make this more concrete by applying it to a fictitious clinical trial
staffing company that I’ll call MoniTrendz (from the combination of
“monitor” and “trends”). Any relationship to an actual company is purely
coincidental and certainly unintentional. As you read this positioning
statement, see if you can identify the specific aspects of MoniTrendz’s
service that makes it unique:

For staffing decision makers at drug-development companies with
a pipeline of multiple compounds ready for clinical trials in the
next two years (the target audience), MoniTrendz is the clinical
monitor staffing solution for phase I, II, or III trials (the market
context), the only one that provides clinical monitors with a
guaranteed minimum of eight years of experience, combined with
a program offering discounts for signing contracts for multiple
compounds (the unique benefits delivered), because MoniTrendz
has two decades of experience in business and a roster of satisfied
clients (the reasons to believe).
You’ll note that this language is not graceful; it is certainly not audience
friendly. That’s because the language is intended only for internal
consumption; it will not be shared with external audiences in this form.
I’ll cover the relationship between this internally facing positioning
language and public-facing, audience-friendly language in more detail later.
For now, let’s examine the four components of the MoniTrendz positioning
statement one at a time.
Target Audience
For staffing decision makers at drug-development companies with
a pipeline of multiple compounds ready for clinical trials in the
next two years . . .
The target audience is a clear, focused description of the core prospect. This
statement describes the target companies, the roles or functions within those
companies, and the people who fill those roles.
Obviously, there are many audiences you ultimately need to reach. The
key here is to narrow your focus to the single most important audience–
greater specificity in this description will permit greater filtering of the
larger universe of all prospects and support more focused communications
and more effective outreach.
Note that the MoniTrendz example filters the target audience from all
drug-development companies down to just those companies with a pipeline

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of multiple compounds ready for clinical trials in the next two years.
Further, the specific roles within those companies are specified: those who
have decision-making responsibility for clinical monitor staffing. This
description of the desired audience will support a clear targeting effort; it
creates a simple, powerful filter, clarifying exactly who to target with
marketing communications.
Examples of target audiences for other life science companies could
include the following (I have noted in parentheses some of the filtering
language that you may wish to consider using in creating your own
positioning statement):
Principal research scientists (filtered by education and role) in organ
replacement (filtered by discipline) responsible for recommending
capital purchases (filtered by role)
Vice presidents of research (filtered by title) at companies with
annual revenues of $50 to $100 million (filtered by revenue size)
Decision makers within start-up companies (filtered by stage of
growth) responsible for choosing development partners supplying
toxicology services (filtered by function)
C-level employees with extensive scientific training (filtered by
educational level) who are risk averse (filtered by behavior patterns)
Market Context
. . . MoniTrendz is the clinical monitor staffing solution for phase
I, II, or III trials . . .
The market context is the target market segment in which the organization
competes. You want the target audience to think of your company as the top
provider of the product or service in this market segment. Again, specificity
here will help when you later use this positioning statement as a filter for
marketing choices.

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In the fictitious MoniTrendz example, the market context is clearly
defined as the clinical monitor staffing solution for phase I, II, or III trials.
This could be narrowed further by using additional constraints, such as
geography (e.g., European), therapeutic areas (e.g., oncology), or total size
(e.g., trials with fewer than 10 principal investigator sites).
Examples of market context for other life science companies could
include:
Manufacturer of high-volume diagnostic equipment (filtered by
product) for core laboratories
Contract manufacturing organization specializing in lyophilization
(filtered by specialized services)
Sales consultants to pharmaceutical company sales organizations
calling on clinicians (filtered by end consumer)
Unique Benefits
... the only one that provides clinical monitors with a guaranteed
minimum of eight years of experience, combined with a program
offering discounts for signing contracts for multiple compounds...
The unique benefits delivered consists of one or more benefits that the
organization can supply. There are obvious advantages to your business in
offering your customers benefits that are available only from your
organization. Uniqueness allows you to charge a price premium while
increasing customer loyalty.
Please note that these benefits and the following reasons to believe are
not filters that narrow the target market. They are statements that reflect
your unique offering. Examples of unique benefits for other life science
companies could include:
A guarantee related to cost (e.g., a low-price guarantee or a money-
back guarantee)

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A statement related to access to information or to markets (e.g., a
database of researchers in oncology)
A statement related to technology (e.g., access to proprietary software
for tracking samples being shipped to clinical sites)
A promise related to speed of delivery, such as a set time to a specific
milestone (e.g., one week to “data-lock”–freezing a clinical trial
database so that analysis can begin)
Reasons to Believe
. . . because MoniTrendz has two decades of experience in
business and a roster of satisfied clients.
The reasons to believe are the compelling proofs that the organization can
deliver the promised benefits. These proofs should be verifiable before
purchase by a prospect; in other words, you shouldn’t have to already be a
customer to verify the reasons to believe.
It is common to have many reasons to believe. A dozen or more is not an
unreasonable number. However, it is important that each reason to believe
supports some portion of the unique benefits delivered. MoniTrendz could
have added more reasons to believe supporting its unique benefits
delivered, such as the verification and certification its monitors have to go
through to prove they have eight years of experience, or details about its
discount program. I have eliminated these for simplicity’s sake.
Examples of reasons to believe for other life science companies could
include:
Claims of technical superiority (e.g., uses 25 percent less reagent)
Compliance with existing regulations (e.g., approved by the FDA or
listed by UL)
Third-party endorsements (e.g., used by nine of the top 10 research
labs)

» Historical validation (e.g., 15 years of experience)
Positioning Criteria
Once you’ve completed your positioning template, go back and test it
against the list of seven criteria for high-performance positioning. Make
sure it is clear, unique, authentic, sustainable, important, believable, and
compelling.
Your Position Is a Strategic Guide
With a clearly defined, unique position, marketing decisions suddenly
become much easier to make. Since achieving and maintaining alignment
between your position and the image in the minds of the audiences is one of
the primary goals of marketing, your marketing tactics should all reinforce
this desired alignment. All marketing activities that are undertaken should
emphasize and reinforce your position, and activities that don’t emphasize
and reinforce your position should not be undertaken.
Your position should function as a strategic “road map” that guides the
implementation of all marketing tactics.
Remember the MMOA (marketing mechanism of action) from chapter
six? The next phase after positioning is the brand-story. Your brand-story
articulates your position in audience-friendly language. Your position will
directly affect your brand-story. In the MoniTrendz example, the brandstory
would emphasize the guaranteed experience, and would make clear how
this experience has benefited the company’s clients. For example, Moni-
Trendz might choose a tagline that incorporates the word guarantee, such as
“Therapeutic experience, guaranteed.”
POSITIONING AND THE COMPETITION

You may have noticed that the MoniTrendz positioning statement
does not specifically reference the competition.
Some positioning templates do make explicit reference to the
competition. If you use one of these, try not to overreact to your
competition by defining your organization only in terms of what the
competition offers or does not offer. Whether or not you reference
the competition, it is important to focus your position on those
aspects that make you unique.
It is possible to claim a very broad market position, if you do so
before your competitors. Remember, the first to plant the flag can
claim the mountain, if they can defend the claim. If you choose this
strategy, consider carefully what such a position will mean for the
future of your organization, as defending your claim may be
difficult. Put yourself in your competitors’ shoes to determine what
their likely responses might be.
In the MMOA, the brand-story is followed by touchpoints. The Moni-
Trendz website, e-mail blasts, and trade-show booth would all express this
brand-story with its focus on guaranteed experience. The position should
guide the content and point of view of press releases, articles, and
presentations from the podium. For example, MoniTrendz might create a
series of white papers outlining the different types of clinical trial
experience that monitors need to be successful.
Your position not only influences your outward-facing brand-story and
marketing touchpoints, it also affects internal business decisions, such as
human resources or investments of resources. For example, MoniTrendz’s
hiring policies would need to align with its position, a promise to the market
that all its monitors have a minimum of eight years of experience. And
MoniTrendz’s sales teams would need to identify and focus only on those
companies that have multiple compounds in development. Moni-Trendz’s
negotiators would need to be clear on how the discount for multiple
compounds works.
Your position is your marketing DNA. In a high-performance marketing
organization, it controls, directly or indirectly, most of your marketing
strategy, and all of your marketing tactics. Get your marketing DNA

correct, and competing (and winning) will be easier; get it wrong and you’ll
be struggling to survive.
Six Traps to Avoid When Constructing
Your Positioning Statement
There are six common traps that snare the unwary when constructing
positioning statements. Let’s discuss each one in detail.
Trap One: Focusing on Every Possible Audience
Most people define their audiences too broadly. Here are two examples of
target audiences:
Poor: For decision makers in pharmaceutical and biotech companies of all
sizes.
Better: For decision makers in oncology-focused pharmaceutical and
biotech companies with at least two compounds in clinical trials who are
tasked with choosing pharmacovigilance consultants.
The target audience described in your positioning statement must be
narrowly focused. Even so, your offering will still be relevant to others
outside that segment as well. Don’t try to include every possible audience;
create a positioning statement that targets your ideal customer.
Trap Two: Overemphasizing What You Think or
Believe
The positioning statement should be approached from the point of view of
your target audience. It does not matter what you think or believe, as you
are not a member of the core target audience–for positioning purposes it
only matters what the audience thinks or believes.

This type of thinking often affects the decision to include or exclude
certain unique benefits. For example, Forma was once asked to help a large
service organization that had trouble distinguishing itself from its
competition. There were multiple functional departments and several
political factions on the committee that was tasked with making the
positioning decision. The positioning statement ended up crowded with a
politically correct set of benefits; there was something for everyone, and the
statement lacked an overarching theme. While the inclusion of all these
disparate benefits may have addressed the needs of every faction in the
room, it failed to address the ultimate faction–the customer.
When it comes to creating positioning statements, it is important to
consider your audiences’ needs before your own (internal) ones.
Trap Three: Not Validating Your Intended Position
with Research Before Committing to It
It is vitally important to discover your audiences’ attitudes and beliefs
toward your intended position through research. You should not seek
responses to your full positioning statement in your research; it is too long,
and besides, it’s written in private-facing language. But public-facing
messages can be created quickly and then alternatives can be tested. Even a
simple question such as–“Which of the two companies described here
would make you feel more comfortable in purchasing from them?”–can
reveal unexpected insights.
Trap Four: Not Creating a Clear Link between Your
Position’s Reasons to Believe and the Unique
Benefits It Delivers
Your reasons to believe are just that: reasons to believe that the unique
benefits offered are available from your organization. Therefore, they need
to support the unique benefits. It is good practice to cull your list of reasons
to believe to just those that support your unique benefits.

Trap Five: Creating a Positioning Statement Based on
Your Current Offering Rather Than What Your
Offering Will Become
In some circumstances, it is acceptable to write your unique benefits or your
reasons to believe based upon future events. As an example, your offering
may require technological tools to support delivery of your unique benefits.
If those tools are not yet in place, but will be in the near future, it’s perfectly
acceptable to create a positioning statement that assumes the availability of
those tools. Even under the best of circumstances it will take time for your
organization’s position to work its way into the audiences’ consciousness–
by which point the tools will be available.
Your position is, in essence, a promise to your core audience. It is
acceptable to write your positioning statement as a promise that will be true
in the near future, as long as you (ultimately) keep this promise.
Trap Six: Mistaking Uniqueness for the Reason to
Buy
Your unique benefit (or benefits) will likely be narrower than all the reasons
there are to buy from your organization. The unique benefit is not the sole
reason to buy, nor should it be the entire list of reasons to buy. You are not
looking for the reason to buy. You are looking for the reason to stand out.
Standing out is what will get prospects to raise their hands and give you
permission to start a dialogue with them.
Condensing Your Position: “They’re
the_____Ones”
The idea behind the positioning statement is simple: you want a clear
definition of the space in the minds of your audiences that your organization
wants to own.

Once you have defined this space, it is worth thinking about how your
audiences will consider you. In their minds, they won’t take the time to
characterize you with a long sentence. They’ll do so with a short phrase, a
few words, or even a single word. Owning a single word or a short phrase
in a customer’s mind is the ultimate evidence of high-performance
positioning.
One convenient way to think about how your audiences will characterize
you is to fill in this sentence, as if you were standing in their shoes: “Oh,
they’re the_____ones.” A number of words or short phrases could fill in
that blank: cheapest, smartest, fastest, broadest services, most cutting edge,
most reliable, biggest, oldest, etc.
MoniTrendz might imagine their audiences would complete this sentence
by focusing on the company’s unique benefits: “Oh, MoniTrendz is the one
that offers guaranteed minimum experience.” Now some audience members
might focus on the guarantee that MoniTrendz offers, which would change
the sentence to: “Oh, they’re the ones with the guarantee.” And some might
focus more on the company’s experience: “Oh, they’re the experienced
ones.” Since many staffing companies reference the experience of their
monitors, MoniTrendz might try to distance itself from its competition by
placing the focus on its guarantee, rather than just its experience. It might
therefore decide that it wants the sentence in its audiences’ minds to be:
“Oh, they’re the ones with guaranteed experience.” This might change the
emphasis it puts on its guarantee in public-facing communications.
The point is that by thinking about how the audiences might complete
that sentence, MoniTrendz can envision how its audiences might
characterize the company’s uniqueness.
VOLVO, THEY’RE THE_______ONES
When working with clients, I often use well-known brands as
examples. When discussing the importance of choosing a position
that is easy to define, the brands Volvo and Walmart are convenient
examples. Their marketers have done a good job creating a shared

understanding of what should complete the sentence, “They’re
the_____ones.”
When asked to provide an adjective in response to a brand name,
Walmart typically generates “inexpensive” as a response, while
Volvo typically generates “safe.”
I can’t be sure what Volvo’s positioning statement is because, of
course, it’s private. But judging from the responses I’ve received
over the years, the public face (that is, the image) of Volvo’s
position is definitely connected to safety.
I once used this exercise with an organization selling laboratory
supplies. The CEO was from Germany and obviously used to
driving on the Autobahn. When asked to complete the sentence for
Volvo, he replied, “Oh, that’s the car driven by little old ladies who
always drive 20 kilometers an hour slower than the speed limit.”
It’s hard to think of a better example of the difference between an
organization’s position (a deliberate, private choice by the
organization) and its image (the resulting impression in the minds of
the audiences).
You must recognize that it will be difficult to control your image
completely. But you can control the starting point–your position.
And the position that will give you the best chance of success is one
that emphasizes your uniqueness.
Some might ask whether Volvo’s choice of “We’re the safe ones”
is really unique. After all, other cars are safe. Some particular
models might even have crash-test scores that are better than Volvo.
As you saw in the last chapter, sometimes organizations find
themselves in the position of having to create the image of
uniqueness, even though they don’t have any unique benefits. Volvo
is clearly in this position. The fact that it is known for safety by a
large percentage of the population indicates how successful it is
under difficult circumstances. The safety of the company’s cars may
not be completely unique, but it has connected its organization to
the concept of safety in the minds of the audience–in ways that its
competitors cannot match. Since it is the image in the minds of the
customer that counts, Volvo is successful. What has made it
successful is a clear strategy–it has chosen a position that is
narrower than its entire offering, among other things–and its tactics–

it establishes and maintains that position through its brand-story and
through its many touchpoints.
Many organizations selling services and products in the life
sciences find themselves in a similar position: there is a lack of truly
unique benefits. The previous chapter had a discussion of different
approaches you might want to consider if you find yourself in this
situation, and it’s worth reading that section again with Volvo’s
example in mind.
Companies with a clearly defined position have no trouble filling in the
blank in the sentence with a single word or a short phrase. Some words or
phrases would be more effective than others at helping customers to modify
their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. In general, however, shorter is better.
But in every case, uniqueness is essential.
Choosing Your Position Is Just the
Beginning
Once your position is clearly defined, you need to translate that position
into specific claims. At the risk of being overly prescriptive, you should
make between one and three claims, but certainly no more than five. Your
claims must reflect your position. Each of these claims should meet the key
criteria; they must be clear, unique, authentic, sustainable, important,
believable, and compelling.
For example, if your position is focused on risk reduction in clinical
trials, then your claims should be related to the same core subject–risk
reduction in clinical trials. You might claim, “We reduce your risk by
enrolling patients up to 37 percent faster,” or you might claim, “We reduce
your risk by improving the training of clinical staff, thereby reducing the
number of visits required.” No matter what your claim, each should be
related to your core position.
Once you figure out your specific claims, then you need to determine
how you’ll prove these claims. Proof can come in many forms, such as:

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Historical averages (e.g., “We complete projects 17 percent faster
than the industry average”)
Case studies or specific examples (e.g., “For this client, we were able
to lock the database within one week”)
Testimonials (e.g., “When I bought from SpeedyTech, its training was
top-notch. I allocated two days worth of training, and it was done in
one afternoon”)
Choosing your position is crucially important, and it must be backed up
with claims that are believable (that is, verifiable before purchase).
Your Brand-Story Follows Your Position
Once you’ve identified your (private) position, your claims, and your proof,
the next step is to craft the public expression of your position through the
creation of a brand-story. In the next chapter, I’ll tell you how.

9
YOUR BRAND-STORY
No concept in marketing is more misunderstood or misused than that of a
brand. And I’ve seen this misunderstanding lead to some terrible marketing
decisions. So it is with relief that I give you some good news: you don’t
have to worry about your brand anymore–at least not in the traditional
sense. It’s not that your brand is less important today than it was yesterday.
In fact, the concept of brand is more important than ever. The issue is that
the nomenclature the marketing industry uses to describe the concept of
brand is changing.
Increasingly, marketing professionals are expressing the concept of brand
through the use of the words storytelling and narrative. The trend toward
using these words to describe the concept of brand underscores just how
important it has become to focus on pulling audiences into conversations,
rather than on traditional branding activities, which primarily push out
information.
No matter what words you use, it is true that in today’s communications
environment, your brand and its story (what I’ll call your brand-story) is
directly connected to your marketing and sales success.
To create a high-performance brand-story, you first need to understand
what a brand is, and what it is not.
What Is a Brand?
The original meaning of the word brand was a hot iron stamp used to burn a
mark into the flesh of animals. This practice can be traced all the way back
to the ancient Egyptians. Branding cattle is hard work–and it’s painful, it
smells bad, and it’s permanent.

As others 1 have pointed out, with the exception of the smell, these
characteristics apply to branding and storytelling in marketing as well:
they’re hard work, they’re generally painful (because of the difficult choices
involved), and they’re permanent (or they should be).
Here is where the confusion typically starts to creep in. Depending on
whom you talk to or what you read, you’ll find the word brand used in three
different ways–there are three different faces to your brand. Your brand can
be:
A Symbol (Trademark)
Many people think of a brand as the symbol or mark that comprises the
corporate identity of an organization. (Think of Quintiles’s big red Q, which
Forma designed in 1989, or of Life Technologies’ script logotype.)
This definition takes its cue from the traditional hot iron stamp used on
cattle and so is symbol-centric. From now on, I will refer to the symbol
aspect of brand as a trademark. One example of a trademark is your
corporate identity, which might consist of a symbol and/or a “wordmark.”
A Set of Attributes
Brand also can mean a set of attributes or a personality that distinguishes
one product or service offering from another. In this sense, a brand is a set
of experiences and personality traits that an organization deliberately selects
and wants its audiences to associate with it or its offerings. This definition
is organization-centric. From now on, I will refer to this aspect of brand as
brand-story.
Brand-stories can embody very complex sets of personality traits–such as
emotion–and this can be an effective way to communicate with viewers.
Forma was hired to rebrand a CRO named the Woolf Group–after the last
name of one of the owners. Despite the fact that the organization was
engaged in serious work, research revealed that its clients found the group
fun to work with, an unusual trait in this sector. Forma developed a serious
trademark (a stylized image of a wolf’s face) as part of the organization’s
brand-story, and then created a visual joke using that trademark (a stylized

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image of a sheep holding up the trademark wolf’s face–that is, a “sheep in
wolf’s clothing”). This joke did not appear often, but was effective in
setting the tone for all visual communications. Conveying that the
organization took a lighthearted approach would have been very difficult to
accomplish with a tagline, but by poking fun at something as serious as its
own trademark, the organization was able to represent an underlying part of
its culture.
An Image
And last but not least, brand can refer to the image or impression that exists
in the minds of an organization’s audiences. This definition is audience-
centric. From now on, I will refer to this aspect of brand as image.
The ability to accurately differentiate between these three faces of your
brand is critical to your understanding of the rest of what’s in this book. To
summarize:
Trademark: A visual mark associated with an organization, or its
offerings; symbol-centric.
Brand-Story: A set of attributes, experiences, or a personality,
something your organization deliberately chooses to communicate
your differentiation; organization-centric.
Image: Impressions and images, something your audiences create in
their own minds; audience-centric.
The trademark face of brand is fairly easy to comprehend because there is
a tangible symbol or mark you can attach to it. The concepts of brand-story
and image are a little more abstract. Let’s take a closer look; I’ll start with
brand-story.
Your Brand-Story is the RNA to Your
Position’s DNA

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Your brand-story’s most important role and the primary reason it exists is to
function as the public articulation of your private position. Similar to the
role of a cell’s RNA, which transfers genetic instructions out of the nucleus
into the rest of the cell, your brand-story’s role is to articulate your position
(i.e., your marketing DNA) out into the public to your audiences.
Your brand-story enables your audiences to understand exactly who you
are and what you stand for, which assists them in creating a specific image
of your organization or offering in their minds, which hopefully will
eventually be is translated into some change in their attitudes, beliefs, or
behaviors, and ultimately into a sale.
From Push to Pull, a New Paradigm
As I mentioned earlier, marketing professionals are increasingly referring to
branding with the words storytelling or narrative. Here’s why: back when
the Internet was just a glimmer in some engineers’ eyes, the idea of a static
representation of an organization made a lot of sense.
Communication between a company and its audiences was primarily one
way and episodic, dominated by broadcast media (print, TV, radio, and
trade publications). This approach to communication, called push
marketing, ruled communication channels for many decades.
These communication channels were expensive, difficult to access, and
the communications went only one way. Print, radio, and TV content was
very difficult for individual audience members to share with each other.
Push marketing was a one-way street that was:
Based on Interruptions: These communications had to fight for
attention from the audiences.
Private: Communications were aimed at individuals who were
unlikely to forward an ad along, or comment on it to friends.
One-Time: Marketing communications were based on reach and
frequency, which were measures of who saw the individual ads, and
how often they saw each one.

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Push Focused: Content originated from a single broadcast source,
with little or no reciprocity between the organization and audience,
and no conversation among peers about the communications.
Today, your brand-story is no longer static. In contrast, it is:
Permission Based: Your audiences now have much more control and
can choose whether or not to let you into their world based on the
perceived value of the message you’re offering.
Public: Your brand-story becomes something that your audiences can
“own” and share. As an example, consider viral videos, which are
shared, and are often parodied or expanded upon.
Continuous: Your brand-story is now based on conversations with
many audiences, not just a one-way, one-time communication.
Pull Focused: The goal now is to pull your audiences into a
conversation, not to deliver a one-way monologue.
This paradigm shift has forced marketers to de-emphasize the promotion
of a static brand and instead cultivate a dynamic, interactive conversation
with their audiences. Some marketers may be in favor of abandoning the
word brand in favor of the word story. In my view, the word story puts too
much emphasis on the verbal aspects of your organization’s message, and
the word brand can put too much emphasis on the visual aspects of your
message; thus I’ll be using the term brand-story.
Brand-Story is the Link between Marketing Strategy
and Tactics
Your brand-story is the crucial link between your marketing and business
strategy and your tactical touchpoints. The main job of the brand-story is to
articulate your private business strategy and position into publicly
accessible verbal, visual, and tactile messages that can be clearly
understood by your external audiences.

Your brand-story is the articulation of your position, and your brand-story
is then expressed through your touchpoints. Your brand-story will be the
common element in each of your touchpoints and the narrative those
touchpoints communicate must be consistent. If it’s not, your audiences will
be confused, or–more likely–no message at all will sink in, and the
audiences will ascribe to you whatever impression they choose.
Brand-story + impressions through touchpoints =
image
Even with consistent expression of your brand-story, your audiences have
a lot of control over the image they choose to build of your organization.
But when your audiences form their own impression of you because your
brandstory does a poor job articulating your position, or because your
marketing touchpoints have done a poor job expressing your brand-story or
have expressed it inconsistently–your marketing has failed.
What Is Your Organization Saying about Itself?
It is important to examine your own brand-story and touchpoints and make
sure you understand clearly what your organization is saying about itself–
consciously and unconsciously.
TOUCHPOINTS DEFINED
Touchpoints are those opportunities where your audiences and your
organization and its brand-story come into contact–where they
touch.

Touchpoints are avenues for your audiences to learn about your
organization and its story, to be educated, inspired, and reassured. In
fact, touchpoints, by definition, are the only way an audience can
learn about your brand-story.
Touchpoints can be classified by media type, where they are
divided into four basic channels of contact between your
organization and your audiences:
In Person: Includes presentations, trade shows, sales calls,
conversations, etc. This channel also includes the spaces in
which these interactions occur.
In Print: Includes brochures, print ads, white papers, annual
reports, signage, etc.
Online: Includes web, social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn,
etc.), pay-per-click ads, banner ads, blogs, mobile, etc.
On-Air: Includes broadcast, podcasts, video, animations, etc.
Touchpoints can also be classified according to the ladder of lead
generation (which I’ll define in a subsequent chapter) in the
MMOA:
Earned Exposure: Includes activities commonly known as
public relations: writing, speaking, being interviewed, etc.
Content Marketing: Includes giving away thought leadership
in exchange for an enhanced reputation.
Paid Exposure: Includes activities traditionally classified as
marketing, such as your website, e-mail blasts, printed materials,
advertising, etc.
Personal Interaction: Includes activities traditionally classified
as sales, such as presentations, trade shows, cold calls, etc.

Audiences receive impressions of your organization’s brand-story
not only through what you say about yourself through your own
touchpoints, but also through what others say through theirs.
When the employees of an organization are not aligned with the
organization’s brand-story, different parts of the organization will
consciously or unconsciously send out different, inconsistent, and mixed
messages. This confuses audiences, and confused audiences are unlikely to
buy anything. When it comes to your organization’s brand-story, internal
alignment and consistency are essential.
What Are Others Saying about Your Organization?
The trade press, regulatory agencies, social media, customer reviews, and
the “rumor mill” are all ways that audiences can learn about your
organization. By and large, these channels are outside of your control, but
they can dramatically affect your audiences’ images of your organization.
Audiences’ perceptions about your organization and its products or
services are based on their exposure to your organization’s touchpoints and
on their exposure to other information about your organization. Your
audiences will combine these two types of impressions and condense them
into a mental image of your organization that they will then carry around in
their heads. That’s why getting your brand-story right in the first place and
then keeping it consistent is so important; you want to influence the image
in your audiences’ heads to the extent you can.
It’s difficult to overemphasize the importance of consistency when it
comes to your brand-story. For one organization in the health-care sector,
Forma developed a simple diagram that encapsulated the science behind its
product. The diagram was introduced to the sales force as a tool to convey
the physiology involved, as well as the importance of this issue in ensuring
good health.
Once the diagram was introduced, members of the organization’s
leadership team began to use it to convey the core message. However, any
time a clinician asked any question or made any comment, the leadership

team suddenly believed that it was imperative that the diagram be modified
to answer the question and address the comment.
Once the diagram was changed, new sales collateral had to be produced
and reintroduced to the sales force. This would start the cycle all over again:
members of the leadership team would use the diagram to convey the core
message to a clinician, who would make a comment or ask a question,
which would be interpreted as a reason to modify the diagram.
A few of these questions and comments did indeed point out the need to
improve the diagram. However, most of these questions were minor, and
could have been addressed with some simple sales training.
The leadership team (scientists one and all) wanted to include the
smallest details in the diagram. This sacrificed the consistency and therefore
the overall effectiveness of the diagram, and of the sales efforts in general.
So much time was spent modifying the diagram and reprinting the
collateral, and then emphasizing the new, albeit slight, modifications to the
sales team, that the intended audience never heard a consistent story. This
hampered sales. Once the changes to the diagram stopped (despite
continued questions and comments by physicians), the organization began
to see some sales results.
Image Influences Purchase Behavior
Make no mistake, the image carried by the audiences in their heads will
influence their behavior, during the research phase (Prochaska’s stage two:
contemplation), the evaluation phase (stage three: preparation), and the
purchase phase (stage four: action). Since the research phase often happens
anonymously (thanks to the Internet and the wide availability of
information), it is crucially important to get your brand-story correct and
align it with your internal mission, vision, and position.
As I’ve mentioned before, not all of your audiences are human! Search
engines also have an image of your organization’s brand-story. They build
this image by categorizing your available digital presence and using this to
rank your organization in their responses to search queries. And it is these
search responses that often guide your human prospects in building a short
list of organizations or offerings to investigate further.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
To ensure your organization or offering shows up in those search results,
your organization’s brand-story (including, for example, your keyword
selection) must be on target so that the image gathered by search engines is
on target, too.
You need to get your brand-story right.
POP QUIZ: IS YOUR BRAND-STORY HIGH
PERFORMANCE?
Crafting high-performance brand-stories is no trivial task. Much has
been written on the topic. This process begins with assessing the
effectiveness of your brand-story. To do so, answer the following
questions:
Does your brand-story clearly communicate your position and
your unique value proposition?
Are your claims stated in customer-centric language?
Are your claims unique?
Do the visual, verbal, and tactile components of your brand-
story align with your position?
Is your brand-story used consistently?
To determine the answers, gather a copy of everything that has
your corporate identity on it. Print out copies of your website,
proposals, invoices, images of your trade-show booth, e-mail blasts,
etc.
First, let’s go after the low-hanging fruit: Do all the colors match?
Is your tagline used consistently? Does the body copy for all these

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items communicate the same point of view, make the same claims,
and focus on the same unique value?
If not, chances are your audiences are probably already confused
about what your organization stands for.
For a more complete assessment of your marketing efforts, refer
to appendix two.
Building a Strong Brand-Story
As discussed in chapter six on the MMOA (marketing mechanism of
action), a brand-story has many elements. There are verbal, visual, and
tactile components as well as emotional and rational layers. In this section,
I’ll take a closer look at what makes a high-performance brand-story and
what you can do to create one for your organization.
Verbal channels include aspects of your brand-story such as:
The name of your organization
Your tagline
Your messages (such as the body copy on the home page of your
website, or the text in your e-mail blasts)
Your content (also known as your thought leadership; more info
about this will appear in a later chapter)
Anecdotes or stories you tell about your organization
Visual channels include:
Your trademark (i.e., your corporate identity: your symbol or
logotype)
Your corporate colors
Your corporate typographic choices

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The layout and style your organization uses consistently
The images your organization uses consistently (These can include
photos, images, or shapes. Brand-stories can create a unique
impression by choosing a type of image [e.g., photos or illustrations],
the subject matter [e.g., people, equipment, etc.], and the style of the
image, such as the point of view and the technique used [e.g., always
shot in black and white, brightly lit, head-on shots of people, etc.],
among other factors.)
Tactile channels include:
Textures
Sounds
Smells
Packaging
Environmental cues
There are also auditory and olfactory components, but they are less
important for life science marketing than the verbal, visual, and tactile
components.
Because many people mistakenly believe that buying decisions are driven
only by rational thinking processes, many brand-stories put excessive
emphasis on the verbal components, and ignore the role that the visual or
tactile elements play in a brand-story.
Though the auditory and olfactory channels are not typically emphasized
in the life sciences, it is important to remember that tactile, auditory, and
olfactory experiences can play a large role in creating a strong impression
of your brand-story. Anyone who has ever unpacked an Apple product
(tactile), heard a TV commercial featuring an Intel processor (auditory), or
walked by a Cinnabon store (olfactory) will understand what I mean.
Logic and Emotion

In addition to the verbal, visual, and tactile components, there are two
layers to your brand-story: logical (or rational) and emotional. The
emotional layer is much more important than many people realize. Research
suggests that decisions are made primarily in the nonrational areas of the
brain.
Inspiration, the support needed to move people from the second to the
third stage of the buying cycle, is a prime target for the emotional layer of
your brand-story. The emotional layer can be scary for marketers,
particularly marketers with lots of technical training and a tendency to
overemphasize a rational approach. But emotions can be powerful
influencers, and aesthetics, of course, is one of the languages of emotion.
Given this complexity–rational and emotional layers and verbal, visual,
and tactile components–how do you create a high-performance brand-story?
The answer? Design and creativity. These are the ways to bridge the gap
between strategy and execution. But not just any wild and creative idea will
do.
You need to harness creativity in the service of business goals, with well-
managed and focused design. Raw creativity is common in most people;
well-managed creativity is not. Learning how to harness creativity in the
service of design can take years, just as it can take years to learn how to
harness creativity in the service of science.
One effective method for creating and managing your brand-story is to
harness the power of great design, as it is the responsibility of the design
function to translate your private strategic position into a public-facing
brandstory. This requires a great working relationship with a great designer,
one who understands your uniqueness, your business sector, the buying
behavior of your audiences, and state-of-the-art marketing tactics, among
many other things. It may be that you have such a person inside your
organization. If not, do not hesitate to use someone from outside.
In the words of Marty Neumeier, author of The Brand Gap, “Execution–
read creativity–is the most difficult part of the branding mix to control.”
Accounting is a discipline that most scientists gladly turn over to an expert.
Design also is a discipline–particularly when it comes to creating and
managing your brand-story–that is best turned over to an expert.
This combination of skills is rare, and designers without these skills often
fall back on emphasizing aesthetics or creativity, believing (falsely) that
somehow these skills are sufficient to address their clients’ serious business

needs head on. Hiding behind the creative process does a disservice to all
clients; there is no substitute for being able to translate complex subjects
into compelling communications, and identify and articulate the reasons
why one design solution is better than another. Marketers should demand as
much from their partners.
This approach–emphasizing aesthetics and creativity–feels very soft and
squishy, doesn’t it? Consequently, it is difficult for many technically trained
people to understand and manage. There are other ways–more systematic
methods for managing the meaning in your brand-story. This is not a
substitute for great design, but it can help guide the strategic process of
translating your position into your brand-story. This more systematic
approach involves the use of brand archetypes, which is a subject I’ll cover
in the next chapter.
Harnessing the Emotional Power of Your Brand-
Story with Anecdotes
Anecdotes are a great way to bring your brand-story to life for your
audiences. For example, for years the CRO Quintiles told the story that the
company was started by Dennis Gillings doing biostatistics on his kitchen
table while working on the faculty of UNC. This story was meaningful
because it conveyed the idea that Dennis Gillings was smart enough to do
the work himself and it contrasted the small start with the listener’s
knowledge of the “large finish,” that is, the large growth that Quintiles has
experienced. This anecdote communicated something about the
organization that resonated with its audiences’ values.
Another story that Quintiles told during the early years was originally
related to me by a C-level executive. Her staff members (primarily
programmers) wanted to put some fruit in the break room as an alternative
to all the vending-machine offerings (carbs, anyone?). The programmers got
permission to sell fruit in the break room, and when they did so, the
executive was surprised to find the fruit arrayed in rows and columns: red
apples, green apples, oranges, each in its own column. She said, “I would
have gotten a nice bowl and arranged the fruit on display, and when
someone took a piece of fruit, I would have rearranged the fruit in the
bowl.”

The executive proudly pointed to this row-and-column array of fruit and
said, “But then I realized that this is how our employees think.” She went
on to say that this is exactly why people engaged Quintiles, because this
was symbolic of the way line-level employees would be treating customers’
valuable data.
This story became an effective part of Quintiles’s sales pitch. The
company told this story to prospects to demonstrate the authenticity of the
organization and to validate its claims of data integrity. Consequently, in
one of Quintiles’s early brochures, there is a picture of red and green apples
in rows and columns on a table. No other CRO would have put a picture of
apples in its brochure.
This story of the apples was powerful, simple, emotional, and authentic.
It conveyed to prospects some of the unique differentiators that Quintiles
had chosen to embed into its brand-story. Anecdotes and other forms of
content marketing can be a perfect way to communicate part of your brand-
story to your audiences.
No discussion of brand-stories would be complete without mentioning
the complexity of the ways in which two different brands can relate. This is
a topic that I cover in great depth in appendix one: Relationships between
Families of Brand-Stories. But now let’s examine another way to imbue
your brand-story with meaning: archetypes.
1 Thanks to David Baker of Recourses.com.

10
USING ARCHETYPES
TO CLARIFY YOUR BRAND-STORY
You’ve seen how important it is to differentiate your offering in the minds
of your audiences, but how can you create this differentiation if the core of
your offering–your work product and work processes–is regulated and
therefore essentially the same as your competitors’? There are two paths to
a differentiated image, and archetypes can play a role in both.
The First Path to a Differentiated Image:
Unique Benefits
One path to perceived differentiation begins when you offer a truly unique
set of benefits. For example, when Apple first introduced the iPhone, there
wasn’t anything else like it, or the application store that serviced it, on the
market.
Positions that are built on a unique set of benefits still need to be well
articulated (through the brand-story) and expressed (through the
touchpoints), of course, but because they are built on unique benefits, they
are the perfect foundation for differentiation.
Identifying truly unique benefits is easier in some cases than in others. In
the case of life science products, the product’s features (such as feeds and
speeds) often form the basis for identifying unique benefits. But a number
of life science service companies actually offer unique benefits. Once
identified, they can form the basis of a powerful, differentiated position.

The Second Path to a Differentiated
Image: A Unique Brand-Story
If there is no set of features or benefits that is truly unique, then you must
take the other path to differentiation. In this case, a unique image must be
created without reliance on a unique set of benefits. To find examples, look
at the sector of consumer-packaged goods–consider soft drinks, laundry
detergent, deodorant, or toothpaste. In many (perhaps most) cases, there are
few benefits offered by these products that are truly unique. So
differentiation, if it is going to exist, must be created. To say this another
way, while there isn’t much difference between laundry detergent brands
once they are added to the washing machine, the differences can seem a lot
more vivid when you’re standing in the store aisle or watching a
commercial.
In these cases, any differentiation must be created and articulated through
the brand-story. Even a company with amazing and unique benefits still
must have an effective brand-story. So whether you have many unique
benefits, only a few, or none, you must use your brand-story to help
communicate or create differentiation. This is where archetypes are useful.
Archetypes can guide you in creating and implementing a consistent brand-
story that both differentiates you from your competitors and resonates with
your audiences.
The use of archetypes can guide you in
articulating a clear, consistent, and differentiated
brand-story.
Many people with scientific training are suspicious of using an approach
that relies less on a clear manifestation of uniqueness, and more on a
distinctive personality or promise. Regardless of this suspicion, archetypes
work in establishing differentiation. And the alternative–trying to compete
using claims that aren’t differentiating, such as “We’re the ones that believe
in quality”–simply won’t work.

Archetypes
There are several definitions of the word archetype. In the sense that they
are useful in marketing, archetypes refer to a collectively inherited
unconscious idea or image that is universally present in individual psyches.
An example will make this more clear. Cultures all over the world have
stories and myths that feature a Ruler or Sovereign–ranging, for instance,
from King Arthur (and the Knights of the Round Table) to Mufasa of The
Lion King. If you examine these stories, it’s easy to spot certain common
behavioral or character traits, such as leading by example, having
exceptional skill or expertise, having a vision for organizing the world, and
projecting confidence–just to name a few. These traits combine to embody
the archetype of the Ruler. The Rulers in these stories exhibit many, if not
most, of these traits, and if a character displays several of the recognizable
traits of the Ruler, you’ll expect them to display the others, even the more
negative characteristics, such as arrogance.
There are many other archetypes. Consider the Jester or Trickster.
Examples include Loki from Norse mythology, the coyote from the
southwestern United States, Brer Rabbit from the southern United States,
Reynard the fox from the French children’s stories, and Bugs Bunny. If you
examine these characters, you’ll find certain familiar behavioral traits. You
can expect the Trickster or Jester to be surprising, to appreciate the humor
in a given situation, and perhaps to poke fun at people or institutions. As
with the Ruler, if a character displays several of the recognizable traits of
the Jester, you’ll expect them to display the others, even the negative
characteristics, such as insolence or cruelty.
Archetypes and Pattern Recognition
In essence, an archetype is a pattern that is part of our shared understanding,
and if you are presented with the pattern, or a part of the pattern, you’ll
recognize it. And once you recognize the beginnings of any pattern, the
human mind tends to fill in the rest of the pattern.
Pattern matching is a very strong instinct in humans. In fact, there is a
word for the tendency to complete patterns and to find meaning even where
none exists. Apophenia refers to the general condition of finding meaning

and patterns in random information, even though no meaning is present.
Examples range from seeing the man in the moon, to finding meaning in a
Rorschach inkblot, to seeing animals in the shapes of clouds. This is not
some rare condition; all humans tend to look for and complete patterns.
The power of archetypes in marketing in general and in high-
performance life science marketing in particular springs from two sources:
first, the idea that these patterns are universal and subconscious, and
second, the human tendency to fill in the uncompleted portion of a pattern.
When these are combined, you have a powerful tool for connecting with
audiences.
Figure 6. Seeing meaning is a common and powerful human tendency. It’s
so common that it occurs even where no meaning exists, like in the inkblot
shown here. The use of archetypes allows you to tap into this tendency in
marketing communication.
If your organization can identify an appropriate archetype, and if you
have the skill to do so, you can use the archetype to connect with your
audience members and help them associate a particular set of meanings
with your offering. If your organization, products, or services exhibit
characteristics typical of a particular archetype, your audiences will expect
certain behaviors from you–and furthermore, they will assign additional
character traits to you. Archetypes help build images in your audiences’
minds.

The History of Archetypes in Marketing
The idea of archetypes is most notable in the work of C. G. Jung, who first
postulated that these archetypes–these patterns–are unconscious and
universal. That is, they are shared. Because this understanding is shared, it
can be tapped to embed meaning into your brand-story, enriching the image
of your organization and offering.
The work of Jung was adapted and brought to marketing and advertising
primarily through the work of Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson,
employees of the ad agency Young and Rubicam, in the 1990s. These two
pioneers (another archetype, by the way) made significant strides in laying
out a theory of archetypes as they apply to marketing, as well as conducting
research on the effect of archetype usage, primarily in advertising. Their
work was published in several volumes, the best known of which is The
Hero and the Outlaw.
Two Examples of Archetypes in Marketing
When you think of Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain, what comes to mind? If
you’ve seen its ads, you’ll think of chicken sandwiches and desperate,
inventive cows. That’s because Chick-fil-A employs the Jester archetype to
connect more deeply with audiences. And in doing so, Chick-fil-A
promotes an atmosphere of fun, encouraging you to join in, to come out and
play with one another, just as a Jester would. Chick-fil-A uses the Jester
archetype to grab attention, in the manner of a Clown or Entertainer (two
other archetypes) surrounded by a crowd. In contrast to the Everyman
archetype (such as the fast-food restaurant Wendy’s), Chick-fil-A promotes
an impertinent approach to life.
Next, consider the Ruler or Sovereign archetype. Mercedes-Benz
employs this archetype to connect more deeply with audiences. In doing so,
the company encourages you to see the world as an ordered place, where
everything fits, where roles and relationships are stable, and where some
brands have assumed authority and are superior to others. In contrast to VW
(the Child archetype), Mercedes-Benz encourages you to see its products as
exclusive.

In adopting a particular archetype, both Mercedes-Benz and Chickfil-A
are making a deliberate attempt to differentiate themselves from their
competition. They do so by making a deeper connection with their
audiences, by projecting patterns that the audiences then complete. This
deeper connection and these familiar patterns enable the audiences to see
differentiation among offerings that are similar.
Different Types of Archetypes in Life
Science Marketing
There are hundreds of archetypes, maybe even thousands. The final number
is not really important, but it is important to recognize that archetypes can
be divided into positive and negative types. Negative archetypes, such as
the Bully or the Evil Dictator, are not typically used in marketing, so I
won’t explore them here. But it is important to realize that they exist.
If you consider the positive archetypes, there are many ways to classify
them. I’ll use a system in which archetypes can be plotted on two axes,
based in part on the work of Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson. On the
horizontal axis, the need for social belonging is placed at one end of the
spectrum and the need for independence at the other end. Similarly, order,
stability, and control are shown at the bottom end of the vertical spectrum,
while risk, freedom, and mastery are depicted at the top. Using these
spectra, you can plot four basic archetypes: the Hero, which represents risk,
freedom, and mastery; the Sovereign, which represents order, stability, and
control; the Lover, which represents community and belonging; and the
Explorer, which represents individuality, self-actualization, and
independence. These four archetypes are part of a series of 12 basic families
of archetypes, outlined in Archetypes in Branding by M. P. Hartwell and J.
C. Chen and shown in Figure 7

Figure 7- The 12 families of archetypes and the positive characteristics
they represent.
The 12 Families
Each of the 12 families of archetypes has many members, and each family
has particular characteristics; some are shared strongly by all the members,
while some are shared only in a more casual way. You must understand
these characteristics if you are going to use archetypes effectively. These
characteristics are more extensive and run much deeper than the short list
I’m providing here.

Each of the individual archetypes in a particular family is related in some
way to the other members of the family. There are differences, however, and
these differences can be significant. For example, both the Scientist and the
Alchemist are part of the same family, and one of the attributes they share is
a fascination about the workings of the universe. There are differences,
however: the Alchemist is a change agent, sometimes using methods that
may seem mystical, whereas the Scientist is more grounded and displays
greater tenacity. The Alchemist is more spiritual; the Scientist is more
logical. These differences will guide the selection of an individual archetype
as well as its use.
Figure 8. Each family of archetypes has many other archetypes associated
with it. There are 60 individual archetypes shown here.

How the Use of Archetypes Can Damage Your Life
Science Marketing
The use of archetypes is powerful, but if used inappropriately or clumsily,
you can cause significant harm to your organization’s image. Each
archetype has particular failings or negative attributes, sometimes known as
the shadow, and your audiences understand these as an integral part of the
pattern for any archetype. For example, the Hero can be prone to arrogance
or to delusions of grandeur. Think of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun.
Arrogance is one of the shadows of the Hero.
A partial list of shadows is included in the table on page 124. These
negative characteristics cannot be left behind. With the positive parts of any
archetype, you also bring the negative, and it is these shadows that make
archetypes potentially damaging to your marketing efforts. Unfortunately,

there are no simple rules for avoiding the negative consequences of the use
of any particular archetype. You must use skill and experience in applying
archetypal characteristics to your brand, organization, products, or services.
Archetypes in Action in Life Science Marketing
Let’s look at a practical and in some ways mundane example of using
archetypes. Imagine that your customers can use your product or service to
review the results of some experiment or assay. Let’s further imagine that
you have a set of FAQs (frequently asked questions) on your website,
related to interpreting the data that comes from this experiment or assay.
I’m going to demonstrate how archetypes could show up in these FAQs–
very far down in the messaging hierarchy.
Here are three sample paragraphs, each intended to introduce the
collection of FAQs. See if you can spot the differences.
The paragraphs sound different, don’t they? That’s because they embody
different archetypes. One was written as a Sage, one as a Scientist, and one
as a Matchmaker. Reread these paragraphs; can you tell which is which?
Some of the words that distinguish each option are summarized in this
table:

Paragraph A embodies the Matchmaker archetype, concerned with
helping you find the right fit. Paragraph B embodies the Sage archetype,
concerned with experience and guidance. Paragraph C embodies the
Scientist archetype, concerned with logic and efficiency.
The basic content and the purpose of the paragraphs (“Here are some
FAQs. If these don’t work, contact us.”) is the same. But the differences
between them are not insignificant–especially not to someone who is having
trouble interpreting the results of this assay. If they’re reading FAQs,
they’re most likely stuck and trying to get past a particular hurdle. The
personality of the person they get help from can play a large role in how
they feel about the entire organization. (Remember the last time you were
on the phone with a customer-service representative? Their personality
made all the difference, didn’t it?)
I’ve demonstrated how an archetype can be embodied in a very short
paragraph, and how it can create a different image or feeling in the
audiences’ minds. Now imagine that a consistent archetype was embodied,
not only in this introductory paragraph, but also throughout every question
and answer in the entire set of FAQs. And not only in the section of FAQs,
but also in every section of the website. This personality (the Matchmaker,
Sage, or Scientist) would then come through to the audience very clearly.
Now imagine that the archetype showed up everywhere else in this
organization’s marketing communications–from a trade-show booth to a

sales presentation, from a downloadable e-book to a video. This is the kind
of consistency that drives the creation of a clear image in the minds of the
audiences.
Results of Using Archetypes: Consistency and Profit
Why are archetypes useful? Once Forma’s clients have been trained in the
use of archetypes to guide the voice and tone of their brand-stories, they
prove to be more consistent in their marketing voice and decisions.
Consistency is one of the most important factors in creating a clear and
unique position in the minds of the audiences. In fact, one of the earliest
symptoms of marketing communication failure is a lack of consistency; the
communications wander, sometimes expressing this position, sometimes
that position. Nothing could be more confusing to your audiences, and
therefore more damaging to your attempt to influence the image of your
organization. Archetypes, when properly used, can be a powerful way to
manage and maintain the meaning and consistency of your brand.
Mark and Pearson studied the use of archetypes among 50 large
corporations and found a correlation between the use of archetypes and
higher profit. While I won’t go into the details of their work here, this is a
summary: brands that picked a single archetype and stuck with it were more
profitable than brands that either didn’t have an archetype or varied their
archetype over time.
In the words of the authors, “We now know that brands that consistently
express an appropriate archetype drive profitability and success in real and
sustainable ways. . . . The Young and Rubicam study demonstrates, without
a doubt, the importance to marketing of understanding and maintaining an
archetypal identity as a primary business asset.”
Whether this higher profit is a direct and causal result of the careful
selection and maintenance of archetypes could be argued. Frankly, I’m not
familiar enough with the details of the study to judge. But it’s hard to argue
with the fact that careful selection and maintenance of a differentiated
brand-story will help establish a differentiated image in your audiences’
minds.
What isn’t up for debate is the fact that it’s always better to be more
aware–and in control–of the messages and personality that your company

projects to its audiences. And the process of identifying an appropriate
archetype makes you more aware, and gives you greater control.
The Key Question to Ask
Different archetypes should influence the choice of all touchpoints (e.g.,
trade-show giveaways). A life science company with a Jester archetype
might give away a toy, while one with a Sage archetype might offer a piece
of reference material (e.g., a poster detailing G-protein-coupled signaling
pathways).
As this example shows, archetypes can–and should–influence all sorts of
marketing decisions. Once you’ve settled on an archetype, you should use
this archetype as a touchstone for all marketing decisions.
One practical approach to accomplish this task is to ask a simple
question, over and over: “What would the (insert your archetype here) do?”
If your archetype is the Companion, ask, “What would the Companion do?”
or “How would the Companion make this marketing decision?” This
question is easily applied to all marketing decisions: what touchpoints to
employ, what language to use, what content to create, and so on and so on.
How should you structure your new series of webinars–what would the
Companion do? Should you expand your series of case studies used by your
salespeople–what would the Companion do? What trade-show giveaway
should you choose–what would the Companion do?
This simple question helps focus your marketing decisions. It clarifies
your voice. It will help you adopt the personality and the tone of your
archetype. It will help you make marketing decisions. And it all springs
from that simple question: “What would the (your archetype) do?”
The 10-Step Process for Choosing an
Effective Archetype for Your Life Science
Organization
How do you choose an archetype for your own life science organization?
Here is a 10-step process that can serve as a useful guide. While this entire

process may feel lengthy and involved, choosing an archetype is an
important part of creating high-performance marketing. You’ll be living
with your choice for a while, so it’s important to get it right.
Step One: Identify the Archetypes of Your Audiences
The archetypes your prospects exhibit may or may not be related to job title
or function, so identifying the archetypes of your different life science
audiences requires your care, consideration, and sophistication.
For example, medical directors may be Caregivers (concerned about
taking care of patients), they may be Sages (concerned about guiding their
organization through a complicated set of choices), or they may in fact be
Scientists (concerned with getting the right data and interpreting it
correctly).
User research and persona development can be useful during this step.
You must identify the audience archetype for each of your audience
segments.
Step Two: Identify Your Competitors’ Archetypes
and Plot Them
Conduct a thorough examination of your life science competitors’
marketing communications, looking for expressions of archetypes. It helps
to compare several of your competitors, because the unique words or
phrases will stand out.
Here are some guidelines. The competitors that are using archetypes will
be consistent in their use; there should be many clues to the archetype
they’re using. Remember that the use of archetypes in the life sciences is
relatively new, so many of your competitors will have no obvious
archetype.
Begin with websites and brochures. Identify those phrases that sound
unique. For example, “We’re with you every step of the way” might
indicate a Companion or a Caregiver archetype, while “We’ll stop at
nothing” might indicate a Warrior or Athlete.

But a single sentence only gives you one data point; it’s hard to identify
an archetype from a single sentence or a single image. Archetypes, used
properly, will permeate all aspects of marketing, so examine many different
touchpoints. As you examine your competitors, you’ll find a mix. Some
competitors will have obvious archetypes, and you’ll find many competitors
with an archetype that is either obscure or impossible to determine.
It is useful to record your competitors’ archetypes by plotting them. The
diagram shown in Figure 9 plots two attributes of each competitor’s
archetype on a single diagram (using a polar coordinate system). The 12
different families of archetypes are organized in a circle, and the distance
from the center of the diagram shows the strength and clarity of each
organization’s archetypal expression–competitors that express their
archetypes strongly are plotted farther away from the center and
competitors that express their archetypes less clearly are plotted closer to
the center.
This plot is useful, as it reveals archetypes that would face little or no
competition. The competition in Figure 9 is focused on the lower right-hand
quadrant, so a selection from any other quadrant would help distance your
organization from the competition. You may ask, “If all of my competitors
are in the same quadrant, doesn’t that mean there’s something about my
industry that means we all belong there?” In other words, “But Mom, all the
other kids are doing it!”
One of the primary reasons for using an archetype is to differentiate your
offering, so choosing an archetype that is similar to your competitors can be
counterproductive.
Figure 9. Plotting competitors’ archetypes is a useful first step toward
selecting your own archetype. Competitors with strong archetypal
expression are plotted toward the outside of the diagram; those with weak
or uncertain archetypal expression are plotted toward the center. Seven
competitors are plotted here, giving you a good sense of the competitive
landscape.

»
»
»
Step Three: Choose a Possible Archetype (or Two or
Three)
Before you make a final choice of archetype, you’ll want to explore several
archetypes and see which one gives you the best possibilities for creating a
distinct brand-story. How do you do this? The next several steps will walk
you through the process (which can be iterative):
Make a preliminary choice (of up to three archetypes).
Explore the way these archetypes will affect your marketing voice.
Based on what you’ve learned, make a final decision.
In essence you are “trying on” these archetypes to see which one fits the
best. The choice of archetype is an important one. Your choice should last
for several years, so it is important to make your selection carefully. Don’t
be limited by the 60 archetypes I’ve referenced in this chapter. Almost any

archetype can work, as long as your expression of this archetype is
consistent. For example, the Manhattan Project would be a great archetype
for a team-based organization that was trying to create something unique
and earth shattering. This archetype would have overtones of the Scientist,
the Engineer, or the Explorer. There are thousands of possible archetypes:
the Concierge, the Leading Lady, the Sherpa, the Political Candidate, the
Air-Traffic Controller, the Usher, etc.
As you choose your archetype, it’s important to consider internal factors,
such as your corporate culture. Some organizations already have clear
alignment around a set of values and behaviors that might suggest an
obvious archetype. For example, Forma once worked with a company
whose behavior was so disciplined and tightly focused that the Spartan
Army archetype was a logical choice.
Step Four: Find Examples
As you consider how your selected archetype(s) might affect your own
marketing, it is helpful to look at examples, like the well-known brands
listed below. The table at right is certainly not complete, but it can serve as
a starting point in your search for relevant examples.
Step Five: Build a Toolbox
Once you’ve chosen your archetypes, build a toolbox of words and images
that each archetype would use in expressing your messages. For illustrative
purposes, the following table lists some obvious (and not-so-obvious)
phrases that a couple of archetypes might use.
ARCHETYPE
FAMILY
SOME BRANDS THAT MIGHT BE
EXPRESSING AN ARCHETYPE FROM THIS
FAMILY
Hero U.S. Army, Nike, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Sage The Smithsonian, Mayo Clinic, CNN, Google

Innocent Volkswagen, Anthropologie, Coke
Lover Häagen-Dazs, Chanel, Godiva
Caregiver Allstate Insurance, Band-Aid
Citizen Chipotle, LinkedIn, AAA
Sovereign Mercedes-Benz, Consumer Reports
Magician Dyson, Apple, Genentech
Creator Walt Disney, Adobe, Pixar
Explorer REI, NASA, National Geographic
Jester Geico, Cirque du Soleil, Chick-fil-A
Rebel
Occupy Wall Street, Greenpeace, Virgin, Harley-
Davidson
Don’t worry about being trite or clichéd as you build this list. Just create
a list of words you think would be appropriate for each archetype.
This list you’ve created contains the words you might find if you
examined a competitor’s publicly available marketing materials and found
evidence of a specific archetype. So it is worth taking another look at your
competitor’s marketing to determine if they use these words–and are
employing a specific archetype.
ARCHETYPE OBVIOUS PHRASES
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS
PHRASES
Matchmaker
Perfect fit, true love,
compatibility, partner,
companion, match
made in heaven,
engagement
Lasting, discerning,
insightful, good
judgment, intuitive
Explorer
Discover, explore,
investigate, seek
Horizon, individual,
insights, reveal

Step Six: List the Characteristics, Attributes, and
Actions That Each Archetype Would Embody
Create a list of the characteristics and attributes that your chosen archetypes
would express. This step is really the secret to using archetypes effectively;
this will allow you to determine what types of behaviors will be consistent
with the image you are trying to create. Once you have listed these
characteristics and attributes, consider what actions and behaviors they
might give rise to. As an example, compare the attributes of the Warrior and
the Sage.
ARCHETYPE
PRIMARY
CHARACTERISTICS
POSSIBLE
APPROACH TO A
SPECIFIC
MARKETING
ACTIVITY (SUCH
AS GENERATING
CONTENT)
Warrior
Focus, discipline,
strength, courage,
endurance
Content that compares
many options and ranks
them according to clear
metrics (in other words,
“Who wins, and who
loses?”)
Sage
Wisdom, experience,
patience, truth seeking,
diligence as a
researcher
Content that focuses
heavily on education
and best practices
Step Seven: Identify the Shadow for Each Archetype
As previously mentioned, each archetype has a potentially negative side–
sometimes called the shadow. Before you choose an archetype, identify

these potentially negative attributes. You can refer to the list earlier in this
chapter. Intuition and experience are useful in determining the shadows for
each archetype, but here is a tip: Consider each archetype from the view of
popular culture. Look for examples where these archetypes show up in
well-known stories, myths, movies, fairy tales, etc. Review these, paying
particular attention to the negative consequences.
Consider these shadows from two standpoints. First, does your reputation
already express characteristics similar to these? If so, you might want to
avoid selecting this archetype. For example, if your customers are providing
feedback that your organization doesn’t listen, this might be seen as
evidence of arrogance–something to avoid at all costs if your chosen
archetype is the Hero, or perhaps reason enough to steer away from
choosing the Hero in the first place.
Second, consider how these negative attributes, if they appeared, could
affect your brand. Can you envision situations in which these attributes
could become so pronounced that recovery would be tough? The Warrior
archetype might be a good choice for an organization that provides
scientific data to drug companies. The implied message could be, “We’ll
fight for your drug/ study/results.” But one of the shadows of the Warrior is
to seek victory for its own sake; that is, to sacrifice morals and ethics. This
shadow would be a dangerous overtone for an organization whose work
must be grounded in the truth, no matter how unappealing the implications
might be (e.g., this drug just isn’t safe or effective).
Step Eight: Create Life Science Marketing Messages
in the Voice of Your Chosen Archetype(s)
Now it is time to express these archetypes in your own touchpoints. Find
three different passages from your own website, for example the home
page, the “about us” section, and a section that describes a product or
service. Rewrite these passages in the style and voice of each of your
chosen archetypes, using your tool kit of words and the behavioral attributes
you created in earlier steps.
As you write these passages, express the chosen archetypes strongly.
Don’t try to be too subtle; you want any differences to come across clearly.

Step Nine: Test Your Marketing Messages with Your
Audiences
All else being equal, it does not matter which archetype you prefer; it only
matters which archetype your audiences prefer. To really get maximum
value from your efforts, you must test the different archetypal expressions
to find out which your audiences find most important, believable, and
compelling. Audience preferences should guide you in your final choice of
archetype.
Which archetype would the audience respond to most favorably, which
one would they find the easiest to do business with, and which one would
they trust the most? These factors can help guide your selection.
Step Ten: Make a Final Selection of Your Archetype
You should now be ready to select an archetype. And with your examples,
shadows, characteristics, and messages, you have a tool kit to put your
archetype into use effectively.
Choosing an archetype can seem daunting, but archetypes can be an
important way to create differentiation. In other words, while it may take
some effort to select a meaningful one, archetypes are certainly worth the
trouble.
Why You Should Be Careful When
Choosing the Scientist or the Innovator
Archetypes
The Scientist and the Innovator are part of the Magician family. Many life
science companies default to the Scientist or the Innovator archetype in
their life science marketing and communications. They haven’t chosen an
archetype deliberately, but their language and messages embody this
archetype naturally.

While the Scientist and the Innovator have characteristics that are valued
by life science audiences, the fact that many companies exhibit these
archetypes in their marketing communications means that choosing either
one of these as your archetype will in all likelihood be nondifferentiating.
Since one of the primary benefits of archetypes is to differentiate your
offering, you should only choose the Scientist or the Innovator after careful
examination of all your life science competitors’ marketing activities and
then only with a thorough understanding of the fact that your choice will
make the task of differentiating your offering more difficult.
Archetypes and Your Brand-Story
Archetypes are one powerful way to imbue your brand-story with meaning.
They are not the only way to do so, and you should not expect that choosing
an archetype will substitute for the use of great (read: appropriate) design in
creating your brand-story. But, in the right hands, archetypes can help your
organization find and harness the proper tone of voice for your marketing
communications.
I’ve reviewed how your brand-story can be brought to life through the
use of archetypes. Now, let’s explore how this brand-story is expressed by
examining the next stage in the marketing mechanism of action: touchpoints
and the ladder of lead generation.

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THE LADDER OF LEAD
GENERATION(LOLG)
Successful Lead Generation is Multi-
Dimensional
Many life science organizations ignore lead generation during good times
and so are faced with a dearth of new prospects when times get tough. For
most, the default response to an impending crisis is to pressure the sales
team to start making phone calls.
But a high-performance lead-generation strategy doesn’t start, or end,
with outbound solicitation. To deliver consistent results, a well-planned,
well-executed lead-generation strategy requires the intelligent use of a
variety of touchpoints consistently over time.
At this point, you understand the MMOA (marketing mechanism of
action) and you have your position crafted and your brand-story designed.
The next step is to express those strategic elements through well-designed
touchpoints and thereby attract the attention of people who are looking to
purchase your products or services.
To review, touchpoints are those opportunities where your audiences and
your organization in any form (such as your brand-story) come into
contact–where they touch. From a strategic standpoint, your touchpoints’
main purpose is to express your brand-story clearly and thereby:
Establish or entrench your position in the minds of your audiences.
Deepen the engagement between your organization and its audiences.

As you deepen the engagement between your audiences and your
organization, you help them change from being a passive consumer of your
marketing messages to the point where they will raise their hands and make
their interest in your organization, products, or services known to you. Once
an audience member has made his interest known, he is no longer an
anonymous consumer of information; he is now a prospect or lead.
Prospects and Leads
Let’s clarify some terminology before dissecting the ladder of lead
generation. A prospect or lead is someone who has been identified as
possibly having interest in your organization’s products or services, but
whose stage in the buying cycle is undetermined. In other words, you know
enough to know that they might have some interest in the organization, but
you don’t know how strong that interest is.
One objective of marketing is to provide prospects with exactly what
they need or want from you at any stage of the buying process via a variety
of touchpoints (if you need a refresher, see chapter five). With the
information you provide, the prospect can determine whether they want to
continue the conversation, and this will ultimately allow you to qualify or
disqualify them.
A qualified lead is a prospect whose stage of buying readiness you know.
You may qualify them and determine they are still in the first stage of the
buying cycle (precontemplation) and therefore require very little action at
this time. Or you may qualify them and determine their needs are well
matched to the products or services you are selling and they are ready to
buy (stage four: action)–meaning the chances of them eventually
purchasing something from you are quite a bit higher. In any event, when a
lead becomes qualified he or she changes status and becomes a qualified
lead (sometimes known as a contact).
The Ladder of Lead Generation Is Not the Typical
Sales Funnel

The ladder of lead generation 1 is a way to think about, organize, and
manage all your touchpoints.
The concept of a “ladder of leads” is not new and is most typically
understood as the equivalent of a sales funnel (Figure 10).
In this model, leads are spread out on a ladder according to the stage of
the buying cycle. Early stage leads (cold leads) are the lowest rungs of the
ladder and later-stage leads (hot leads–those who are ready to buy) are the
higher rungs of the ladder. But basically, the ladder is really just a typical
sales funnel turned upside down.
Figure 10. In some sales systems, the lead ladder is really just a sales
funnel turned upside down.
There are several problems with this model. First, it is simplistic. Second,
the classifications sound good but aren’t really useful. After all, what really
separates the behavior of a cold suspect from a warm lead or a hot prospect?
Third, the typical sales funnel does not guide your actions. It doesn’t
specify what help you should be providing your contact at each step of the
process.
All in all, the sales funnel doesn’t really align with the way people decide
to buy. Remember Prochaska’s model from chapter five? The
transtheoretical model indicates the support that buyers need at each stage
of the buying cycle: educate the unaware in stage one, inspire the interested
(researchers) in stage two, and reassure those with intent (evaluators and
purchasers) in stages three and four.
Building a Better Ladder

Instead of a sales ladder (or funnel), you need to think of a ladder of leads
as a scaffold on which all lead-creating activities (touchpoints) exist.
These activities are then grouped together into four different categories–
personal interaction, paid exposure, content marketing, and earned
exposure–and each group occupies its own “rung” on the ladder.
The Rungs of the Ladder of Lead
Generation
Let’s climb the ladder of lead generation from the bottom to the top,
examining each rung along the way.
Personal Interactions
At the bottom of the ladder of lead generation are activities that involve
personal contact such as personal interactions. Examples include walking
the floor at a trade show, making sales presentations, making cold calls, and
other methods of soliciting interest one-on-one or one-on-a-few. These
activities are the perfect opportunities to qualify individual prospects; that
is, to determine what stage of the buying cycle they currently occupy.
Figure 11. The ladder of lead generation has four rungs. Activities on each
rung play a different role in helping your audiences understand your unique
position.

On this rung, a high-performance organization’s position is claimed. That
is, a salesperson will often state the unique value, but there is typically no
external validation, the way there can be with other (higher) rungs.
Paid Exposure
In the middle of the ladder are paid exposure activities. The exposure
garnered from these activities costs organizations money (often lots of it)
and include websites, brochures, digital campaigns, print ads, banner ads,
sponsorships, trade-show booths, direct mail, e-mail blasts, etc.
Most of the activities that reside on this rung have been traditionally
labeled as marketing. These activities are designed to help your
organization be noticed by reaching a wider audience than is possible with
outbound sales activities. These activities help a high-performance
organization declare its position.
Content Marketing
Just below the top rung is content marketing. Content marketing is the
newest rung on the ladder and involves creating and sharing unique,
relevant, valuable thought leadership. Such content is published by your

organization in forms that might include newsletters, podcasts, videos,
white papers, blog posts, social-media sharing, etc. Content marketing is so
important I will devote the entire next chapter to this interesting topic.
Content marketing activities are used to build trust with your audiences
and demonstrate your position. The fact that your unique value can be
demonstrated is a key part of what makes content marketing so valuable,
and what will drive the growing acceptance of this tactic in the future.
An organization with high-performance
marketing has a variety of effective touchpoints
on each and every rung of the LOLG.
Earned Exposure
At the very top of the ladder of lead generation are activities that have
traditionally been labeled as public relations, but some might also qualify as
content marketing. Together, these are considered earned exposure. Typical
activities on this rung include authoring books, publishing articles, speaking
at conferences, or being interviewed. One of the primary goals of these
types of activities is to get very wide exposure. On this rung, a high-
performance organization’s position is validated by someone else.
A NOTE ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
For quite a while, social media was hyped as the “next best thing.”
And for many consumer-oriented, retail brands, social media can be
an effective channel to reach audiences. But social media is not
guaranteed to get you paying customers. As the frenzy settles, it’s

time to take a more disciplined look at social media, particularly as
it relates to life science organizations.
First, you must understand that the social-media landscape will
continue to evolve. For example, the FDA recently issued guidance
about what constitutes permissible social media. Second, the core
truth for social media is the same one that underlies all marketing in
today’s environment. Shoppers and consumers now have more
choices than ever before. With this increased choice comes
increased power. In the simplest terms, people at all stages of the
buying cycle have the power to ignore you, because they have
alternate sources of information. Launching a new blog or Facebook
page or channel on some social-media site won’t keep your
audiences engaged. The only thing that will is content. This is why
content has its own rung on the LOLG, and why social media is just
one part of one rung. What will drive people to use social media is
not the medium itself, but the content they find there.
Earned exposure has, in the past, included some of the activities that are
now classified as content marketing, for example getting an article
published. It is important to note the difference between these two. Content
on the earned exposure rung is typically published on a third-party property,
such as a website or publication–or for a speech, via the podium–and this
only happens with the approval of a gatekeeper, such as an editor or content
director. This approval provides an implied third-party endorsement of your
content by the publisher. In contrast, content on the rung labeled content
marketing is typically self published, and acts as a demonstration of your
unique value.
Different Rungs Will Have Different Roles
in Lead Generation
All activities on the ladder of lead generation can be used to create leads,
but . . .

Not All Leads Will Have the Same Value to Your
Organization
An inbound lead (when a prospect contacts you) has a very different value
than an outbound lead (when you contact a prospect). That’s because
inbound leads tend to be in later stages of the buying cycle, and so the
conversations with inbound leads have a markedly different (and more
welcoming) tone.
When a prospect contacts you, the prospect is motivated to find out if
their need can be addressed by your offering. They have already lowered
the drawbridge, so to speak, and are more open to hearing what you have to
say than someone that you’ve contacted out of the blue.
Conversely, when you contact a prospect (e.g., cold calls), you must first
determine whether they recognize that they have a need before you can
have a meaningful conversation with them, and then and only then can you
address whether or not your offering might address their need. People you
contact through outbound efforts are frequently on guard against unwanted
sales efforts. Piercing their defenses can be difficult.
Activities on Different Rungs Yield Different Results
The vast majority of prospects are in the earliest stage of the buying cycle
(precontemplation). People in this stage do not recognize that they have a
need. For these individuals, sales-oriented contact is often seen as a waste
of time. In some cases, stage one prospects can become downright hostile to
unwanted sales contact.
Statistically, prospects contacted through outbound efforts (lower rungs
on the ladder) are less likely to be welcoming, interested, and valuable than
inbound leads (higher rungs). Activities on the higher rungs of the ladder
also have a broader visibility to your audiences, just as someone standing
on a higher rung of a physical ladder is easier to see from far away than
someone standing on the ground.
In addition, activities on the higher rungs–when pursued conscientiously–
can enable greater vision and insight into the challenges faced by your
customers.

Activities on Different Rungs Yield Results at
Different Rates
With all these advantages, you should focus all your lead-generation
activities on the top rungs of the ladder, right?
No, because the top rungs are the slowest to yield results. Activities on
the top rungs take a long time to bear fruit. Writing a book or even an article
is no overnight proposition. Getting it published and promoting it takes
time, as does obtaining an invitation to speak at a conference.
In contrast, by walking a trade-show floor, you have the chance to qualify
dozens–if not hundreds–of people in a single afternoon. With the proper
telephone technique, a week’s worth of outbound calling can qualify many
leads.
Activities on Different Rungs Have Different Reach
and Visibility
Activities on higher rungs of the ladder have greater reach and visibility
than activities on lower rungs. Being quoted in an article in a well-read
trade publication (an activity on the earned exposure rung) will give you
greater visibility than making a series of outbound phone calls (personal
interaction). Giving a presentation at a major trade show (earned exposure)
allows you to reach a greater percentage of your target audience than simply
walking the show floor (personal interaction).
Activities on Different Rungs Have Different Costs
Activities on different rungs require different amounts of out-of-pocket
expenditures. I’m not talking about opportunity costs, but strictly referring
to spending hard cash. Generally the activities on the paid exposure rung
involve the greatest expenditures: creating a new website involves design
and programming costs, creating new brochures involves design and
printing costs, etc.

Activities on Different Rungs Require Different
Types of Effort
Activities on different rungs require different types of effort. The higher the
rung, the more mental energy the effort will require; the lower the rung, the
more physical energy (sweat equity) is required.
Activities on Different Rungs Have Different Levels
of Customizability
Activities on different rungs are able to be tailored to individual audiences
to a greater or lesser degree. Activities on the bottom rungs are very
customizable, because the reach is one-on-one or one-on-a-few. On the
upper rungs, activities are less customizable; every reader of any one
magazine will see the same article, regardless of their interest. Of course,
technology (in particular, marketing automation) has the power to radically
alter this situation, and enable customization all through the ladder of lead
generation.
The Ladder Must Rest on a Strong Foundation
Your lead-generation activities rest on the foundation of your brand-story
and your position. Your brand-story articulates your position, which must
meet the seven criteria discussed in chapter seven: clear, unique, authentic,
sustainable, important, believable, and compelling. Without a clearly
defined position that is articulated in your brand-story, your entire ladder of
lead generation will be resting on shaky ground.
Each Rung Reinforces the Others
Each rung of the ladder of lead generation will reinforce the others. For
example, if you have strong paid exposure, it makes it easier for your sales
personnel to do their job (personal interaction). Likewise, if you have strong
content marketing, you’ll be more likely to gain earned exposure. Each rung

will reinforce, and be reinforced by, all the others. This is one reason why
consistency of your brand-story is so important.
For instance, one client of Forma’s was having trouble getting sales
traction. Our diagnostic process revealed that while the science behind the
company’s offering was sound, there was significant inconsistency at every
rung of its ladder of lead generation. The sales personnel (personal
interaction) were conveying a different message than the website (paid
exposure), and the company’s PR plan (earned exposure) didn’t align with
what little content it had.
Figure 12. Each rung on the ladder of lead generation has its own set of
strengths and weaknesses. The ladder must rest on a solid foundation.
To correct its issues with sales traction, Forma had to address multiple
rungs, not just the company’s personal interaction efforts. We began with
the foundation, getting the company’s position and brand-story aligned.

Then we climbed the ladder of lead generation, starting with the lowest
rungs, by ensuring that the entire sales force knew the correct brand-story
and was able to convey the proper differentiators. These differentiators were
then incorporated into the company’s paid exposure tactics, such as its
website, its brochures, and its e-mail blasts, among other tactics. Only then
did we help the company focus its content marketing and earned exposure
strategies.
It Is Important to Employ Multiple Lead-
Generating Tactics
To generate a steady stream on incoming leads, high-performance
marketing organizations employ multiple lead-generating tactics from
different rungs on the ladder. In fact, one of the benefits of tracking all your
lead-generating activities using a tool such as the ladder of lead generation
is that you can see how multiple tactics work together.
In a moment, I’ll walk you through the steps needed to create a ladder of
lead generation that will fit the specific needs of your organization. First,
let’s examine multiple ways to use the ladder of lead generation.
Six Ways to Use the Ladder of Lead Generation
Measurement: The ladder is a yardstick that you can use to evaluate your
current portfolio of marketing activities. You can use it to determine
whether your current mix of marketing-based lead-generation activities is
balanced. The ladder also can allow you to see deficiencies in your current
allocation (“Oops, we have a deficit of content marketing activities”), as
well as track trends over time.
Planning: The ladder of lead generation helps you plan future lead-
generating initiatives.
Comparison: The ladder can be used to examine your competition’s lead-
generating activities. Head-to-head comparisons with your major

competitors’ publicly visible efforts can reveal differences in your
approaches, as well as your messages.
Quality Control: The ladder can be used to ensure that each touchpoint is
providing maximum benefits as an effective part of your organization’s
marketing mix.
Goal Setting: The ladder is both inspirational and aspirational. It shows you
the possibilities for additional marketing-based lead-generation activities
and can inspire you to reach higher than perhaps you thought possible.
Education and Management: The ladder can help you educate, inspire, and
reassure others in your organization about marketing-based lead generation.
It can be used as the basis for a shared understanding about your marketing
activities and as a shared tool for tracking those activities.
Creating Your Own Ladder of Lead Generation
To create your own ladder of lead generation, it is critical that you first
examine your strategic foundation. Do you have a documented position that
meets the seven criteria: clear, unique, sustainable, authentic, important,
believable, and compelling? Does your brand-story clearly translate your
unique position into compelling public-facing messages and visuals? If the
answer is no to either question, you must get those things in place first.
With your strategic foundation in place, the next step is to inventory and
analyze those touchpoints you are already employing. I suggest that you
record all of this information on a spreadsheet from the beginning, as you’ll
be building on it.
Activity: Make a comprehensive list of all of the marketing activities in
which your organization has engaged over the past 12-18 months. A
marketing activity is any action you’ve taken to promote your organization
(i.e., e-mail blast, trade-show booth, or publishing a bylined article).
Rungs: Organize these activities into rungs (i.e., personal interaction, paid
exposure, content marketing, and earned exposure).

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Unique Value: Next, look at each rung and make sure it properly supports
your unique value and your position via a claim, declaration, demonstration,
or validation. If so, how? If not, how can you modify the rungs so that their
relationship to communicating your unique value is strengthened? (Making
a column for this one is optional, but it actually might be a good idea to
have it there, at least at first.)
A Template for Your Ladder of Lead
Generation
You can download a sample Excel template from my website
(MakingTheComplexCompelling.com/Bonus/Ladder) that you can
customize to meet your needs. On the spreadsheet template available for
download, each rung of the ladder is a separate tab. To be consistent, the
illustration shown here mirrors this template. You may wish to use one large
spreadsheet, where all activities for all rungs of the ladder reside on a single
page, but I find that the tabbed method is easier.
Next, fill in the following information on the spreadsheet:
Activity: For example, an e-mail blast designed to drive traffic to a
particular trade show.
Rungs: On which of the six rungs does this activity reside?
Primary Audience: Who is the primary audience for this activity?
Secondary Audience: Who are the secondary audiences for this
activity?
Targeted or Broadcast: Is this activity aimed specifically at a
targeted audience, or broadcast widely?
Call to Action: What change in attitude, belief, or behavior does this
activity seek to accomplish?

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Typical Stage in the Buying Cycle: At what stage in the buying
cycle is the primary audience, if this is known?
Educate, Inspire, or Reassure: Should this activity be primarily
focused on education, inspiration, or reassurance?
Frequency and Timing: How often and when will this activity be
initiated?
Metric for Success: What will be measured to determine success?
(Note: I’ll talk more about metrics and ROI in a later chapter; for
now, just make a column for it and record your thoughts.)
Conversion Rate: For the metric you just listed, what target value do
you hope to achieve?
Total Cost: What is the total cost of the initiative?
Cost per Lead: What is the cost per lead (either anticipated in the
future, or achieved in the past)?
When you’re done, it should look something like Figure 13. Over time, it
is likely that you’ll create many different rows and columns on this
spreadsheet. For example, you may decide that you want to track the
amount of labor required to implement a particular activity, the vendor
used, or the travel costs incurred. Such additions can be useful, but
remember that it is best to keep it simple at the start. Document and monitor
only the most important data points.
There is another reason to keep it simple at this stage: entering all this
information can be quite a bit of work. The overall goal is to allow you to
compare different initiatives. Enter the minimum amount of information
that you need to achieve this goal.
Assessing the Performance of Your Ladder
When a patient visits a doctor, clinicians immediately measure four key
data points–sometimes known as the “big four” vital signs: pulse rate, blood

pressure, respiration rate, and body temperature. This combination of data
provides the doctor with insight into the general state of a patient’s health
and provides him or her with some hints about where to focus further
attention.
To evaluate the performance of your ladder of lead generation, I have
developed an assessment tool. Appendix two has a copy of this test in
printed form, or you can follow this link to the assessment online:
MakingTheComplexCompelling.com/Bonus/Assessment. Using the online
version has several advantages: your score will be totaled automatically,
and there will be additional information (unavailable in this volume) to help
you interpret your results. Additionally, taking this assessment online will
allow you to track your progress over time. Keep in mind, this assessment is
not testing you; it’s testing your marketing-based lead-generation efforts–
your marketing vital signs, if you will. This can be a first step to better
marketing performance.
Like measuring the “big four,” this marketing assessment is simple and
quick–a few questions, which should take you 15 minutes or so. You
shouldn’t have to think too hard to answer each question. The assessment
focuses on several areas, each of which corresponds to a rung on the ladder
of lead generation, plus the foundation:
Figure 13. This is an example of a tool that can be used to track different
activities on a ladder of lead generation.

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Earned exposure
Content marketing
Paid exposure
Personal interaction
Brand-story
Position

When you are finished answering the questions, you will be given some
feedback on your performance for each rung of the ladder of lead
generation. This feedback will give you some insight into the overall health
of your lead-generation efforts.
As you interpret your results, remember that no single short assessment
will be perfect for every organization in every life science sector. Doctors
understand this need for sophisticated interpretation, adjusting the
interpretation of the results of the “big four” for individual patients. For
example, high blood pressure might be a sign of a serious ailment, or it
might be a sign of “white coat hypertension” (a condition in which some
patients have higher than normal blood pressure just because they are in a
doctor’s office). So too, you’ll need to adjust your interpretation of the
results of this assessment based on your own unique situation.
This assessment is based on marketing technologies that are current as of
this writing, which of course are changing every day (nope, I don’t have
instantaneous holographic brain message delivery yet!). Also take this into
account when reviewing the results.
I encourage you to take the assessment and use it as a guide to address
the issues it brings to light. Then, take the assessment again some time in
the future–say three to four months from now. After all, regular assessments
of progress have been shown to be effective in prompting improvement in
most goal-oriented activities. It is better to focus on incremental
improvement, however slow, than risk being overwhelmed and make no
progress at all. Remember the Chinese proverb: “A journey of a thousand
miles starts with a single step.”
In addition to completing it yourself, consider having this assessment
completed by a colleague or two at your organization. Comparing answers
and your overall scores can be instructive. Different interpretations of your
situation might shed light on where you should be focusing your efforts as
you seek to improve your lead-generating activities.
Optimizing Your Ladder of Lead
Generation

The assessment should give you an indication of your current life science
marketing “vital signs” and where the gaps are in your portfolio of lead-
generating activities. While every organization’s situation is different,
optimum marketing performance generally depends upon a well-balanced
ladder of lead generation. With the assessment results in hand, here is a list
of actions that might help you optimize your ladder of lead generation.
Target Your Activities to Different Stages in the
Buying Cycle
What buying stage is each touchpoint designed to address?
Make sure that it is clear which touchpoints are designed to address the
different stages of the buying cycle. Educational content should be provided
to stage one (the unaware). Inspirational content should be provided to stage
two (researchers). Reassurance should be provided to stage three
(evaluators), and stage four (purchasers).
Add Calls to Action
What calls to action are you currently using? Are they appropriate for the
buying stage(s) of your audience(s)?
Make sure each touchpoint provides a clear next step for the prospect to
take. Make sure that it actively invites the prospect to take that step. This
step is sometimes referred to as a call to action. Calls to action have some
limits, however. For example, asking prospects who visit your website or
trade-show booth to sign a contract is pointless; fulfilling this request would
require the prospect to cross a very wide chasm in a single step. Instead,
break the large steps down into many smaller ones.
These smaller steps (known as conversions) are easier for the prospect to
take, and the act of committing to taking a small step has been shown to
actually increase the commitment to taking a next–and larger–step.
Actively Seek Conversions

For each touchpoint on each rung, ask yourself: What action (conversion)
are you seeking from prospects? Is this conversion easy for the prospect to
accomplish? Have you asked them to take a specific action (to make this
specific conversion)?
A conversion is an event in which someone increases his or her
engagement with your organization by taking a specific step or action.
For example, you convert an unknown website visitor into a known
prospect when they provide enough information (i.e., name and e-mail
address) to subscribe to your online newsletter or sign up for a webinar. Not
surprisingly, more people will convert if you make it easy for them to do so,
and even more will convert if you ask them to. Also not surprisingly, many
biotech and life science organizations do not make it easy, nor do they
actually ask.
The entire series of conversions that you make available to your
prospects should have many branches, as there are many paths that lead
from the beginning of the process (an unknown prospect) to the end of the
process (a closed sale).
This web of conversions will begin before your prospects even identify
themselves to you–one example is signing up for your website’s RSS feed,
which they can do anonymously. Eventually, you want them to identify
themselves to you in some way. Then you should have an array of other
possible conversions to choose from, ranging from activities requiring little
trust on their part–such as signing up for your newsletter–to larger acts of
commitment–such as paying for a webinar.
Test, Learn, and Optimize
Marketing’s effects are becoming more measurable. One common system of
testing, learning, and optimizing involves comparing the effectiveness of
different content (messages, offers, graphics, etc.) in the same touchpoint
via a technique called A/B testing. Tracking and comparing the results of
digital touchpoints such as two banner ads, two landing pages, or two e-
mail blasts, for example, is very simple. Digital printing now makes this
easy to do for paper-based touchpoints, such as direct mail.
How can you use A/B testing to improve your current touchpoints? The
key to success lies in making small changes and measuring and comparing

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the results. Then repeat the process: make small changes, measure, and then
compare the results. Over time, this will allow you to home in on those
words, phrases, images, and designs that your audiences find most
compelling.
In performing A/B testing, it is important to follow good experimental
design principles. To increase your confidence in the results’ validity, keep
as many aspects of the experiments the same as possible. This applies to
your entire suite of other complementary marketing efforts. Running an A/B
test on a banner ad with a call to action to visit your website won’t be worth
much if you send out a large e-mail blast with a similar call to action only
during the B portion of the test, but not the A portion.
Rebalance Your Touchpoints
Are your touchpoints in balance?
As organizations grow they typically start at the bottom of the ladder and
work their way up, adding paid exposure activities and then content
marketing or earned exposure activities. As you grow, make sure your
activities are balanced across your ladder. Do not neglect any one rung,
unless there are sound reasons to do so.
To pick just one example, despite the growing prominence of content
marketing, few life science service organizations are using content
marketing to the extent that they could, and most life science product
organizations produce content that is less effective than it could be.
Broaden Your Presence by Optimizing Existing
Touchpoints
Are there other ways you can broaden your presence on the rungs you
already use?
You can broaden your presence on the rungs you already use by
incorporating incremental improvements to your current touchpoints. As
examples, consider the following:
Add a podcast or video to your website.

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Use QR codes to track performance of your direct-mail activities.
Add social-media touchpoints to your existing mix; for example, start
a blog in addition to your white papers.
Expand your social-media presence by starting a LinkedIn group
devoted to your particular topic of expertise.
Host a series of webinars in addition to your blog.
Climb the Ladder
How can you climb your ladder of lead generation?
As discussed, your initial goal should be to establish a balanced portfolio
of lead-generating activities at every rung of the ladder. Once this is in place
and delivering results, however, the next step is to steadily increase the
number of touchpoints on the higher rungs of the ladder.
Higher rungs bring more visibility and a clearer demonstration or
validation of your unique value (but they are slower to convert). Here are
some examples of expanding your presence on higher rungs:
If you have been subscribing to and reading a particular set of trade
publications, you could add relevant comments to articles on the
appropriate websites and become known as an insightful contributor.
Then you could solicit the opportunity to write an article.
You could attend a trade show one year, exhibit at the same show the
following year, and speak from the podium the year after that.
You could expand your social-media activities. Begin by listening,
and then engage through commenting and finally authoring relevant
content.
You could expand your content-marketing activities by starting small,
with a few blog posts or some tweets. Over time, expand your
activities by adding a newsletter, webinar series, or video posts on

your blog. Take a series of your white papers and produce a short-run,
hardbound book that you send to your best prospects once a year.
In the next chapter, I’ll show you how unique, valuable, relevant content
functions as the fuel that will support your steady ascent up the ladder of
lead generation and ensure consistent marketing success.
1 My thanks to Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching for his help in
illuminating many of the aspects of the ladder of lead generation. I have
tried to extend his thinking.

12
CONTENT MARKETING
I’d like to outline a typical scenario that doesn’t, at first, seem to have
anything to do with marketing. But as you’ll see, the ideas represented here
are vitally important for understanding the current state of high-
performance marketing in the life sciences.
Here’s the scenario: A scientist has an idea and wants to test it by doing
an experiment. She writes a grant proposal (if she works in academia) or
promotes the idea to upper management (if she works in the corporate
world). Based partly on the merits of the idea, and partly on her reputation,
she receives funding. Upon conclusion of the experiment, she writes a
paper, which is submitted to a journal, the most prestigious one she thinks
would be both relevant and willing to publish her paper. Her article is then
peer reviewed, and ultimately accepted for publication. Audiences find the
information by turning to the journal or using a citation index.
Note that the scientist isn’t paid by the journal for her ideas or for the
results of the experiment; no money changes hands. Why then does she give
her ideas away?
Simply, she gives her ideas away to be unique (that is, to be the first to
publish), and to be noticed, both of which serve to enhance her reputation.
When it comes time to submit another idea for funding, she’ll be better off
because she’ll have a longer CV of (hopefully groundbreaking)
publications.
Scientists invented content marketing centuries
ago. They call it peer-review publishing.

In this way, the scientist is able to “monetize” her ideas by using her
reputation as an intermediate currency. She trades her ideas for an enhanced
reputation, and takes her reputation and leverages it to enhance her
prospects of funding her next experiment or getting her next job.
The scientist is giving away information that the audiences find useful
and relevant. The audiences respond by noticing the information, by paying
attention to the source of the information, by seeing the source as
differentiated, by trusting the scientist, and eventually by raising their hands
to interact with her (e.g., “Could you please come present your paper at this
conference?”). Scientists have been doing this process, called peer-review
publishing, since at least the middle of the 18th century. Peer-review
publishing is an exchange: relevant insight and information is traded for an
enhanced reputation and an expanded audience.
A similar exchange works in the high-performance marketing arena, and
is called content marketing. Scientists have been practicing this exchange
for centuries, but it is a relatively new phenomenon in marketing.
There are some key differences between the two. Failing to recognize
these differences will doom your content-marketing efforts to failure. Let’s
begin by examining content marketing in detail.
Figure 14. The peer-review cycle: A scientist has an idea for an
experiment, which gets funded depending upon several factors, including
both the merits of her idea and her reputation. The experiment results in a
paper, which is then peer reviewed. It appears in a journal, and, if it is read
by the audiences, might enhance the scientist’s reputation. This cycle
represents an exchange: valuable and unique thought leadership is
exchanged for an enhanced reputation.

Content Marketing
There are many definitions of content marketing, but I’ll break it down this
way: The core of content marketing involves creating, distributing, and
promoting content, but not just any content. It must be relevant, unique, and
valuable content targeted to a clearly defined and well-understood audience.
Content marketing drives customer engagement and, ultimately, profitable
behavior.
High-performance content marketing will help you get found, be seen as
differentiated, and be seen as trustworthy and relevant. To this end, content
marketing helps you support your buyers at every stage of the buying cycle
by supplying educational content to those in stage one who are unaware of
any need, inspirational content to stage two evaluators, and reassuring
content to stage three planners and stage four purchasers. It is important to
note that content marketing is an exchange, just like peer-review publishing;
you give away unique, relevant, valuable insight and information for free,
and in return you get an enhanced reputation and an expanded audience.

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Figure 15. The content-marketing cycle: This cycle is similar to the peer-
review cycle in that there is an exchange: Valuable thought leadership is
exchanged for an enhanced reputation. However, there are some significant
differences. To highlight a few of these, the published idea can come from
anywhere, so marketers must think more like publishers than authors. Many
forms of content can be useful to your audiences beyond just a traditional
scientific paper. Content marketing has no quality-assurance system, like
peer review provides, so content must be top-notch. The channels for
distribution are wider than just the journal system, so distribution channels
must be selected wisely. Marketers have to assume the role of content
promoter, ensuring that the audiences are aware of the content. The content
can be reused and repurposed.
The Benefits of Peer-Review Publishing
It is not only the scientist who benefits from peer-review publishing.
Whenever a journal publishes an article, there are many benefits to go
around:
The journal wins by offering more relevant content and therefore
gaining more readership and more prestige.

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The audience wins by getting relevant information from trusted
sources–both the scientist and the journal.
The scientist wins because she is seen as unique, which enhances her
reputation, earns her additional trust, and gets her noticed.
The field and all of humanity wins by the extension of the frontiers of
knowledge.
The Benefits of Content Marketing
Companies that engage in high-performance content marketing reap many
of the same benefits as the scientist described above. They get noticed and
are seen as unique, all of which enhances their reputation.
Let’s explore this further through an imaginary scenario. Diagnosti-tech
is a (fictitious) manufacturer of diagnostic instruments for hospital
laboratories. It has been in business for a couple of decades and so is an
expert in organizing a lab: deciding what the optimum floor plan should be,
structuring the storage of supplies, auditing the current flow of samples,
developing an efficient workflow, optimizing staffing levels, etc. It
normally guards this information closely, providing it only to clients who
buy one of its instruments as it helps the client set up his or her lab. Its
belief: “We use this knowledge in closing our sales and if we give this
information away, then the customer has one less reason to buy from us.”
This mode of thinking hearkens back to a time when information was
expensive and rare and it was tough or impossible for a prospect to find
information about best practices in lab organization. But information is
virtually free now–both easy to find and cheap to obtain. Diagnosti-tech’s
prospects can find many, many sources on best practices. Keeping this
information private doesn’t help the prospect, so in the end, it doesn’t help
Diagnosti-tech.
Realizing that the information is out there for prospects to find anyway,
ClinicallyDx–Diagnosti-tech’s (fictitious) direct competitor–publishes
similar information in a series of white papers that it makes available on its
website. ClinicallyDx also repurposes and augments this information with a
video, a podcast, and a webinar. It then actively markets these different

information assets by distributing them via a variety of media channels,
such as the web, seminars, print publications, search engines, etc.
The audience members who are seeking help and information find this
content easily and can consume it in multiple forms. They are rewarded by
getting engaging information that is highly relevant, compelling, and free.
In exchange for this information, the audience members provide their
attention, and ultimately, their trust–to ClinicallyDx. Everyone benefits in
this situation. That is, everyone except Diagnosti-tech.
The Differences between Content Marketing and
Peer-Review Publishing
In both peer-review publishing and content marketing, insight, ideas, and
information are freely exchanged for an enhanced reputation. There are,
however, some key differences between peer-review publishing in science
and content marketing in business, and these differences have some
significant implications for the content marketer.
In the peer-review system, the published paper typically comes from a
scientist. In contrast, in content marketing, the published idea can come
from anywhere. The implication: a content marketer should think more like
a publisher than an author, and more like a distributor than a creator.
In peer review, reviewers act as a built-in quality-assurance system. In
contrast, content marketing has no such quality-assurance system. Now,
there are a lot of negative opinions about the peer-review system. Some call
it a good-old-boy network and others claim that the system doesn’t really
prevent fraud. Regardless, the point is this: the peer-review system, as
flawed as some might consider it, does constitute a quality-review step in
the publishing process.
In general, content marketing for business has no gatekeeper at all–
unless you’re publishing a bylined article in an industry trade magazine or
submitting a presentation idea to a conference, in which case your content
or proposal will have to pass muster with an editor or conference director.
The implication: if your goals are to cultivate your audience’s trust, and to
be perceived by them as a relevant source of expertise, the content you
create and distribute has to be consistently top-notch. Publishing poor,
irrelevant content not only won’t help you, it may actually hurt you. Search-

engine spiders are “reading” your content through sophisticated algorithms
and may actively penalize publishers of poor content–ranking it so low that
it is almost impossible to find.
Scientists typically rely on the journal system for distributing ideas.
Science uses this system as the primary channel of communication, with
lectures at conferences and scientific posters as additional–though less
frequently used–channels. In contrast, content marketing for business can
use multiple channels that are not typically available to scientists, such as
YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. The
implication: content marketers must be strategic about which channels they
focus on, and seek out those that are most relevant to their audiences.
Scientists typically publish their experimental results (that is, give their
unique thought leadership away) in the form of scientific papers. These
papers tend to have a common structure, with sections such as title, authors
and affiliation, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion,
acknowledgments, and literature cited. Content marketers have no such
constraints. Videos, podcasts, webinars, etc., are just some of the forms that
can be used to package the ideas and distribute them for free. The
implication: content marketers aren’t limited to (or by) communicating their
expertise solely via the written word, or in a particular order.
Scientists don’t typically have to worry about promoting (marketing)
their thought leadership. Helping scientific audiences find the relevant
information is a task typically handled by the journals or by citation indices.
In contrast, marketers have to be much more active in helping the audiences
find the relevant information. The implication: content marketers need to
not only carefully plan the content, but also the distribution, extension, and
repurposing of that content if they want to maximize the potential for
connecting with their audiences.
The table at right summarizes the differences between peer-review
publishing and content marketing.
Why Content Marketing and Why Now?
The core concept that makes content marketing both effective and timely
lies in the giant shift away from what Seth Godin1 calls interruption
marketing, which relies primarily on intrusive marketing tactics such as ads

that seek to promote products and services by interrupting the audience’s
stream of attention. TV and radio ads are prime examples, but there are
many others.
As I discussed in chapter three, consumers erected a first line of defense
against interruption marketing long ago; they learned to ignore the
interruptions–to the extent that they could. Technology assisted them by
giving them tools such as the mute button to take back control over the TV.
Marketers responded in two ways worth noting: by developing a more
sophisticated understanding of consumer behavior and by creating more
intrusive interruptions. The aim of both was to make the interruptions more
effective at grabbing attention. They also used technology itself; for
example, TV ads are typically louder than the programs they interrupt.
Differences between peer-review publishing and content marketing
PEER-REVIEW PUBLISHING CONTENT MARKETING
A scientist trades content (e.g.,
the description and results of an
experiment) for free in exchange
for a bolstered reputation.
A company trades content (e.g., a
description of best practices) for
free in exchange for a bolstered
reputation.
The scientist conceives of the
idea and authors the paper.
The ideas do not have to originate
with the marketer.
The peer-review process helps
ensure a baseline level of
quality.
The lack of a peer-review process
means there is no standard of
quality.
Content typically takes the form
of a paper (i.e., words, data,
graphs, and images).
Content can take many forms:
written words, images, audio, video,
infographics, etc.
The publishing vehicle is
typically a journal.
Many publishing vehicles can be
used: SlideShare, Flickr, YouTube,
etc.
The journal handles the
promotion of the content
(through push). The author
The marketer handles the
promotion of the content and has to
help the audiences find the idea (by
enabling pull).

doesn’t help the audiences find
the idea.
The audience does not have to
search widely to find relevant
content of interest; journals and
citation references are standard
places where searching begins.
The audience has to search in many
ways and places to find relevant
content of interest. Search engines
are the typical starting point, but
searches may involve many avenues.
The content typically gets
published only once.
The content can get published and
repurposed many times.
The audience values content
that is innovative (first to
publish), accurate, and
complete.
The audience values content that is
innovative (differentiated), relevant,
and compelling.
The scientist is not supposed to
let her point of view influence
her thinking or be obvious to the
audience, except in very specific
ways.
Point of view is important. It can be
a large differentiator and should
influence decisions about content
selection and creation.
As a result, marketers and consumers have been locked in a battle for
control over consumers’ attention. But the entire battlefield has been
undergoing a seismic shift, caused by the increase in both the number of
communication channels and in the quantity and types of information
available. Now, consumers can avoid interruption-marketing tactics almost
completely by choosing where and when they focus their attention. This
increase in choice has shifted the balance of power toward consumers and
away from marketers.
Too Much Choice Can Overwhelm Life Science
Buyers
Contrary to popular opinion, more choice is not always better. In The
Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, Barry Schwartz2 makes the case that
too much choice can be just as detrimental to consumers’ well-being as too

little. With too much choice, consumers feel overwhelmed. They need help
finding and filtering information and in deciding what to pay attention to
(what information is relevant) and what information to act on (what sources
to trust).
Think of it this way: Imagine you need information about flow cytometer
performance, best practices in running adaptive clinical trials, or EDC
(electronic data capture) standards. Google these subjects and you’ll be
flooded with information. Even within these narrow examples, the choices
quickly become overwhelming. This glut of information forces you to ask:
“Which sources are relevant? And once I identify relevant sources, what
source should I trust?”
An effective high-performance content-marketing strategy will make it
easier for your audience to choose you as a relevant, trusted source. And
there are other benefits as well. To examine these, let’s compare the results
of content marketing with the results of peer-review publishing.
Results of peer-review publishing and content marketing
PEER-REVIEW PUBLISHING
FOR SCIENTISTS
CONTENT MARKETING FOR
LIFE SCIENCE COMPANIES
When successfully implementing a
strategy of peer-review publishing...
When successfully implementing a
strategy of high-performance
content marketing . . .
The scientist gets recognized (that
is, found) as an author or
experimenter of note out of the sea
of scientists.
The company gets found out of a
sea of competitors.
The scientist is seen as unique by
being the first to publish.
The company is seen as unique
by being differentiated from the
competition.
The scientist is seen as an expert in
her field.
The company is seen as relevant
to the industry sector.
The scientist is seen as a trusted
source.
The company is seen as a trusted
source.
The scientist earns an enhanced The company earns an enhanced

reputation. reputation.
The scientist can “monetize” her
enhanced reputation by applying
for funding to test another idea
through experimentation. Funding
is granted based partly on the
merits of the idea, and partly on
the scientist’s reputation.
The company can “monetize” its
enhanced reputation by engaging
with the audience, and either
selling access to additional ideas
itself, or using the enhanced
reputation to promote and sell
products or services.
The Goal of Content Marketing: Get
Found and Be Seen as Different, Relevant,
and Trustworthy
In today’s world, the organization that makes it to the short list (in the
absence of any personal connection between the buyer and potential sellers)
will be the company that is the most trusted source of relevant information.
For example, if you were responsible for purchasing flow cytometers,
who would you be more likely to trust when it came time to buy a new one,
the company whose marketing consists of ads focused on the specific
features of its flow cytometer, such as the small sample volumes required?
Or a competitor who has been a steady source of comprehensive free white
papers on topics such as “10 tips for handling reduced sample volumes in
flow cytometry,” “best practices in flow cytometry,” or “eight tips for
accurately counting samples with few cells?”
A focused, well-executed, content-marketing strategy can help your
company be found, and become known as a unique and trusted source of
relevant information. To better understand how and why this approach
works, it’s useful to examine the concept of thought leadership.
Thought Leadership in the Life Science Sector
In business, a thought leader is recognized by audiences as someone who
sees and talks about things in a new way, is a source of new ideas, or is a

facilitator of deeper understanding of existing business conditions.
The interesting thing about the life science sector is that for a field awash
in both supposed and acknowledged experts, the evidence of their thought
leadership (outside of peer review) is spotty at best.
Look closely, and you’ll see that there are some segments of the life
science market that provide plenty of evidence of their expertise. Let’s look
at clinical research, to pick one small focused example. Surf the websites of
the top five CROs (clinical research organizations); you’ll find lots of
newsletters, white papers, abstracts of published papers, even videos. Most
of this information is not a sales pitch, but rather is useful information
presented in a compelling fashion.
In contrast, take a look at some other segments in the services sector
devoted to clinical research and you’ll find little evidence of any attempt to
assist the audiences. Core labs are just one example where evidence of
thought leadership is spotty, but this segment is not the only one; small
CROs typically have little or no thought leadership in evidence. In fact,
there is typically no evidence of any original thought, much less thought
leadership.
I’m not saying that there is no thought and no expertise within these
organizations, just that there is no evidence of this expertise visible in their
marketing. And remember, to a prospect looking in from the outside, this
perception is their reality.
Life science service providers promoting their services often use their
expertise as a reason to believe their marketing claims. Yet many of these
same service providers offer little evidence of their expertise on their
websites, beyond abbreviated bios of their core management team.
Content Marketing and the Ladder of
Lead Generation
As I mentioned in the last chapter, content-marketing activities are used to
build trust with your audiences and demonstrate your unique value (your
position). I’d like to point out that there are many similarities between
activities on the content-marketing rung of the LOLG and activities on the
top rung, earned exposure. Both can result in high visibility, and both

typically require a long time to yield maximum results. The creation of
thought-leadership content used to reside almost exclusively on the earned
exposure rung and took the form of podium opportunities and published
articles.
The Internet has changed many aspects of marketing. No longer do a few
gatekeepers, such as editors, control access to content. No longer do users
have to limit their searches through a small number of tightly controlled
outlets, such as citation indices. No longer are subject matter experts
(SMEs) limited to spreading their insight through a small number of tightly
controlled channels, such as journals.
All these changes, among others, have shifted the entire field of
marketing. Content marketing should now be an important part of every
organization’s marketing mix and its rising importance has earned content
marketing its own rung on the LOLG.
The Advantages of Content Marketing
Content marketing, when executed through a smart content strategy,
provides many advantages. It can:
Make You Smarter
By focusing on what your prospects need to know, you discover, distill, and
catalog the expertise that already exists within your organization. You learn
to explain what you know, clearly and compellingly. And by explaining
what you know, you come to understand it in a whole new way, because as
the proverb says, “When you teach, you learn.” So you shift your attention
from being reactionary to being more proactive and strategic; you get better
at recognizing, understanding, and predicting trends in your sector. You are
encouraged to be more explicit about what you believe and take positions
that are clearly defined.
Shift Your Focus

By concentrating on what prospects need to know, you become less
company-centric and more audience-centric. You see your company and
your offerings more through the eyes of the audiences. This helps you turn
down the volume of the sales spiel and engage in more effective dialogue.
You create a better balance between what you know and how you
communicate.
Increase Your Visibility
Google and the other search engines rank websites on many factors, but
none is more important than relevancy. Content marketing begins with
clearly identifying your audiences and providing them relevant, unique,
engaging content. When you do this, you get found more easily and more
often. Your website gets better search engine optimization (SEO) results,
which generates more traffic and more links to your site. The chances you’ll
be noticed by the media and by analysts also increase.
Aid Differentiation
Publishing evidence of your expertise helps lift you above the mass of
same-old, same-old competitors. The audiences will be able to clearly
perceive a significant difference between you and your competition. You
will be recognized as more of an expert; your reputation will be enhanced
and the awareness of your organization will increase.
Change People’s Opinions of You and Their
Behaviors toward You
As they do, the audiences will divide–those that are not interested in what
you have to offer will walk away (saving you time, money, and
aggravation) and those that are interested will invite you to begin a
dialogue. This latter group will trust you more and will be more reassured.
All of this will improve your image.

Enable Others to Spread the Word
When you have compelling, relevant, informative content, others will share
it. As they recommend your content to others, this content will be doing
some of your marketing for you.
Shift Your Business Landscape
The size of your company won’t matter as much, because in many cases
experts don’t have to be large to compete effectively. You can be more
selective about who you choose to sell to and engage with.
Seven Attitudes for Successful Content
Marketing
There are seven attitudes you need to adopt if you are going to be successful
in content marketing.
Focus on Your Audience
Shift your focus from what you’ve been saying in your sales presentations
to the information your audiences need to know. Pay attention to them and
their needs. Listen carefully to what they say and infer from that what they
need. Be relevant. Lose the “sales pitch” mentality and language; do less
convincing and more informing. Engage them with a dialogue, not a
monologue.
Be Generous
Give away your expertise and information. Remember that any information
you are now so carefully hoarding is in all likelihood available to almost
everyone from other sources, almost anytime, almost anywhere. Why save

it, when you can trade it for an enhanced reputation and a more authentic
dialogue with your prospects?
Focus on the Long Haul
Content marketing is a process, not an event. Just as a scientist builds a
career over years by working on a succession of experiments, so too must
marketers build their firm’s reputation over the long haul. You have to be
committed to a steady, long-term effort.
Think Like a Journalist or Documentary Filmmaker
Focus on telling stories and conveying information in compelling ways.
Behave Like a Publisher
Your ideas must be promoted. They can be reused and repurposed, and as
you start out, no one else will do that for you.
Focus on Creating an Atmosphere of Trust
You can accomplish this by being trustworthy and honest. Would you say
this, in this way, to your very best client, your very best prospect, or your
mother?
Put More Emphasis on Relevance Than on Bling
Develop relevant content that satisfies the real hunger in the marketplace.
Present it clearly, authentically, and compellingly. This will always be seen
as more valuable than overproduced, overhyped sales pitches.
Content Creation Is an Inside Job

It is possible to outsource every facet of your content-marketing program:
you can hire an editor to create an editorial calendar, you can hire a subject
matter expert (SME) to provide the concepts and content, you can hire a
writer or a producer to package the content, you can hire someone to
distribute and promote the packaged content, you can hire someone to
measure the results, and you can hire someone to maintain the dialogue
with your audiences that this content-marketing program will initiate.
The problem with this approach is that you will not only miss the
opportunity to get smarter, but you’ll also miss the opportunity to establish
a meaningful relationship with your audiences. I am not claiming that you
need to complete every aspect of your content-marketing initiative by
yourself. For example, it is not uncommon to hire a writer to interview your
SME and provide the first draft of a white paper. But content marketing
provides the greatest benefits when someone within your organization is the
SME and someone within your organization handles the resulting dialogue
with your audiences.
In the short term, if you have to outsource some of your content-
marketing efforts, go ahead and do so. As you’ll see, getting started sooner
gives you many advantages over waiting to start a content-marketing
initiative. You can work to bring your content marketing in-house piece by
piece.
Real-World Results: Content Marketing in
the Life Sciences
The vice president of marketing for a top-10 CRO reported in a personal
conversation that the organization invests 30 percent of its marketing
resources in creating and promoting content–consisting of one or two
educational webcasts and two white papers per quarter, among other things.
As a result, he stated, “Eighty percent of our sales leads and 50 percent of
our bookings are generated from our (educational marketing) program.”
Eighty percent of its leads come from its content-marketing program.
That’s a sizable number. How many phone calls would it take to generate 80
percent of the leads in your organization? How many trade shows would
you have to attend?

Similar results are possible for your organization, of course, but these
will only happen with careful planning and consistent execution. When
undertaking a marketing initiative that is new to your organization, it is as
important to manage internal expectations as it is to manage the project
itself, and a well-written, well-reasoned plan will support both.
Content marketing works. It can accomplish many goals, including
starting a dialogue with your prospects, acquiring leads, and (ultimately)
generating revenue. How do you plan and execute an effective content-
marketing strategy? To answer this, let’s look at the content development
life cycle.
The Content Development Life Cycle
The content development life cycle is the process by which you select,
create, and maximize the impact of your content–the insight and
information you’re delivering to your customers-to-be. I call this life cycle
P7.
The P7 cycle is composed (shockingly) of seven steps that are divided
into three distinct phases: content strategy, content creation, and content
maximization. Let’s take a look at the individual steps in the context of the
phases they support.

Figure 16. The P7 cycle illustrates the general steps in planning, creating,
and promoting compelling content.
Phase I: Content Strategy
Content strategy includes the first three steps: people, probe, and plan.
People: In this step, you must clearly define your audiences. You should
characterize them in a way that enables you to envision them clearly, and to
do this you may need to create personas, or solicit feedback and ideas from
your audiences via surveys or anecdotal interviews. Don’t forget one of
your primary audiences: search engines.
Probe: In this step you develop, categorize, and rank a list of critical issues
and hot topics based on the intelligence collected from the previous phase.
You must identify the expertise you will need to create the content. You
must figure out what content already exists and see if it can be revised or
updated. And identify the channels for distribution (internal and external).
Finally, you should establish metrics so that you will know whether or not
the content you created was effective!
Plan: Once you know what you want to say, it’s time to commit to a
schedule by creating an editorial calendar that will detail what is to be
created, by whom, and by when. Concurrently, you’ll want to create a list of
keywords relevant to each piece to increase its value for search engines.
Once you have a plan, you’re ready to move on to the next phase–content
creation.
Phase II: Content Creation
Content creation includes the next two steps: propose and prepare.
Propose: If you’re publishing content on your blog or in your newsletter,
this step will not apply. However a big part of content marketing is
leveraging other audiences–through publishing articles in trade magazines
or writing a piece for someone else’s blog. In this phase, you propose an

article or other content asset to editors, publishers, or producers for
placement on their property.
Prepare: Once you’ve decided on a topic, you then need to prepare it, by
first selecting the appropriate format (blog, bylined article, video, webinar,
white paper, etc.) and then actually sitting down and creating the content.
(Don’t forget to incorporate your designated keywords!)
The third phase, content maximization, is where you make the first two
phases pay off–again and again.
Phase III: Content Maximization
Content maximization includes the last two steps: publish and promote.
Publish: Now that you’ve created the content, get it out there and working
for you. If you’re publishing it on your own website, make sure you
optimize for search-engine results, and include all the relevant categories
and title tags.
Promote: Once your content is published, promote it. Notify your audience,
via e-mail and social-media channels, and any other methods that may be
appropriate for your particular audience. Track the impact of the content.
Which content caused the most activity and spurred the most responses to
your calls to action? Analyze why it worked so well, and figure out how to
do more of what it was that worked in future pieces.
Congratulations, you’ve completed the P7 cycle. What’s next?
Rinse and repeat with new content, or better, by reimagining,
reformatting, and changing the editorial approach or the format of the
existing content. The content of a bylined article could be repurposed as a
video. The content of a webinar could be reimagined as an e-book. A video
could be reformatted as a white paper via transcription. The permutations
are myriad. The more you can reimagine, repurpose, and reuse content, the
bigger return your organization will receive on its investment of time and
energy.

In the next chapter, I’ll talk in more detail about the tactical execution of
the P7 cycle–starting with content strategy.
1 Seth Godin, Permission Marketing (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1999).
2 Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (New York:
HarperCollins, 2004).

13
CONTENT STRATEGY,
CREATION, AND
MAXIMIZATION
To consistently create valuable content, you need to have some way to
ensure you maintain the right focus, form, filters, and frequency (among
other things). This is accomplished by creating a content strategy–an
effective plan for how you will conquer the brave new world of content
marketing. There are several things to know about content marketing before
you start developing your strategy:
Content marketing is a process, not a single event. Whatever form you
choose for your content (white paper, blog, newsletter, video, podcast, etc.),
creating the first one will only take you so far. The real benefits of content
marketing will only be realized as you continue to develop and promote an
ongoing stream of high-quality content relevant to your prospects.
Your organization will need to take the content-marketing effort seriously.
To maintain a steady stream of content, resources (time, people, and money)
will need to be allocated. You will also need ongoing support from the
appropriate individuals and functions within the organization. But as a
result of this investment, your organization eventually will possess a
significant number of valuable assets with real worth.
If an accountant were to evaluate all the assets of the business, a
(growing) collection of exclusive content would have value–either genuine
monetary value (in the example of a book of original content authored and
published by the organization) or goodwill value. This value is derived from
the ability of content to drive new business by educating the unaware,

inspiring the interested, and reassuring buyers so that deals close and
business repeats.
Figure 17. The P7 cycle outlines the seven steps of content strategy,
creation, and maximization: people, probe, plan, propose, prepare, publish,
and promote.
Your content strategy should govern all manners in which your company
shares informational content. A content strategy is a focused plan that
determines what types of informational content will be developed and
published and how its impact will be maximized or extended. A content
strategy also ensures that those touchpoints have the greatest opportunity to
engage your audiences, convey your messages, and inspire qualified
prospects to action. Your content strategy will affect both marketing and
sales. In fact, one of the main functions of a content strategy is to create an
environment in which marketing and sales are communicating with
prospects in a consistent and compelling manner, working together to
educate them, build their trust, and convert them into loyal customers.

Creating an effective life science content strategy involves three steps,
indicated on the life cycle as people, probing, and planning. Let’s take a
look step at each in detail.
Content Strategy
Step One: People–Audiences, Personas, and
Environment
Your life science content strategy begins with your audiences.
Audiences: Your strategy for developing content must begin with a clear
focus on the people that compose your many audiences. One audience is
composed of potential customers, of course, but there are other audiences
you must also consider, specifically those that already have contact with
your prospects!
Such groups include editors and publishers of trade publications as well
as the producers of major events, such as trade shows and conferences–
places your prospects go to gain the information and education they need to
meet their objectives. Editors and publishers function as gatekeepers for
their properties, so when they accept your content the piece or presentation
acquires an implied endorsement from that publication or conference.
Another audience is composed of industry influencers, people whose
recommendations hold weight and who could possibly introduce,
recommend, or endorse you to potential customers. There are myriad
additional audiences and many subdivisions thereof. Take the time to
identify and prioritize the audiences that are most valuable to your
organization and focus most of your resources on communicating with
them.
Once you have the audiences identified, then it’s time to get in touch with
the general personality of each role that appears within those audiences by
creating personas.
Personas: A persona is a profile of a (fictitious) person that embodies the
key traits of a specific audience segment. The idea behind personas is to go

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beyond the measurement of mere demographics, and document motivations
and behavior patterns of specific audience groups. For example, the content
created for a prospect in stage two (contemplation) would be different than
the content created for a prospect in stage four (action). You must carefully
plan for all stages of the buying cycle. Creating content for a particular
persona enables you to communicate more easily and effectively to specific
groups because you’re communicating with a person rather than a faceless
column of statements or numbers (e.g., demographics).
One advantage of using personas is that it enables you to speak to more
specific problems, which will not only better demonstrate your expertise,
but also be more meaningful and interesting to all of your audiences.
Environment: Your content will face lots of competition for the attention of
your audiences. The content environment is becoming increasingly crowded
due to content inflation. This era of exploding information brings with it
certain corollaries. More information means shorter attention spans.
Information overload and scarcity of attention are two growing trends.
These trends are forcing publishers to focus their messages and
communicate clearly and concisely. The rising number of one-page
websites is in direct response to this trend.
At the same time, there is a growing demand for good content. The
number of searches on Google alone is growing exponentially, and exceeds
billions of searches per day. Not only has the amount of information
increased, but the number of channels for disseminating and promoting this
information has increased as well. Each of these channels needs to be filled,
so there is significant growth in the amount of content, much of it mediocre.
That means:
Information is ubiquitous, but insight is rare. In the flood of data,
there is a scarcity of clear-eyed understanding, both synthetic and
analytic.
Buyer attention will get even more elusive as low-value content
becomes omnipresent.
Audiences are fragmenting. There is no mass market any more.

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Changes in technology have enabled everyone to publish content. The
good news here is that this democratization of the publishing process
means that small life science companies can target and reach their
audiences as effectively as the large ones.
Search engines are an audience, too. Your human audiences are
looking to Google and other search engines to help them sort out
what content is worth consuming. The search engine should be
considered one of your audiences and catered to as such, because you
need its endorsement and help if you (or your content) is to reach
your human audience.
Cultivation of trust is essential. Information overload means that trust
becomes even more valuable in relationships. Buyers trust peers, and
the effect of recommendations and social networks is increasing.
In addition to content inflation, your competitors also influence the
environment for your content. What are they saying? Who are their
audiences? Is their content well written or just the same features and
benefits rehashed again and again? Are there channels or content formats
that you hadn’t thought of? A quick web search will give you most of the
answers you seek.
You’ll find that some websites “gate” their information. That is, they
require visitors to trade contact information for access to their content.
These gates impede the distribution of content, because search-engine
spiders can’t see information that is gated. If they can’t see the information,
they can’t include it in their search results.
The conclusion is that the clear, unwavering focus of your
contentmarketing efforts must be to provide unique, relevant, valuable
information to your audiences, specific to their needs, their roles in the
decision-making process, and their position in the buying cycle.
Step Two: Probe–Listen and Respond
Once you identify your audiences, the next step is to take some time to
listen to what they are already saying.

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Note: They may not be saying it to you–particularly if your typical
communications with prospects are centered on you, your company, and
your offerings.
Here is what you’re looking to find out:
What is already being said about you and your company? You can
include it in the plan content that will temper or correct those
perceptions.
Where are your prospects congregating on the web; their virtual water
coolers, so to speak (e.g., LinkedIn is probably one)? This will give
you the option to include a plan to develop an active presence at these
locations, enabling you to support discussion and questions about
your audiences’ problems, challenges, opportunities, and issues.
What are the most frequent topics of discussion between you (or your
salespeople) and your prospects? What are their points of pain, and
where are they going to find solutions, if not from you?
There are a number of ways to find out this information, but often the
best way is simply to ask!
When you touch base with prospects and former customers, inquire
about the current challenges they are having in achieving their goals,
marketing their products and services, and securing new business.
Send a short survey designed to identify prospects’ top three pain
points. (Make sure you reward them with a link to a white paper or
newsletter on the thank-you page!)
Read the comments section of articles or blog posts appearing on top
industry online properties.
Follow key influencers and commentators on social media, and via
Google Alerts.
Pay attention to what your competitors are saying, but look at it
through the lens of your prospect.

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Note the responses to your current content, noting those most
frequently shared, commented upon, and replied to.
Once you understand the topics that are important to your audiences, then
it is time to turn your attention inward. Before you can create an effective
plan, you must know:
What content do you currently have? Where is it, and who owns it?
What form is this content in? For example, do you have lots of blog
posts, but no white papers, no webinars, and no video?
Who are the SMEs within your organization? Also, are there other
SMEs externally who you might enlist?
What capacity and capability do these SMEs have to undertake the
creation of new content? For example, do they have time to write, or
will you need a writer to interview them and do the writing for them?
If you are thinking about creating a video, are your SMEs capable of
being an on-screen presence (the “talent”), or will they only be
capable of providing off-screen expertise?
What metrics are going to be important for measuring the success of
your content-marketing initiatives?
Once you have identified the topics that interest your audiences, the
current availability of content on those topics, and your ability to generate
new content, it is time to formulate a strategy for communicating
effectively. This content strategy then governs the various tactics that
comprise the content plan.
Step Three: Plan–Outline the Steps to Success
A content strategy is a document that records the decisions you have made
about your content’s form, frequency, tone, topics, availability, and any
expertise you will leverage, as well as the methods of analysis and
measurement you will use. These decisions should be thought through and a

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strategy crafted and committed to before any (or any additional) content is
created. Let’s take a look at the components of the content strategy in more
detail:
Form: The form your content takes should match the needs of your life
science audiences and the specifics of the content itself, which you have
hopefully ascertained by analyzing the people you are selling to and
probing all possible information channels about them. Once you understand
whom you’re creating content for and how and where they are finding it,
you then need to ascertain and prioritize the forms your content will take.
There are many forms, but here are just a few:
blog posts
newsletters
white papers
bylined articles
peer-reviewed articles
graphics (images/charts/tables/graphs/diagrams)
video
guides
workbooks
slideshows
animations
posters
infographics
webinars

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books
e-books
microsites
audio
podcasts
speaking engagements (recorded lectures)
research reports
flash-based demos
Frequency: Generally, in life science marketing, the quality of your content
and the consistency with which it is published trumps overall quantity. It is
better to commit to publishing high-quality content, even if that means
publishing less frequently, and execute that commitment flawlessly than to
publish low-quality content, however frequently.
It is worth noting that the SEO algorithms that are used to rank websites
do take into account the frequency of adding new, high-quality content to
your site. Publish too seldom, and your rankings will suffer. A reasonable
rule of thumb (as of this writing) is to produce 2,000 words or more per
month of high-quality content, if you are publishing it in a long form, such
as a white paper. Blog posts can vary from 500 to 750 words, at least once
or twice a week.
Develop an editorial/content plan and create a schedule. Then assign the
responsibility for managing the editorial/content calendar to someone who
has strong administrative abilities.
Tone: The tone of your content should be congruent with your overall
position. For example, if your brand-story’s character is supportive rather
than challenging, or active rather than calm, or surprising rather than
predictable, your thought leadership should echo this. The tone you choose
to use in your content is an important part of your content strategy.

Topics: Most of the topics you select will have been identified in step two:
probe. Here is where you will decide which of these are most important and
in what order they’ll appear. You should select your topics to address
audiences in all different phases of the buying cycle by including content
that is educational, inspirational, and reassuring.
Analysis: Metadata, taxonomy, and search engine optimization are
additional ways to support the content you create and ensure it reaches your
audiences. How you intend to leverage it (and which you intend to
leverage) should be outlined in your content strategy.
Availability: The decision whether or not to put content behind a “wall” is a
strategic decision. Audiences encounter walls when they are asked to
supply something in exchange for their access to the content.
ANALYSIS TERMINOLOGY
Metadata is essentially data about data or content about content. For
example, when you upload an image to your website, you have the
option to build in a variety of metadata (for example, alt tags that
describe your image) that could lead search engines to direct
audiences to the page on which the image resides.
Taxonomy refers to the way the content is organized, again on
your website, either by topic, type, or tags.
Search engine optimization (SEO) typically involves optimizing
your site for relevant keywords and key phrases (words and phrases
that your audiences will use when searching for the information you
are providing) by incorporating them into the content you are
publishing. Incorporating keywords or phrases into your content on
a routine basis can raise your search-engine results very effectively.
There are a variety of ways to optimize your content for search
engines; decisions about what you will and will not do should be
outlined in your content strategy.

This “something” could be personal information or even money. Note that
search-engine spiders cannot penetrate these walls, so they cannot index
any content behind them.
Forma was once approached by a life science service provider wanting
greater visibility in the marketplace. A quick web search revealed that the
service provider had some white papers available from its website, but the
audiences were required to trade their e-mail address for access to these
white papers. When I asked the marketing director about this, she said, “Oh,
I’m doing this to get leads,” but the number of leads she was getting was
quite small. In a quick demonstration, I took the topic of one of the white
papers and typed that into a search engine. Of course, there were thousands
of results available in less than a fraction of a second. Most of these results
led to information that was free: it required no personal information in
exchange for access. She believed she was keeping control by putting her
content under lock and key, but she was only hurting herself. She would
have had better results had she taken any one of a number of other
approaches. For example, she could have given away half of each white
paper, letting the audiences make their own judgment about the worth of the
content before asking them to part with their personal information.
The point of this demonstration is that by being stingy, she was getting
fewer leads than she would have if she’d approached this issue differently.
Therefore I strongly advise that you do not lock all of your content behind a
wall–this can significantly lower both the ability of your audiences to find
the content and the chances your audiences will engage in any next steps
(i.e., convert).
A note about terminology: When a prospect converts, it means they have
taken a specific action you wanted them to take, such as attending a
webinar, signing up for your newsletter, etc. The ultimate conversion that
everyone seeks is a signed contract, but the granularity of the Internet offers
the ability to measure intermediate steps along the way to this sale, and
these are known as conversions. Tracking conversions helps you determine
how to improve the impact of your content-marketing investment.
Expertise: You don’t have to be the sole subject matter expert. There likely
are writers and teachers within your organization; find them and harness

their expertise!
Measurement: Your approach to measuring your resulting effectiveness is
an extremely important part of your content strategy. A content strategy is a
living document that must be periodically adjusted based on sales and
marketing results and market influences. You must constantly test, learn,
and then intelligently and strategically adapt what you are doing based on
those results.
Now more than ever, organizations need to be working from a content
strategy. In today’s marketing environment there are so many tactics
available that unless you are working from a targeted strategy, it is very
easy to be distracted and blown off course by the marketing tactic du jour or
be incorrectly and unfortunately redirected by someone in authority who
“read an article” about it.
Your content strategy should be documented, approved, and then shared
with all appropriate, internal parties. Strategic content creation, which I’ll
discuss next, is often a collective effort, and all parties should be following
the agreed-upon content strategy.
Strategic Content Creation
Steps four (propose) and five (prepare) can be taken in either order,
depending upon the needs of the individual situation. You can propose
content to internal or external publishing gatekeepers, and then create the
content once the concept has been approved. This is the order I’ll be
discussing here. It is equally valid to create the content and then propose it
in its completed form to editors. There is little risk in creating the material
first; after all, if no one accepts it, you will publish it on your own site.
Step Four: Propose–Finding a Home for Your Life
Science Marketing Content
The home base for your content should be your website. The priority should
be to add content consistently to it, whether via blog posts or longer

1.
2.
3.
newsletters that you also push out to subscribers. Once that is taken care of,
however, you will want to place content in other channels where you can
gain the attention from new audiences (such as those who subscribe to other
content) and attract them back to your website.
An effective pitch communicates answers to an editor’s first three
questions:
What is it?
Why should I care?
What do you want me to do?
Here is a sample pitch letter to a fictitious editor, Jane:
Dear Jane,
I am writing to offer you an article on best practices in patient
enrollment for clinical trials, with a focus on the Asian market. This
piece (1,200 words) includes examples of recent changes in
processes at leading research organizations x, y, and z, as well as
some early tangible results. The recommendations and examples are
drawn from deep relevant experiences gained through working with
clinical research organizations for more than 20 years as founder
and principal of the ABC Company, a [short description of company
and link to website].
If this article is of interest, let me know and I will forward it to you
for your review and consideration for an upcoming issue. It has not
been previously published.
Thank you for consideration and I look forward to hearing back
from you soon.
Best regards,
Name
One of three things likely will happen:

1.
2.
3.
The editor will e-mail you right back and ask you to e-mail them the
document, which you should submit in Word. Do not submit a PDF,
as the editor probably will want to edit it.
You won’t get a response, in which case the proper thing to do is to
wait one week and then send a friendly follow-up e-mail that is a
forward of the original pitch and says, “Just following up on the
article on best practices in patient enrollment for clinical trials, with a
focus on the Asian market, that I sent last week–I know you’re busy,
so I’m just checking to see whether or not you’re interested in taking
a look at the article.”
Do not follow up via telephone. I repeat: do not pick up the phone
and follow up, unless you have an existing relationship with that
editor and have been invited to do so. E-mail is the only acceptable
way to follow up, and then once or twice only. If you don’t hear back
after reaching out twice, chances are they’re not interested and you
can feel free to offer the article to another publication.
The most important thing to remember when offering and publishing
content on other people’s property is the importance of keeping your
promises. Always do what you say you’re going to do; if you don’t, it’s
unlikely you’ll get another chance to publish through that editor.
As I mentioned earlier, one strategy for placing articles is this: Do your
homework, and write the article first. Then pitch the actual article rather
than the idea for the article to an editor. Unless an editor already knows you,
chances are they are not going to take a chance on reserving space for an
article based on your idea. But if they can see the finished product first, they
will be much more apt to publish the article, especially if the quality is very
high.
Always include a bumper when submitting articles. A bumper is a 100-
word profile of the author of the article, and typically includes the website
of the author’s company so you can direct and then harness the attention
that the article will bring.
Whether or not you are successful in getting someone else to agree to
publish your content, now it’s time to get down to work by preparing the
actual content.

Step Five: Prepare–Create Your Life Science
Marketing Content
As I’ve discussed, the form, frequency, tone, topics, availability, expertise,
measurement, and analysis of your content will be determined by your
content strategy. And your editorial/content calendar will detail what
content is to be created, and where and when it will appear. With all this in
place as part of your plan, the next step is to create the content.
If the content is to appear in channels that you control, e.g., on your blog
or in your white paper, you have complete control over all decisions. If you
are writing an article for someone else, such as an industry trade magazine,
the editor or publisher of that publication will be the arbiter of those and
other decisions, so you will need to align the content you create with the
publication’s editorial calendar.
As you create content, remember your audiences; write for them. You
should be creating unique, compelling content written with a particular
worldview in mind. Refer back to the personas you created as a way to
make the audiences’ concerns more tangible.
Use the appropriate style–an application note will have greater technical
detail than an article providing an overview of coming technological trends.
Do not, under any circumstances, position your content so that all it is doing
is selling. In fact, the less you sell and the more you educate, inspire, and
reassure, the more effective your content will be.
Don’t forget to incorporate the appropriate keywords and key phrases to
maximize your SEO results. After all, the search engines are a primary
audience for your content as well.
The best way to approach creating content for other people’s properties is
to read what has already been published on the topic you want to write
about. Notice the length, the structure, and most importantly, the content.
Are there examples or anecdotes? What is the overall tone of the articles? Is
it academic and precise or more casual kitchen-table wisdom? Search the
publisher’s website for editorial guidelines and then follow them.
Your content should be driven by and express your own clear point of
view. Every thought leader has a point of view, which is a large part of what
makes them a leader in their field. A clearly expressed, distinct point of

view encourages your audiences to see you as unique, more rare, and
potentially more valuable.
A point of view is a particular approach to a situation within your
industry sector. For example, many thought leaders might discuss the effect
that regulatory changes have on the introduction of new medical devices.
One thought leader might have the point of view that increased regulations
will slow down introductions, and therefore they are good for the public,
because there are too many risky devices being rushed to market. Another
thought leader might have the point of view that increased regulations by
the FDA will drive medical-device makers to introduce their products in
other countries first, which would delay introductions here and drain the
economy of the investments needed to bring the devices through clinical
trials. These are two different points of view.
Even scientists (the folks who invented content marketing, remember?)
have a point of view. This comes into play in two ways–first, in the
assumptions and beliefs that they use as they interpret the data they’re
getting from their experiments, and second, in their values as they create the
set of questions they’ll use their next experiment to answer.
Scientists are supposed to be dispassionate, and not let their point of view
influence their thinking. This is not true in content marketing. Your point of
view should come across loud and clear when creating content. Do not be
afraid of offending people, and do not try to please everyone. It is
impossible to be a true thought leader if every member of your audiences
agrees with you.
Content creation is the heart of the P7 process. As such, it can be
accomplished using in-house resources only. This is not a requirement,
however. It makes sense for many organizations to outsource some or all of
their content creation to third parties. This is particularly true for smaller
organizations with limited resources and for content that requires greater
technical skill to create, such as videos, animations, podcasts, or
sophisticated microsites.
Strategic Content Maximization
The final and frankly, most rewarding, stage of content marketing is content
maximization, which includes steps six and seven, publish and promote.

The greatest differences between peer-review publishing and content
marketing are embedded in these two steps, so if you are used to publishing
scientific papers in a peer-reviewed environment, please pay partucular
attention to this section.
Step Six: Publish and Republish–Where Your
Branded Life Science Marketing Content Greets the
World
If you are self publishing, the most likely place your content will appear
will be on your organization’s website. Note: If this is the case, you will
want to set up Google authorship so that Google recognizes your site as the
original publisher of the content. As you publish your content, make sure
that your metadata (such as N1 and alt tags) are complete. This will ensure
you get the most contribution toward your SEO efforts.
Your content strategy should spell out what else you should do with your
original content and how you do it. In general, however, to harness the most
value out of your content-creation efforts, all published content should (OK,
must) be relentlessly republished (by which I mean reused, reformatted,
recycled, repurposed, reimagined, etc.).
This is quite different than in peer-reviewed publishing, where the focus
is solely on unique–that is, never-before-published–content. Scientists have
been trained by the “one and done” approach inherent in peer-review
publishing and are unused to thinking about the methods or benefits of
republishing content.
Your original content can be translated into a different format. A white
paper could be transformed into a presentation to post using a content-
sharing website, such as SlideShare. It could be delivered in person by you
via a video that you post on YouTube or Vimeo, or translated into an
infographic that you then post on Flickr, Visual.ly, or Infogr.am. The
recording of a presentation at a conference could be the basis for a webinar;
a slide presentation could be transformed into an e-book. You get the idea.
Your original content can be repurposed. For example, many audience
segments share similar concerns, and retargeting content from one audience

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segment to another is a way to extend its reach. In this case, the basic
premise of the article could remain the same while the examples given
could be switched out to be appropriate for the new audience segment.
Your original content can be reimagined. For example, data from one case
study or example could be extended into a meta-study looking across
multiple examples. The examination of a single system could be expanded
into a comparison of multiple systems. A white paper outlining “10 best
practices you should know about” could be turned into a survey-based
online assessment tool (“How do your efforts stack up against best
practices?”) that dispenses individual advice depending upon the answers
given by the user. After collecting 100 survey responses, an infographic
could be created that provided statistics, such as trends and averages, as
well as an interpretation of the overall results.
As you reimagine and republish content, be careful not to duplicate
content exactly. Sites found with duplicate content are typically penalized
heavily by Google, so you need to be careful that the new content is truly
new, not just a minor modification.
The Benefits of Republishing Content: There are many benefits to
republishing content. All of the benefits in this list assume that your content
is unique, valuable, and important to your audiences.
You’ll reach wider audiences, or have more touchpoints and greater
engagement with your current audiences.
You have the opportunity to increase your SEO ranking.
You’ll get smarter. Republishing requires rethinking about the
audiences’ needs and point of view, so it is not uncommon to develop
new insights during the republishing process–leading to a cycle
where republishing content begets new insight, which begets more
content.
You’ll have the opportunity to determine which content approach will
be most effective in reaching and motivating your audiences.

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You’ll maximize your budget. Republishing gives you more bang for
your buck, as you divide the effort to come up with and to flesh out
your original ideas across multiple pieces of content.
Publishing Your Content on Other Sites: When it comes to content
published on other people’s sites, what you can do with it will depend on
the agreement you have with the site owner. You should, however,
immediately post an overview of the article and a link to the article on your
own site and then push that link out via your normal promotion channels.
(I’ll talk more about promotion in the next section.)
Step Seven: Promote–Publicizing Your Compelling
Life Science Marketing Content
The true value of your content cannot be realized unless there is a
concerted, consistent effort to maximize its exposure and, you guessed it,
that effort should be called out in your content strategy.
The ultimate goal of promoting your content is to deepen the engagement
with your audiences and to encourage a response that will develop a
dialogue. So your promotional efforts should be aimed at specific targeted
audiences.
Just like the different forms of content, the number and variety of
content-distribution channels available are vast. Here are just a few:
E-mail correspondence
Video-sharing sites (e.g., YouTube)
Photo-sharing sites (e.g., Flickr)
LinkedIn status and groups
Direct mail
Twitter
Ads (print and digital)

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Trade shows
Events
Myriad social-sharing sites
Yes, social media can play a large role in helping you spread the word.
But don’t rely on it–or on any one channel–exclusively. Use what you know
about where your audiences are and meet them there. As you promote your
content, invite others to share it as well.
Your content strategy should outline how and where you will promote
your content. I urge you to be consistent in your promotional efforts.
Remember that creating engagement through content marketing is a process
that rewards steady effort.
Tracking Your Content Marketing
Initiative through Measurement
The metrics you established early in the process will help you determine
which content is getting the most traction. Measurement is the best way to
determine the true impact of your content-marketing initiative and to focus
your organization on continuous improvement in every phase of the P7
cycle. (More about measurement will appear in the next chapter.)
The consultative sales environment confronting many life science firms
can make it difficult to identify all the factors that influence any one
specific sale. To measure the overall effects of your content-marketing
initiative, it is best to identify and track conversions–specific actions you
want your audience members to take–that can then be linked to your
content-marketing initiative.
One example of a conversion would be a click-through from your e-mail
newsletter to your website. This type of conversion is simple to measure
and tracking these conversions over time will enable you to develop a trend
analysis.
There are many other ways to think about measuring the impact of your
content-marketing initiative. Here are a few:

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Track the behavior of those who receive your content versus those
who do not. This could involve sales, or some other step of
engagement along the sales process (e.g., requesting a meeting or
dropping by a trade-show booth).
Track the number of subscriptions to your online content (e.g.,
newsletter).
Track the number of times people repost your content.
Track your search-engine rank. Properly done, content marketing will
raise your rankings.
Embed surveys into your content and track the results.
Use web-based tools (such as Google.com/analytics, Alexa.com,
Compete.com, or Quantcast.com) to track the relevant metrics for
your website, such as the amount of time spent on your site, the
number of page views, the amount of time spent on specific pages,
etc.
Conduct pre- and post-awareness studies. There are many ways to do
this, but all involve gathering information from audience members.
You can do this directly (e.g., handing out surveys at trade shows) or
online (e.g., using tools like SurveyMonkey.com, Zoomerang.com, or
SurveyGizmo.com).
Track responses through the use of unique 1-800 numbers, QR codes,
specific landing pages, individual URLs, customized e-mail
addresses, etc.
When considering what metrics to track, how to measure them, and what
to do with the results, remember that high-performance marketing has two
primary goals: establishing and reinforcing your position and facilitating
action. Don’t be so focused on requiring hard data that you overemphasize
the goal of facilitating action (because it is easy to measure) and downplay
the value of reinforcing your position (which is harder to measure). Even
though it might be hard to measure changes in your firm’s image, content

marketing is well suited to helping you establish and then reinforce your
position.
Life-Cycle Management Is the Key to
Long-Term Content-Marketing Success
Effective content marketing can help to position your offering in the space
you strive to own, provide increased exposure, build awareness, establish or
increase your reputation, and help you achieve “best of class” status in the
industry.
If you manage the life cycle of your content correctly, you can extend the
reach of your content far beyond your own sphere. By enlisting others to
publish, promote, and share your content, you can extend its reach and
impact, maximize your content marketing ROI, and consistently and
positively impact your firm’s lead generation.
Content Marketing and the Future
Though content marketing has its roots in the past–when scientists
developed a form of content marketing now known as peer-review
publishing–and even though it took several centuries and the invention of
groundbreaking technologies like the semiconductor, the personal computer,
and the Internet to bring content marketing into widespread use, content
marketing is here to stay. And content marketing will become an
increasingly important tool in the life science marketing toolbox.
High-performance content marketing is the fuel
that powers engagement with your audiences.
Unless you are actively engaged in or planning to launch a
contentmarketing initiative right now–you already are falling behind. An

analogy should make this clear.
Think of content marketing as a stage in a crowded auditorium. On the
stage are hundreds of microphones on stands. A good content-marketing
program will enable you to get on stage, claim one of the microphones,
command attention from a section of the assembled audiences, and engage
them in a dialogue.
Content marketing is a first-come, first-served opportunity. Those
organizations already engaged in content-marketing programs have already
claimed the microphones toward the front of the stage and the attention of
many audiences. Search engines give preference to organizations that have
a history of creating and posting content, so the stage is filling up; it gets
harder and harder to claim a high-profile microphone, and while the number
of available microphones is not necessarily decreasing, the longer you wait,
the smaller your chances to engage your audiences.
If your competitors are not actively involved in content marketing, you
should count yourself as blessed; you have a huge opportunity to claim a
prominent microphone by creating unique, relevant, compelling content to
engage your audiences. It’s only a matter of time before your competitors
discover what you’ve learned in these chapters.
If you aren’t engaged in content-marketing activities, start now. If you
think your organization doesn’t have anything to say, think again. Look at
what your competitors are saying; is there really nothing new that would be
valuable to your audiences? I doubt it.
There will always be a microphone on stage and audiences ready to listen
to an exceptional voice. The more you practice developing content, the
keener your insights will become. If you don’t have the resources to
perform every task in the entire P7 life cycle, hire some help.
Stand up, grab a microphone, and begin. Begin noticing, begin creating,
begin sharing, begin a dialogue. It is time to begin building a tribe.

14
MEASURING MARKETING ROI
The Uniqueness of the Marketing
Function in Life Science Organizations
If you consider the major functional components of a typical life science
organization–such as sales, marketing, production, HR, management, and
finance–marketing possesses two attributes that make it unique. First,
marketing has the closest relationship with the largest number of potential
customers. While the sales function may have closer relationships with
prospects that are ready to buy, the number of such prospects is typically
very small in comparison to the number of relationships that are enabled by
marketing. This means that marketing has a huge potential impact.
Second, unlike most of the other major functional areas in a life science
organization, the marketing function is extremely difficult to measure.
This difficulty springs from the simple fact that much of the focus of
marketing is aimed at shoppers who have not yet raised their hands, giving
you permission to sell to them. In other words, these people are anonymous,
unknown to your organization. They are researching and planning for
change, and they are getting ready to purchase, but until they raise their
hands–by completing a form on your website, or stopping by your trade-
show booth and leaving a business card, for example–they will remain
anonymous.
When shoppers can remain anonymous, it is
difficult to measure marketing ROI directly.

This anonymity is the cold, hard reality for marketers today. It means that
marketing is not very susceptible to measurement, a fact that makes
marketing suspect, particularly among scientists for whom measurement is
often second nature. And this suspicion can be heightened by the large
potential impact of marketing. Eric Schmidt (of Google fame) said,
“Corporate marketing is the last bastion of unaccountable spending in
corporate America.” I doubt he was being kind.
In this chapter, I’ll explore the factors that make marketing so hard to
measure, and then I’ll discuss what you can do about this situation.
The ROI Pathway for Marketing in the
Life Sciences
Figure 18 shows one typical pathway from an anonymous audience member
to a closed sale. At the left of the diagram are the audiences, the individuals
of which are unknown to your life science organization.
Through contact with touchpoints, the audiences become aware of your
products and services. Over time, any individual audience member might
come in contact with multiple touchpoints. Through some of that contact,
the audience member will not only become aware of your organization, but
your organization may also learn some specifics about individual audience
members. Examples of this include a visitor to a trade-show booth dropping
off a business card and asking to be sent a white paper, or a visitor to a
website trading their e-mail address for participation in an upcoming
webinar. During these encounters, the audience member is stepping out of
the shadows and becoming more visible to your organization, giving you
permission to sell to them.
Figure 18. The ROI pathway: From the anonymous audiences, through
contact with your organization’s touchpoints, to the sales engagement, and
ultimately to the close of a sale, there are many steps along the ROI
pathway.

At some point, a salesperson will become involved. The presence of a
salesperson will not prevent the prospect from continuing to use your public
touchpoints, such as a website, trade-show presence, or white papers, but
the prospect may also be given access to touchpoints of a more private
nature, such as in-person presentations or hand-delivered brochures. If the
salesperson is effective and if the buyer is ready to buy, the sale will
ultimately close, as shown on the far right side of the diagram.
This diagram shows a straightforward, linear process, but the actual
pathway that some audience members traverse can be quite convoluted, full
of many, many steps. This multistep process is the ROI pathway. Obviously
the goal is to be as efficient as possible, with the highest return for a given
investment.
Breaking Down ROI in Life Science
Marketing
ROI (return on investment) is a ratio that measures business performance.
Any such performance-related measurement is useful only to the extent that
it guides your actions and thereby permits you to affect an organization’s
performance.
If you examine the pathway discussed above from the standpoint of
marketing ROI in the life sciences, the return in the ROI ratio is clearly
present on the right-hand side of the diagram in the form of a completed
sale. The investment happens at many places on the diagram, primarily in
the columns labeled touchpoints and sales engagement.
But without a detailed breakdown, the overall ROI ratio by itself is fairly
meaningless. Knowing only your total revenue (the return) and your

marketing budget (the investment) gives you some information, but doesn’t
give you enough detailed information to determine how to optimize your
performance. So to truly understand your ROI in a useful way, you have to
break down your overall ROI into smaller components, and determine what
part of your investment has the highest return.
Therefore, the key question for most organizations is not, “What is our
marketing ROI?” Instead, it is, “What are the ROI figures for the different
components of our marketing budget?” Having an answer to this question
allows you to optimize your performance by addressing a much more
interesting and significant question: “Where should we spend our money to
get the highest possible impact (return)?”
It is less important to know the absolute ROI ratio than it is to understand
which activities will give you a greater return. Will attending additional
trade shows provide a greater return than creating a content-marketing
program, revising your website, or launching a new corporate identity?
Where should you spend what economists refer to as “your next dollar”?
But determining ROI for individual activities is not a trivial task. There
are several obstacles in the way of determining the ROI of marketing for
life science companies. I’m going to outline them here–not as an apology
for marketing, but to describe the scope of the challenge.
The Visibility Challenge to Determining Marketing
ROI
It is difficult to know exactly how your prospects are behaving. In other
words, lots of marketing effects happen “in the dark”–hidden from your
organization. This is the visibility challenge. High-performance marketing
will reach those life science prospects who have raised their hands, but its
primary target should be those prospects who are anonymous–still unknown
to your organization. If they are anonymous, exact measurements are very
difficult to obtain.

Figure 19. The visibility challenge in determining the ROI of life science
marketing: Much of marketing’s effect happens when the audiences are
anonymous, which means it can be impossible to track individual behavior
and very difficult even to track group behavior. Did this prospect see a
podium presentation, browse the website, or visit the trade-show booth?
What other touchpoints might they have come in contact with?
The Attribution Challenge to Determining Marketing
ROI
People take many different paths from the state of being unaware of your
life science organization to the moment at which they are ready to raise
their hands and engage in a dialogue. A few of these paths are illustrated in
Figure 20. Because users are inconsistent in the path they take to raising
their hands, it is difficult to determine what components of the marketing
mix will provide the greatest return. This is the attribution challenge, and it
has long vexed marketers. In fact, John Wanamaker, a department-store
magnate, is reported to have said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is
wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
This quotation came from an era when the number of marketing channels
was quite a bit smaller, and the fact that there are now so many more
channels of communication means that the attribution challenge is actually
more difficult. So if a prospect watches one of your webinars, then has a
discussion with one of your sales personnel at a trade show, and then puts
you on the short list for a major purchase, is your webinar series a better
place to put any additional marketing dollars, or should you increase your
trade-show presence? And what about the other touchpoints that may have

been involved before you were even aware of the prospect’s existence, such
as your website?
In short, it is hard to know which touchpoints are primarily responsible
for the ultimate sale when the distance between input (the investment) and
output (the return) is so great and the path has so many steps.
Figure 20. The attribution challenge in determining the ROI of life science
marketing: With so many paths, it is difficult to know how to determine the
effectiveness of any one point on the path. Which touchpoint was most
responsible for the sale depicted here: the brochure, the e-mail blast, the
website, or the webinar? Would the prospect have made the purchase
without any of these?
The Control Challenge to Determining Marketing
ROI
The only way there can be any monetary return on a marketing investment
is if a prospect makes a purchase. But in the life sciences, there are many
necessary factors before a purchase can occur. For example, a large-ticket
item typically has to be budgeted for. And once it is budgeted for, a
salesperson has to close the sale.
Many of the factors in this one simple example are out of the control of
marketing. No amount of life science marketing can turn a bad salesperson
into a good one, or turn a poorly managed client budget into a well-
managed one. The marketing function in most life science organizations just
doesn’t have control over these factors. This is the control challenge in
determining ROI.

In some sectors and for some products or services, the control challenge
is much smaller; marketing does have significant control. One example
would be e-commerce for disposable supplies and reagents. It is much
easier to determine the total ROI when prospects are purchasing online
without any interaction with a salesperson. But other situations face
significant issues with the challenge of control.
Figure 21. The control challenge: Marketing does not have complete
control over every aspect of the ROI chain. Shown in this figure is one
example of this; marketing does not control the behavior or the
effectiveness of the sales force or the chain of purchasing decisions that
must happen inside a customer’s organization.
The Multiple-Buyer Types Challenge to Determining
Marketing ROI
All buyers are different and can occupy different stages in the buying cycle.
A tactic that works well for one group of prospects might not work well for
another. I’ll call this the multiple-buyer types challenge.
Some buyers want to do all their research online; others want to visit
multiple booths at a trade show, comparing offerings in a single day. Based
on this very basic example, an upgraded website would be a better
investment for the first type of buyer, while an expanded trade-show
presence would be a better investment for the second type. Unfortunately,
your population of prospects is composed of many types of buyers.

Figure 22. The multiple-buyer types challenge: Just as all buyers do not
follow the same path through the touchpoints, all buyers are not at the same
point in the buying cycle– which means it can be difficult to determine
where to spend the next marketing dollar.
The Methodology Challenge to Determining
Marketing ROI
What role does your life science organization’s reputation play in
influencing a purchase decision? Most people would agree that it has an
impact on purchase decisions. Many would also agree that reading an
outstanding white paper or watching a compelling video from your
organization would enhance your reputation. The key question in both cases
is, “How much impact will this have?” Due to the lack of meaningful
measurement methodologies, the answers are difficult, if not impossible, to
determine.
This is the methodology challenge. Getting meaningful data (by knowing
what to measure and how to measure it) can be difficult, if indeed any
measurements can be made at all. In some cases, conducting the research on
a reasonably representative population with enough rigor to make the
results meaningful would take a larger budget than the entire organization
has to spend on marketing.

Figure 23. The methodology challenge: The performance of some
touchpoints, such as a website or a webinar, can be measured more
accurately than the performance of other touchpoints, such as your
reputation.
Measuring ROI Is Difficult
Given these five challenges–visibility, attribution, lack of control, multiple-
buyer types, and methodology–it would seem that ROI is impossible to
determine. Measuring the causes and effects of a complex, multistep,
mostly invisible process is difficult.
In some areas of life science marketing, being able to determine an exact
ROI is a false hope. So-called brand equity is one such example. If the
brand-story is improved by creating a new corporate identity, then what is
this worth, exactly? And what do you measure to determine the true ROI of
creating a new identity and company image? You could begin by measuring
awareness and perceived attributes before the new life science corporate
identity is introduced. You could later repeat the same measurements–after
the new identity is introduced.
Having some metrics that describe awareness and attributes would be
valuable, but this wouldn’t really enable you to determine ROI, unless you
knew what a one-point increase in awareness was really worth. Again, the
question isn’t simply, “What is our marketing ROI?” Rather, it is, “Now
that we have the information, where should we spend our next dollar?” If
you knew the worth of a one-point increase in awareness as well as the
worth of a different marketing expenditure, such as an increased trade-show
presence, you could compare the two to determine which investment would
bring a higher return.

In the life sciences, determining what a one-point increase in awareness
is really worth is possible, but the cost of doing so is frequently larger than
the entire marketing budget. Connecting what you can measure in terms of
customer perceptions to something that you can measure in terms of finance
(total revenue, new sales, etc.) is possible but expensive.
Now, I am not arguing that you shouldn’t ever rebrand an organization–
or that you shouldn’t ever invest money in marketing. Even though ROI is
difficult to determine in such cases, there can be significant value when
rebranding is properly done. It is important not to confuse the ability to
measure value precisely with the presence of value; don’t make the mistake
of believing that since a measurement is difficult to make, the result must be
zero.
Measuring ROI Is Not Impossible
Despite the arguments above against being able to measure ROI, there are
some aspects of marketing where an attempt to determine ROI is valuable.
In some areas of marketing, some attribution can be made, some control is
possible, multiple-buyer types can be identified and tracked, some
meaningful measurements can be made, and it is possible to gain some
visibility into the behavior of otherwise anonymous prospects. In other
words, in some areas, significant and useful measurements can be made and
you can gain meaningful insight into the causes and effects of life science
marketing.
One of Forma’s clients tracks its marketing ROI carefully. Using a
variety of techniques, it can follow a prospect from early website visits all
the way to sales contact and from there to a proposal. It reports that its ROI
is about 50; that is, a single dollar spent on marketing yields a return of $50.
Without access to the specifics of this situation and the assumptions that
are being made (which I’m not at liberty to share), you may or may not
believe such an amazing figure, but the point is that some form of ROI can
be measured. How would you determine your own ROI ratio? Here are the
four steps you can use to determine marketing ROI in the life sciences:
Step One: Revise Your Expectations

To be effective (and to avoid driving yourself completely crazy), you must
revise what you expect from your efforts to measure ROI. You must accept
the systemic limitations (the five different challenges described above) and
accept that they make it impossible to obtain a clear and unambiguous ROI
figure on a global (that is, high-level) basis.
To generate the most meaningful and actionable data for your marketing
efforts, you need to start by focusing less on measuring global ROI and
more on measuring relative (or local) ROI.
Local ROI does not try to draw an uninterrupted straight line between a
given investment and a closed sale, but measures more limited results, such
as the increase in leads, conversions, subscriptions, or webinar attendees.
Using these types of measurements, you can gain meaningful insight into
the causes and effects of high-performance marketing.
For example, you can calculate the ROI for a series of webinars by
calculating the resources required to put on the webinars, and measuring the
results, such as the increase in the number of leads, the number of
subscriptions to your thought leadership, or even (if you charge for your
webinars) the financial return.
It’s best to focus efforts on what can be measured, and how those
measurements can be used in productive ways.
Step Two: Focus Your Measurements
If global ROI is impossible to determine, let’s break down the global
challenge into smaller ones. What can be measured? Refer to figure 18.
Looking at the left-hand column, you can measure what individual
anonymous audience members know, think, or feel about your organization,
your offerings, your brand-story, and your touchpoints, by measuring total
perception or other global attributes. These measurements often involve
querying a large number of prospects and ranking competitive brands
against each other.
In the touchpoints column, you can measure the total number of leads
generated for any effort. For example, how many people clicked on an e-
mail blast to read the details of the resulting offer? These measurements can
be compared to historical data (other e-mail campaigns).

Similarly, you can also measure the conversion rate at which people take
a step closer to your organization. For example, how many people who read
the e-mail signed up for the webinar? How many actually attended the
webi-nar? How many subscribed to your monthly thought leadership
(content marketing) after the webinar? Again, these data will be compared
to historical trends.
You can also track the quality of the audience members that respond to
your efforts. Putting on a webinar is great, and it’s even better if the webinar
is well attended, but if the goal is to drive conversions of decision makers,
and the attendees have no decision-making or decision-influencing power
(which you could determine from the questions you ask as people sign up
for your webinar), then your activity is worthless.
In the third column, you can track the opportunities that result from
individual campaigns. There can be several steps from lead generation (or
conversion) to the creation of an opportunity, so you begin to run into the
attribution challenge.
You can also track your total sales (the fourth column), though drawing a
straight line back to marketing investment is generally impossible.
You can track retention (e.g., repeat sales) and relationship (e.g., net
promoter score) metrics. And you can track the investments (time, money,
personnel) required for each of the touchpoints.
There are many other items that can be measured. The important thing to
do is to begin selective measurement. You can begin to gather data, look for
trends, establish benchmarks, and optimize the marketing mix. At this point,
it is common to be overwhelmed with the amount of data that might be
collected, and the effort required to collect it. My advice: Start small. Pick a
few measurements for a single touchpoint, or just a few measurements for a
few touchpoints and begin there. Don’t try to measure everything at once,
lest you succumb to the paralysis of analysis. But you must begin
somewhere, and the time to start is now. Measure, measure, measure.
Step Three: Be Consistent
As you set up your metrics, remember the following points:

Be Consistent: Standardize your data gathering so you can compare the
results with confidence. For example, if you track your metrics for every
sales territory, then you’ll be able to compare their performance in a
meaningful way.
Track the Right Metrics: Increasing the number of Facebook likes won’t
necessarily help a biotech company or a manufacturer of restriction
enzymes or a contract manufacturing organization reach profitability any
faster; make sure you are tracking metrics that affect your organization’s
long-term goals. You should be tracking both global metrics (e.g., total sales
revenue) as well as local metrics (e.g., total website visits, time on site,
bounce rate, etc.)
Create a Dashboard: Standardizing (and sharing) your results will focus
your efforts on those areas that drive results. As W. Edwards Deming said,
“You can expect what you inspect.”
Step Four: Focus on Improvement
With metrics in hand, you’ll be able to start asking the interesting questions,
such as, what is your cost per lead, or which activity gets you more leads? If
you are like most people, you’ll be going through a three-stage process:
watching the metrics, trying to improve them, and, finally, questioning what
they really tell you. This will start an iterative feedback process during
which you may modify what you measure or how you measure it, all the
while simultaneously trying to improve your performance on your chosen
metrics.
Split Testing for Improving Marketing
Performance
The scientific method can help you optimize the performance of your
touch-points, so consider the use of split testing, essentially an experiment
in which two touchpoints are compared to each other. This comparison can
be between completely different touchpoints (comparing a webinar to a

white paper) or between slightly different variants of a single touchpoint
(comparing one e-mail to a similar e-mail).
In either case, when you limit the variability in your experiment to a few
variables (or even to a single one), you can gain insight into which one has
the most impact on the overall effort. This is sometimes known as A/B
testing, a simplified case of multivariate testing.
Split (or A/B) testing is simple to execute and is similar in theory and
practice to placebo-controlled clinical studies. In marketing, you are not
concerned about the possible effect of the placebo itself, so rather than
testing against a non-active placebo, it is common to test one version of an
outreach effort against another active version, isolating individual factors to
determine which has the largest positive effect on the overall results.
Split testing is easiest and fastest with digitally-based outreach efforts,
such as e-mail, banner ads, landing pages, etc., though it has been used for
years in direct mail (and to a lesser extent in advertising). In an e-mail-
based example, the sender varies one portion of the e-mail (say, the subject
line), sending one version (A) to one randomly selected group of recipients
and another version (B) to another randomly selected group (see Figure 24).
Comparing the results can give you significant insight into the effect of this
marketing effort. You can use A/B testing to determine the best day to send
out e-mail blasts, the proper incentive amount to drive participation in
market research, and the optimum design of landing pages, among many
other questions. You can also determine which combination of touchpoints
is most effective. For example, one group of prospects might be the target
of an e-mail blast and a webinar. Another group will receive one additional
touchpoint, such as a targeted LinkedIn ad. Comparing the two arms of the
study will provide insight into the efficacy of the different combinations.

Figure 24. A/B testing can provide insight on the proper development,
design, and implementation of a single touchpoint. In the example shown
here, the upper group (A) receives a targeted e-mail blast, while the lower
group (B) receives a targeted campaign with a slightly modified e-mail.
Comparison of important outcomes between the two can provide
information useful in optimizing individual aspects of a particular
touchpoint, for example, the subject line or the call to action of the e-mail.
The Three Keys to Proper Split Testing
There are three important things to remember when performing split testing:
GIGO–Garbage In, Garbage Out: As in all scientific experiments, asking
the right questions (in the right way) is crucial for reliable, meaningful
results. Tracking Facebook likes may not be pertinent for a biotechnology
company, but tracking retweets among a targeted group of discovery
scientists may be. Make sure you measure and track the right data.
Sufficient Volume: The test must include sufficient volume for the testing
to be statistically significant. Comparing the response rates when only small
numbers are involved is risky, because the variation in your response rates
might be due to routine and uncontrollable variations in your sample
population. In other words, beware of basing your decisions on a “one-rat
study.”

Multiple Variables: The larger the variation between the two arms of the
study, the larger the uncertainty about the contribution of each individual
component. When only a single variable is modified, great clarity can
result. For example, modifying only the subject line of an e-mail can help
optimize that subject line very quickly. In contrast, when multiple variables
are modified, it can be more difficult to isolate cause and effect; changing
both the subject line as well as the call to action can make it difficult to
determine which factor was more effective in driving the desired results.
Questioning Your ROI Metrics
People who get serious about embarking on a journey to track and improve
ROI typically go through a three-stage process: watching the metrics, trying
to improve them, and, finally, questioning what these metrics really tell you.
During this third phase–the questioning process–you’ll find yourself
trying to dissect your metrics. For example, in comparing cost per lead
figures it’s not unusual to start looking more closely at the different types of
leads that your activities generate. Some leads will be higher quality (better
qualified, part of a more desirable demographic, etc.) than others, so many
people feel the need to refine the definitions behind the metrics, changing
what you measure and how you measure it to reflect the subtleties of your
new understanding.
These instincts are admirable and should be pursued–within reason.
However, I want to caution you against becoming too intricate in your
measurements. It is very important to remember that high-performance
marketing does not operate with the same predictability as most biological
processes.
A final and related caution: avoid being driven by the metrics alone. It is
wise to enlighten your efforts by remembering that the ultimate goal is a
deeper understanding of your customers and your marketplace. So don’t
forget to employ other, less quantifiable methods of understanding the
behaviors and motivations of your audiences–surveys, focus groups, and
phone interviews, for instance.
Remember John Wanamaker’s quotation: “Half the money I spend on
advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” With careful

attention to tracking the right metrics, you should be able to improve
significantly upon those percentages.

HIGH-PERFORMANCE
LIFE SCIENCE
MARKETING
Now that I have covered in great detail many of the intricacies of marketing
in the life sciences, it’s time to take a step back and look at the big picture.
Let’s review how all the pieces and parts work together to create a
highperformance marketing effort.
When the marketing function is hitting on all cylinders, the end result
should be increased engagement with your audiences and a steady stream of
well-qualified inbound leads. Of course, you might get the same number of
leads by requiring the sales department to make tons of cold calls, but the
quality of the resulting conversations will be very different if the leads are
the result of inbound activity rather than of outbound solicitation.
Generating and qualifying these leads should be the responsibility of
marketing.
In many ways, high-performance marketing that focuses on creating
inbound demand represents a significant shift from simple outbound
promotional activities. High-performance, inbound marketing maximizes
the effectiveness of the marketing function, and frees the sales function to
focus on handling the resulting leads, most importantly those that are in
stages three (preparation) and four (action) of the buying cycle.
Creating a high-performance marketing effort requires a dual focus. You
have to zoom in to scrutinize–and measure–the details of your individual
tactics while simultaneously zooming out to consider–and optimize–the big
picture. You also need to examine your marketing efforts both from the
outside in (taking an audience-centric view) and from the inside out
(optimizing your own inbound marketing strategies and tactics).
Only by adopting these multiple viewpoints can you see, measure, and
control what is necessary for high-performance marketing success. I’ll start
with one particular viewpoint, that of a prospect.

A Case Study of the Anonymous Shopper
Sales and marketing are changing, rapidly and dramatically. To visualize
these changes, let’s imagine that somewhere, Susan and Joe work for a life
science company that is getting ready to start the process of finding,
comparing, selecting, and negotiating the purchase of a product or service
just like the one your organization currently sells.
Susan asks Joe to find and compare suppliers. Ultimately, she wants him
to compile a list of possible suppliers, develop a list of criteria, and use
those criteria to eliminate the unsuitable options. She wants a short list of
well-qualified suppliers from which she can choose a single, preferred
supplier.
Do Joe and Susan know exactly what they want? Are they aware of the
latest trends in this sector’s products and services? Do they already have
their selection criteria firmly in place? Can they identify the top suppliers,
and what their relative advantages and disadvantages are? For most buyers
the answer is no, particularly when the product or service is a significant
expenditure, when closing the deal involves a salesperson, and when the
buying cycle is long. Given this lack of knowledge, Joe is going to begin by
doing some research. The first place he turns is to his trusty search engine.
He might also reach out to his network of associates, asking for
recommendations.
What Joe finds is staggering. One search yields hundreds of thousands of
results in a fraction of a second. It’s easy for him to be overwhelmed,
especially if he isn’t an expert.
As a result, one of the things Joe is searching for is clarity. He’s looking
for insight and information to help him make a choice. He’s finding plenty
of sales information of the “why you should buy from us” type. He ignores
this. He knows this content is biased toward the seller, and he doesn’t need
propaganda; he needs help in qualifying suppliers and their products and
services.
The Rise of the Anonymous Shopper in the Life
Sciences

As Joe searches online, he’s constantly making distinguishing decisions.
Like most typical search-engine users, he’s not going to look too far down
the list of search results. So suppliers with poor search-engine results won’t
even be on Joe’s radar screen. When he does visit websites, Joe won’t linger
too long, unless he finds what he’s looking for quickly. So suppliers with
sites that have poor navigation or poor design won’t make it to Joe’s short
list.
Joe learns as he goes. His searches get more sophisticated. As they do,
the search engines serve Joe pay-per-click (PPC) ads that are tailored
responses to his search queries. Whether or not Joe clicks on a PPC ad or an
organic result, many of the links he chooses take him to specific landing
pages deep inside a supplier’s website. These landing pages have content
that the search engine believes is relevant to Joe’s search query. But as Joe
gets more knowledgeable about what he’s looking for, he is better able to
judge the content that the websites are serving him. Those sites with poor
content, “me-too” content, or content that is too sales focused won’t grab
Joe’s attention. He might visit the site and even stay awhile, but then he
leaves.
As he searches online, Joe wants to remain anonymous. After all, he
doesn’t want to fend off hundreds of phone calls from salespeople, at least
not until he knows enough to ask qualifying questions to help him narrow
the field. So he is researching without letting life science suppliers know
that he’s shopping.
Joe is not alone in looking for information and wanting to remain
anonymous. In fact, Google (you’ve heard of it?) has done quite a bit of
research on this topic. Google reports that “ . . . our research has shown that,
on average, business buyers do not contact suppliers directly until 57
percent of the purchase process is complete . . . That means for nearly two-
thirds of the buying process, your customers are out in the ether: forming
opinions, learning technical specifications, building requirements lists, and
narrowing down their options, all on their own, with minimal influence
from you.”1
To summarize: You don’t know that Joe and Susan are shopping, and not
only that, but they’re forming their opinions without any input from you. So
if and when they contact you, they’ve already decided what they want to
buy. Now they’re just looking for prices. Since you are entering the buying
process very late, you have very little chance to influence their thinking.

Let’s return to Joe. As part of his search, he visits dozens of websites.
Many have calls to action, that is, a request for him to take some action,
such as download a white paper or sign up for a webinar. Of course, Joe
won’t do this every time he’s asked. On many sites, he just visits and
leaves. But on one or two sites, he finds helpful information. These sites are
well designed, with clear navigation. It’s easy to find what he needs, and the
content that’s available is unique, relevant, and educational.
On one company’s site, much of this content is available for free (which
is why the search engines could find it and direct Joe to it in the first place).
However, in some cases Joe has to trade his contact information for access
to the offered content. Once Joe does this, the company can begin to build a
profile of Joe. Using marketing-automation software, it can now track every
page Joe visits on the website, how long he stays on each page, and the
content he downloads.
Because the content is relevant, unique, and educational, Joe is more
likely to share it, sending it on to Susan. In this way, the company can reach
beyond the gatekeeper (Joe) to the decision maker (Susan), influencing their
thinking and their criteria for an ideal supplier.
By measuring and tracking Joe’s browsing habits on its site, the company
can judge Joe’s interest in individual services or products. It can use this
information to remarket to Joe. For example, Joe can be sent an invitation to
attend a webinar related to the white paper he’s already downloaded. It can
also build a progressive profile of Joe, asking for a little bit of information
each time he answers a call to action, such as signing up for a webinar or
downloading some content.
Conversion from a Prospect to a Visitor to a Lead
Joe, who started out as an unknown prospect, has been transformed to a
visitor–in part by the interaction of magnetic content with good PPC (pay-
per-click) and SEO (search engine optimization), all of which interact to
make the company’s site rank highly and enable Joe to find the content he’s
seeking. Not only has Joe visited the site, he’s also been retained there (in
part) through great site design and magnetic content, which converts him
from a one-time visitor to a more frequent site user. By tracking and
measuring Joe’s online behavior using marketing automation, the company

can learn more and more about Joe, and ask for additional personal
information, building a profile of his role, his responsibilities, and his
interests.
Once Joe shows enough interest, the marketing department passes his
profile along to the sales department. The marketing and sales departments
are now aligned around common goals. Marketing’s responsibility is seen
as attracting, nurturing, and qualifying leads, while sales’ responsibility is
continuing the qualification process and closing the appropriate deals. As
Google says, “It’s marketing’s job to influence the 57 percent of the sale
that occurs mostly on the web, before sales contact . . . ”
Eventually Joe raises his hand, letting the organization know who he is,
by giving up a bit of personal information. In the parlance of inbound
marketing, Joe has been converted from a prospect to a visitor to a lead.
And when the sales department contacts him, he’s much more likely to
respond. After all, he has already shown quite a bit of interest in the
company’s offering and its content. Joe is now more inclined to listen to the
salesperson, who works for a company that Joe has come to trust. The sales
department can now qualify Joe more completely.
This kind of situation happens every day on the web. In fact, it is the new
reality of marketing. When Joe and Susan started shopping, they didn’t
know about the company, and the company didn’t know about them. But by
following many of the best practices of inbound marketing, the company
increased its chances of converting Joe and Susan from a prospect to a
visitor to a lead, and then to a well-qualified lead, and then ultimately to a
customer.
Prospects are out looking and shopping anyway, and inbound marketing
focuses on attracting them to get their attention. In the analogy of hunting,
outbound marketing sprays the landscape with bullets, hoping to hit a
prospect. Inbound marketing fills a trap with attractive bait and sets it in
places that prospects are known to frequent.
This is the allure of high-performance inbound life science marketing:
increased engagement and a steady stream of well-qualified leads drawn to
what you have to offer.

Marketing Must Offer Value to Increase
Engagement
The changes in the ways people are shopping (researching, evaluating, and
purchasing) require a fundamental alteration in the way you market and sell
to them. From a tactical standpoint, instead of bombarding your life science
audiences with outbound messages in the hopes that some might stick, you
have to lure your audiences to you. This requires that you shift the way you
think about how value is exchanged during the buying cycle.
The shift to high-performance marketing requires that the marketing
function abandon its previous methodology–simple interruption-based
promotional activities–and enter into deeper relationships with customers-
to-be. In the past, life science marketers were essentially trying to steal
prospects’ attention by interrupting them. In return, they provided very little
value, outside of the traditional promotional messages. There wasn’t much
of real value in an ad, a piece of direct mail, a trade-show booth, or in the
majority of traditional marketing tactics. If you disagree with that statement,
ask yourself how many of these outbound promotional pieces actually were
saved by the prospects because they were seen as valuable.
High-performance marketing engages with
audiences on a deeper level, earning their
attention, trust, and permission.
With so little value having been provided by the marketing function, it’s
fair to say that the only value a life science prospect received during the
entire buying cycle was the product or service they purchased–at the end of
the buying cycle.
High-performance marketing is based on an expanded series of
exchanges of value that are completed well before any sale is consummated.
The information and insight offered by the organization takes the form of
life science thought leadership (relevant, unique, valuable content). It is
exchanged for three things, in a specific order. First, the prospect gives the

organization their attention. In today’s world, this attention has real value
(which is implied by the phrase paying attention). Based in large part on the
value received, the prospect then gives the organization their trust. The fact
that they trust the organization is made clear when they take the third step,
giving the organization permission–as in, “Yes, I’ll give you my e-mail
address and thereby give you permission to start a dialogue with me.”
These exchanges are just the tip of the iceberg. As you’ve seen in
discussing the buying cycle, buyers need education, inspiration, and
reassurance as they progress through the buying cycle. The dialogue that
you establish with prospects gives you the framework to supply this
education, inspiration, and reassurance, providing value to the prospect.
The traditional exchange of value (the purchase) happens at the end of
the buying cycle–as products or services are exchanged for money. For
high-cost, long-sales-cycle products or services, the responsibility for this
exchange falls under the purview of the sales function. The other exchanges
(in which thought leadership is traded for attention, trust, and permission to
start a dialogue) happen as the prospect is shopping: researching,
comparing, evaluating, learning, forming opinions, and narrowing down
their options. They are the responsibility of the marketing function.
The Shifting Relationship between Sales
and Marketing
The seismic shift in power away from sellers and toward buyers is opening
the door to a corresponding shift in the relationship between marketing and
sales. A properly executed high-performance marketing initiative will
tighten this integration. In the past, when marketing was only performing
outbound, interruption-based promotional activities, the typical complaint
from sales focused on the quality of the leads being developed: “You’re
giving us lousy leads.” Simultaneously, the typical complaint from
marketing focused on the perception that sales wouldn’t ever follow up on
and close the leads that were handed off: “You never do anything with the
leads we give you.”
Interruption-based marketing tactics seldom resulted in enough
information to adequately profile or qualify a prospect. So it’s no wonder

the sales function was annoyed: the leads were not well qualified. And
without well-qualified leads (and a clear understanding of the buying
cycle), sales couldn’t close them. It’s also no wonder the marketing function
was annoyed.
A well-implemented, high-performance marketing effort allows the
marketing function to nurture prospects from their earliest indications of
interest. In fact, given the multiple exchanges of value that are now
occurring, the marketing function must track, profile, segment, nurture,
score, and flag prospects. How else will prospects be separated into those
that need attention right now, and those that are just kicking the tires? To
put this another way, how else will prospects be qualified?
High-performance marketing redefines and
tightens the relationship between the sales and
marketing functions.
By handing off well-qualified leads, marketing is delivering what sales
needs to be successful. Sales and marketing can now be aligned around the
same set of goals, linked by common metrics. The conversation shifts from,
“The leads you give us are horrible,” to “Let’s talk about when in the
buying cycle the leads should be handed off.” And this is rapidly followed
by, “What can we do to drive more people through the sales cycle?” Sales
and marketing are now more aligned.
Inbound Marketing in the Life Sciences Requires
Integration
As sellers gain power, marketers have to work smarter–on individual
tactics, and on ensuring integration across tactics. Nothing is a better
example of this than high-performance marketing, which depends on the
interaction of many marketing tactics all working together synergistically.
No one marketing tactic by itself is sufficient to guarantee the success of
high-performance marketing; there is no single magic bullet, but a web of

interacting components and activities that join together synergistically. All
have to be present for high-performance marketing to work at maximum
effectiveness, so it is useful to view these components as prerequisites. If
you have these in place and all are performing optimally, then you’ll deliver
maximum results. Without one or more of these prerequisites in place, your
results will be limited.
Before I list the prerequisites, a couple of caveats: The type of marketing
I’m discussing makes the most sense for products and services that have a
long sales cycle and a large purchase price. With a long sales cycle, there
are multiple opportunities to affect the buyers’ beliefs, which is where lead
nurturing (through marketing automation and other methods) becomes
important. With a large purchase price, the prospects will typically be doing
quite a bit of research, which is where the breadth and depth of your unique
content and SEO activities becomes important.
Here’s the list of prerequisites for a high-performance marketing effort,
starting with the things that are the most elemental and ending with those
that are the most advanced. As you read, I urge you to hold your own
marketing activities up against this list, judging where your efforts might be
classified as exceptional and where you have room for improvement.
Defining Good Value: A high-performance marketing team clearly
understands and can articulate the unique value represented by their
offering. Value is the basis of all commerce, and unique value to a specific
set of targeted customers is the basis of any lasting commercial success.
Defning a Unique Position: To capitalize on this unique value, it must be
captured in some sort of position that meets the seven criteria for effective
positioning: clear, unique, authentic, sustainable, important, believable, and
compelling. The result of this positioning effort is a documented life science
positioning statement that is shared and well understood by the entire
marketing team, if not by the entire organization. This position is the
foundation of the MMOA (marketing mechanism of action) and will act to
guide all subsequent marketing efforts.
Clearly Articulating Your Brand-Story: A high-performance marketing
effort articulates the unique position through a clear and compelling name,
tagline, brand-story, and message(s). This articulation resonates with the

values, beliefs, and behaviors of various audiences, both humans and
search-engine spiders. This brand-story is also well documented, and the
difference between what is on-brand and what is off-brand is both clear and
shared throughout the organization. In addition, the responsibility for
maintaining the consistency of the brand-story is clearly delegated to a
specific individual or group within the organization.
Consistently Expressing the Brand-Story: A high-performance marketing
effort deliberately broadens the expression of the brand-story across all
rungs of the ladder of lead generation. With this breadth of expression
through a widening number of touchpoints, it becomes critical to keep the
brand-story consistent and on target. Particular attention must be paid as
more voices begin to express the marketing message– for example, through
social media. High-performance marketing teams understand that absolute
control of the marketing message is no longer possible (again, social media
is the perfect example), so they develop systems to ensure that the
expression of the brand-story is as consistent as possible and that all
relevant parties understand the importance of consistency.
Designing and Deploying a High-Performance Website: Properly
functioning websites are the cornerstone of any inbound marketing effort.
The website must be easy to navigate and simple to use, with a design that
is appropriate to the audiences. The website also must be capable of
supporting a serious effort in analytics to track visitor behavior.
Running Campaigns That Are Tailored and Integrated: Highperformance
marketing teams create integrated campaigns that use multiple touchpoints
across the entire ladder of lead generation. For example, an e-mail blast
links to a webinar, which references a video that is summarized in an e-
book, and so on. These campaigns are targeted at specific audiences and
incorporate clear and compelling calls to action designed to drive specific
behaviors, such as conversions, subscriptions, etc.
Measuring and Optimizing: High-performance marketing efforts use
measurement and the resulting metrics appropriately. Rather than focusing
on measuring activity solely for the sake of measuring, the focus is on
measuring results for the sake of improvement. Multiple measurement and
optimization tactics, such as SEO, analytics, specific landing pages, and QR

»
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codes, are employed to track and improve results. Measureable tactics that
reinforce SEO efforts–such as pay-per-click campaigns–are employed
where it makes sense to do so. Specific efforts are optimized using A/B
testing, harnessing the scientific method itself to improve marketing efforts
in the life sciences.
Profiling and Tracking: Personas of key buying segments are created to
shape and focus communication with distinct audience groups. Audience
groups are segmented and tracked using a CRM (customer relationship
management system, such as Salesforce.com). This CRM is then used
consistently and widely throughout the organization, serving as the database
of record for all communication with individual prospects. These segments
are targeted on a regular basis with outbound communication, specific to
where they are in the buying cycle. Within high-performance marketing
organizations, there is a focus on maintaining a clean list and growing the
list over time. The deployment and widespread, consistent adoption of a
CRM is one of the indications that both the sales and marketing functions
are being supported by technologies that will enable them to work together
effectively, by establishing common goals and clarifying the relationships
between sales’ and marketing’s responsibilities.
Creating Magnetic Life Science Content: High-performance marketing
efforts devote significant resources to creating and managing a steady
stream of compelling life science content that is unique, fresh, organized,
and relevant. This content springs from an effective content strategy, which
outlines:
What content is being created (topics, forms, tone)
For whom it’s being created (human and digital audiences)
Why it’s being created (changes in beliefs, behaviors, actions)
How it’s being created (roles, responsibilities, schedules)
How it’s being managed (roles, responsibilities, deletion)
How it’s being measured (metrics)

This content is not sales focused, but rather educational, inspirational,
and reassuring, and always appropriate to the audience segment and their
stage in the buying cycle. It expresses a strong point of view and is
therefore magnetic, that is, it attracts audience members that agree with this
point of view and repels audience members that disagree. In this way, the
content attracts a tribe of like-minded fans over time, and drives improved
search-engine rankings. This content can take many forms, such as white
papers, blog posts, webinars, videos, infographics, etc. And it is repurposed
and reimagined in multiple ways over its life cycle.
Promoting Content: This steady stream of content is widely promoted,
including through social media. SEO tactics and pay-per-click campaigns
are used to spread the content further. To balance the need to generate leads
against the need to spread the content widely, some of the content is gated
(requiring the user to give up some of their personal information in
exchange for access) and some of the content is ungated (so the search-
engine spiders have free access to the content).
Automating Marketing Functions: As the volume of contacts, content, and
campaigns grows, the high-performance marketing team turns to marketing
automation to help streamline its efforts. Marketing automation allows the
nurturing of visitors by tracking their behavior on the website. It harnesses
the value exchange discussed in the last issue to profile these users,
segmenting them to deliver specific content that meets their needs. It
automates communication with prospects, connecting with them in
predefined ways and nurturing them through the buying cycle, based on
their specific behavior. Marketing automation automates many functions;
for example, it can remarket to visitors who have not yet made it all the way
through the buying cycle. It employs lead scoring to flag users who reach a
predefined level of engagement, and passes off market-qualified leads to
sales automatically.
High-Performance Marketing Is Built on a
Web of Tactics

High-performance marketing is built from components that build upon and
reinforce each other. This reinforcement is crucial to achieving maximum
results. When done well, all the components interact to deepen the level of
engagement between the organization and its prospects, and thereby drive a
steady inbound stream of well-qualified leads.
Without this reinforcement–this smooth interaction between
components–the entire structure of inbound marketing falls apart. In fact,
inbound marketing can be thought of as a pyramid, one layer supporting
another. Starting at the top of the pyramid . . .
Inbound marketing . . .
Results in a deeper connection between your audiences and your
organization . . .
Which drives a steady stream of well-qualified leads and . . .
Is driven by systematic, consistent, effective processes (like marketing
automation) . . .
Which are employed consistently to communicate, track, profile,
segment, score, nurture, remarket, and target audience segments . . .
Who are attracted by the promotion . . .
Of a steady and growing stream of compelling, unique, relevant content .
. .
That clearly expresses a clear and unique point of view and . . .
That is created according to a clearly defined content strategy . . .
Which is tuned to the needs of clearly defined audience segments . . .
Who occupy a specific place in the buying cycle . . .
And are tracked using a consistently applied CRM . . .
Which links to other closely watched metrics . . .

That track the performance of integrated, tailored campaigns . . .
Which are spread across the entire ladder of lead generation . . .
Including a high-performance, easy-to-navigate website . . .
And these campaigns express consistently . . .
A compelling brand-story . . .
That clearly articulates your clear, unique, authentic, sustainable position
. . .
Which is important, believable, and compelling to your audiences . . .
And captures your unique value . . .
Which is why they might consider buying from you in the first place . . .
If only they knew about you . . .
Which is why you need marketing . . .
To attract a steady stream of well-qualified leads out of the sea of
anonymous shoppers . . .
Converting them from prospects to visitors to leads to customers . . .
Deepening the relationship between them and your organization . . .
And not just mediocre, disjointed marketing . . .
But high-performance life science marketing . . .
That makes the complex compelling.
Isn’t this how it should work in a high-performance life science
marketing organization?

1 “ B2B’s Digital Evolution,” February 2013,
http://www.google.com/think/articles/b2b-digital-evolution.html.

Epilogue
THE FUTURE OF LIFE SCIENCE
MARKETING
Predicting the future is difficult to do well, but fun to attempt nonetheless.
Many of the trends, challenges, and pressures I touched on in chapter one–
such as increased globalization, rapidly accelerating new technologies, and
increased demand–are not temporary aberrations but fundamental and
permanent shifts. Other trends may just be temporary; for example, the
recession will fade at some point, better times will appear, and interest rates
will rise.
Whether each trend is temporary or permanent, some things are clear.
The life science marketplace will continue to grow and change. New
technologies will continue to come to market and affect approved therapies.
These new technologies and new therapies will face increasing competition
and so will require clear explanation of their benefits and trade-offs.
Here are 10 predictions for the future of marketing in the life sciences:
Markets Will Increasingly Rely on Decisions Based
on Factors beyond Scientific Superiority
Economics, social science, and human behavior are playing increasingly
important roles in determining the winners and losers. Increased
competition and the need to address all these different factors will highlight
the need to develop and communicate a compelling message.
The need for proper positioning and a clear, focused brand-story and the
importance of high-performance marketing will only become more critical.

The Diversity and Number of Marketing Channels
Will Continue to Expand
Social media, video, and networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook
will increase in importance, and, if they have utility, remain part of the
marketing mix. Other channels will fade. New technologies will add new
marketing opportunities.
It’s not difficult to imagine having the various steps in performing an
assay projected on the inside of your safety goggles, keeping your hands
free to follow along or being able to watch a patient being enrolled in a
clinical trial in real time. Keeping up with your audiences in their use of
these diverse channels and technologies will be part of the marketing
responsibility of the future.
The Marketing Spotlight Will Expand to Include
Internal Audiences
Smart high-performance marketing teams will pay attention to the
alignment between internal and external audiences. Internal audiences will
increasingly act as extensions of the marketing department, translating
(proper) messages out to external audiences in the desired way.
Keeping Track of the Company’s Voice across
Disparate Channels Will Become More Challenging
There will continue to be a decentralization and democratization of the
marketing function in general, as prospects and customers increasingly rely
on peer networks for purchase advice. The number of voices (originating
outside your marketing department or outside your organization) that will
shape the image of your organization will only increase.
Given this trend, a clear position, a focused brand-story, and a
commitment to ensure internal alignment across the entire organization will
be necessary to provide a stable foundation for life science organizations

and enable them to conduct those conversations in a strategic and
meaningful way.
Big Data and Marketing Automation Will Change
Life Science Marketing
Just as “big data” is changing the life sciences, from early discovery
through drug and medical-device development, so too will “big data”
change high-performance marketing. The ability to track and measure the
behavior of prospects–both in the aggregate and individually–will continue
to increase. Marketing automation and similar technologies will feed this
data from the marketing department into sales, enabling targeted outreach
tailored to individuals in many ways (e.g., based on their position in the
buying cycle).
In other words, the lines between the marketing and sales functions will
blur. This increasing overlap will, in some organizations, result in the sales
function subsuming marketing, and in others, marketing subsuming sales.
Markets Will Be Beset by Two Countervailing
Forces: Consolidation and Globalization
Globalization and consolidation will increase competitive pressures while
setting new (global) standards for acceptable performance. Consolidation
will continue while, simultaneously, markets will segment into smaller
sectors, enabling companies to succeed through hyperspecialization and
focus. In the midst of this chaos and paradox, however, lie potential and
opportunity for the strategic life science organization.
Measurement of Marketing Activities Will Become
Increasingly Important
The use and sophistication of measurement will increase in
highperformance marketing. Some organizations will be blinded by

measure ment for measurement’s sake, or be sidetracked by trying to “move
the needle” on metrics that don’t help the organization achieve its goals.
High-Quality Content Will Assume Greater
Prominence as a Key Component of the Marketing
Mix
The marketing function is shifting; the role of publisher is being added to
the original role of promoter. Successful organizations will clarify their
brand-story and figure out how to tell it in a thousand different ways.
Effective content will be developed and delivered using an increasing
number of different forms (video, interactive presentations, animations,
etc).
Start to Accelerate Now, or Be Left Behind
The pace of the life sciences is increasing and so, too, the pace of marketing
must increase–to keep up. Successful organizations will take full advantage
of the tools and technologies available to help them do so, and the
knowledge and techniques outlined in this volume will serve them–and
you–in good stead.
Clear Positioning and Messaging Will Continue to Be
Fundamental to High-Performance Marketing’s
Success
Long-term, successful organizations will be those that pick a position that is
clear, unique, sustainable, and authentic, that have taken the time to validate
the position’s importance, believability, and motivational success with
audiences, and, finally, that can articulate this clearly in their brand-story
and then express it consistently across all touchpoints. Success will be
available for those who say, “This is my (compelling) story and I’m sticking
to it.”

That is my story. (And I am sticking to it.)

Acknowledgments
This book is akin to the part of the iceberg visible above the ocean’s
surface; there is a lot of unseen support lifting that small bit that may
sparkle briefly in the cold air. And so I’d like to thank all those that have
buoyed me throughout the years.
To all my clients, for your trust and your wisdom, I am so grateful. This
book would not exist without you and the challenges you have entrusted to
me and the team at Forma.
To all the employees at Forma since we began in a spare bedroom,
including Holly, Bill, Carol, Kathy, Reneau, Cynthia, Matt, Ofer, Meri,
Mac, Jennie, Katie, Debra, Dan, Bryan, Cameron, Lynn, Pamela, Annette,
Liz, Beth, Debbie, Billie Jean, Tiffany, David, Marilyn, Nancy, Kelly,
Connie, Sally, Karen, Todd, Robb, Erin, Steve, Kent, Abbie, Josh, Lilly,
Terri, Bob, Cindy, Deanna, Sarah, Josh, Rachel, Kristin, Brent, Martine,
Betsy, Dan, David, Carrie, Marty, and Lisa–plus all those whose names I’ve
inadvertently omitted. I’m grateful for your guidance, your support, your
dedication to serving clients’ needs, and your contributions to making
Forma a great place to work.
To my coaches, Keith, Walt, David, and Blair, for their genuine interest in
and their many contributions to my success.
To my brothers, James, John, and Bob, for their friendship and counsel
through the years. Our morning phone calls are a source of inspiration.
To my children, Sarah and Samuel, for teaching me patience, the
significance of jumping, the importance of intensity, and reinforcing the real
value of the lessons my parents passed on.
To my parents, Dick and Eve, for teaching me how to strike a balance
between “perfect is better than done” and “done is better than perfect.”
To Flook, Brian Finnegan, J. S. Bach, and Handel, for powering my
morning sessions writing in the library.

To Josh Fraimow, Helena Bouchez, Candice Fehrman, and James Kinney,
my editors, for making this volume much better than I ever could have on
my own.
And most importantly, to Meg, my wife, lover, and dearest companion,
who is still trying to teach her slowest student all the ways in which
“everything has to line up.” Words cannot express my gratitude or my love.

Appendix 1
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
FAMILIES OF BRAND-STORIES
There are many possible relationships between organizations with common
financial interests, ranging from something as connected as a wholly owned
subsidiary to something as nebulous as a partner. And there are many
possible relationships between the public faces of these organizations. The
relationship might be largely hidden from the public eye, or it might need to
be clarified and expressed publicly.
This appendix will address the ways these different relationships can be
determined and expressed publicly. There are two important points I’d like
to cover right up front.
First, some terminology: I’m using the word brand-story to refer both to
the public face of these organizations and in some cases–for simplicity– to
the organizations, the products or the service themselves. I believe the
distinction is, in most cases, not significant for this discussion, and I
apologize for any confusion that might arise.
Second, I’m choosing a particular lens to view this topic, that of mergers
and acquisitions. I’ve made this choice deliberately because mergers and
acquisitions represent a rare opportunity to reset the marketing strategies
and tactics of an organization. A merger or acquisition is not the only such
opportunity, but it represents an event where the marketing issues are often
cast into stark relief. That said, the issues and the solutions discussed here
are applicable far beyond the confines of a merger or acquisition. I trust that
the reader will be able to extrapolate to these other, more general
circumstances from the specific topics discussed here.

1.
2.
Life Science Marketing during Mergers
and Acquisitions
Many changes are sweeping through the life sciences. In addition to
increased outsourcing and new strategic partnerships, these changes are also
driving a large number of mergers and acquisitions. Figuring out what
should happen to the various marketing assets of each organization after
such an event ranks among a marketer’s biggest challenges.
In referring to marketing assets, I’m discussing an organization’s
conceptual properties, such as its name and tagline, position, trademark,
brandstory, and messages, and in some cases a marketing campaign or two.
In this sense, marketing assets are different from physical assets used to
convey marketing messages (i.e., a box of brochures, a website, or crates of
hardware and graphic panels that can be assembled into a trade-show
booth).
Integrating two organizations that have come together as a result of a
merger or acquisition is layered in complexity. I’m ignoring the various
other aspects of a merger or acquisition (e.g., financial, human resources,
and facilities implications), except as they affect the marketing function.
And regardless of the structure of the event (merger, acquisition, hostile
takeover, or rescue), I’ll assume that some aspect of both companies will
survive.
The first order of business is to figure out what the new relationship
between the marketing assets will be. What happens to the position of the
two companies? Should both positions remain? Does one dominate and the
other one fade? What happens to the messages, taglines, names, and
corporate identities? What about the look and feel of the two companies?
These new marketing relationships will be based on the answers to two
key questions:
Is there only one entity, or do both coexist?
If the two entities will coexist, which one will be dominant and which
one will be subservient? Another way to ask this question is: Which
will be the “parent” organization and which will be the “child?”

1.
2.
3.
4.
There are many different viable answers to these questions, but here are
the four most common choices. I’ll use language normally reserved for
human families to describe these four alternatives:
Parent-only
Parent-dominant
Children-dominant
Children-only
This designation of “parent” and “child” has nothing to do with an
audience of either parents or children. I’m only referring to the fact that one
organization (the parent) is portrayed as larger, more prominent, or more
senior, while the other is portrayed as smaller, less prominent, or less senior
(the child).
Each model discussed here depicts a different
relationship between the various brand-stories in
the family and each goes to market very
differently.
I’ll discuss each of these answers by building a model of the various
relationships, each of which will be different. Let’s take a look at each of
the four models in turn.
Given the rapid pace of change in the life sciences, I realize that by the
time you read this, the examples in the following diagrams may or may not
reflect current relationships between these organizations. That’s OK; I can
still use them to illustrate the concepts I’m discussing.
The trademarks in the figures below represent the identities of well-
known brand-stories in the life sciences: Quintiles, Optum, Life
Technologies, and McNeil Consumer Healthcare. Please note that the

trademarks reflected in these diagrams belong to their respective owners; I
am using them for illustrative purposes only.
Quintiles and Optum are active in the sectors relating to clinical drug
development, while Life Technologies primarily services the sectors related
to drug discovery, and McNeil focuses on pharmaceuticals and health care.
Parent-Only
In the parent-only model, the organization promotes the brand-story of the
parent organization alone (whether or not there are children). After mergers
and acquisitions, the acquired organization is subsumed completely (from a
marketing perspective), and all that is shown to customers and prospects is
the parent.
Typically, smaller or less complex organizations will follow this model,
but occasionally larger organizations follow it as well. The fast-food chain
McDonald’s is a good retail example of the parent-only model; despite a
broad array of financial relationships, such as franchises and
subcorporations, only a single organization with a single brand-story is
presented to the consumer.
Figure 25. From a marketing perspective, Quintiles often goes to market as
parent-only.
Parent-Dominant
The example below, Optum, depicts an organization that promotes both the
parent and the children, but the parent-dominant model emphasizes the
parent more than the children.

FedEx is a good retail example of the parent-dominant model. The
individual children (FexEx Ground, FedEx Express, etc.) all show the
parent FedEx as more prominent than the individual children.
Figure 26. Optum often goes to market as parent-dominant.
Children-Dominant
In the children-dominant model, Life Technologies portrays both the parent
and the child organizations when communicating, but in most cases the
parent is presented as less prominent than the children.
Nabisco is a good retail example of the children-dominant model. The
individual children, such as Oreos, are depicted as more prominent than the
parent.
Figure 27. Life Technologies often goes to market as children-dominant.
Children-Only

Consider McNeil Consumer Healthcare. When communicating to audiences
of consumers, McNeil does not promote the brand-story of the parent to any
significant extent; and, in fact, most consumers do not even recognize
McNeil’s name or trademark.
However, most would recognize the trademarks of the children that are
owned by McNeil, two of which are shown here: Zyrtec and Tylenol.
Figure 28. McNeil Consumer Healthcare often takes individual products to
market as children-only.
Procter and Gamble is a good retail example of a children-only model.
The relationship between the parent (P&G) and the individual children
(e.g., Tide or Crest) is hardly ever shown to the consumer.
The Possible Relationships between
Families of Brand-Stories
As I mentioned earlier, the relationships discussed here are simplified for
illustrative purposes and focus on the relationships presented to audiences
composed of consumers. It is not uncommon for more complexity to exist
in the real world; there can often be grandparents involved. For example,
McNeil is owned by Johnson and Johnson, which is McNeil’s parent and
Tylenol’s grandparent. And Optum is owned by UnitedHealth Group, which
is Optum’s parent and the grandparent of the children shown in Figure 26.

Figure 29. This figure shows the main options for presenting the
relationships between families of brand-stories to the marketplace.
This complexity can exist in many forms. For example, Life
Technologies has many products marketed by each of its children. And
many of these products have sub-brand-stories of their own.
Depicting all these products and relationships can make this model as
interwoven as the family tree of the kings of Europe for the last 400 years!
While such complexity is not beyond the scope of this model, it is beyond
the scope of this appendix, so I will limit my examples to parents, children,
and grandparents and I won’t be discussing second cousins, twice removed.
Mapping New Relationships between
Brand-Stories
Now that you understand the most common family relationships that are
possible as a result of a merger or acquisition, how do you determine what
happens to the life science marketing assets involved?
Many factors will influence these decisions, such as the ability of the
audiences to understand the presented relationships; the strategic direction

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of the two entities; the positions of the two entities; the size of the two
entities; the amount of competition between the two entities; the overall
marketing budgets; and the current equity of the brand-stories, including
recognition, relevance, and competitive strength.
In addition to these factors, there are seven issues you must pay particular
attention to in all merger and acquisition situations:
The voice of the organization
The complexity of the relationship among the brand-stories
The number of impressions of each brand-story the audience will see
The overall budget efficiency of creating these impressions
The ability to tailor the messages
Damage control (the ability to protect individual brand-story
reputations)
The ability to add products or services
BRAND-STORY FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
DEPEND SIGNIFICANTLY UPON THE
AUDIENCES INVOLVED
If the audiences are comprised primarily of investors (stock
analysts, investors, members of the financial press, etc.), then the
relationships may be portrayed very differently than if the audiences
are composed primarily of consumers.
When reporting yearly results, for example, Johnson & Johnson
might well spend a lot of time discussing the performance of
individual children (such as McNeil). For the purpose of this

appendix, the focus of Figure 29 is the marketing relationships to
audiences of customers. If I were mapping communication to
investors, Figure 29 would be constructed differently.
Each of the four possible approaches (parent-only, parent-dominant,
children-dominant, and children-only) has natural strengths and weaknesses
relative to these seven issues, so it is important to understand how these
issues can affect the resulting family relationships. These strengths and
weaknesses should be understood clearly before any choice is made, so let’s
take a look at each of the issues in more detail.
The Voice of the Organization
The farther to the right the organization goes on the continuum of the family
of brand-stories, the more voices are added. In other words, a parent-only
organization has one voice. A parent-dominant organization will have more
voices–depending upon the number of children–but the parent’s voice will
still dominate. A children-dominant organization will have children’s voices
that are more prominent than the parent. And an organization that chooses
to market as children-only will have many individual voices.
Figure 30. Organizations that structure their brand-story family
relationships using a parent-only model (far left column) will communicate
with a single voice.
The more voices there are in the marketing mix, the more complexity is
added to the management of the overall corporate voice. This increases the
potential for audience confusion.

The Perceived Complexity of the Presented
Relationships
The parent-dominant or children-dominant approaches are more complex
because you’re asking your audiences to understand that there is more than
one brand-story, and that one brand-story is more prominent. In addition,
you’re asking your audience to understand which particular brand-story is
more prominent.
This may sound simple, but audiences have a limited capacity to
understand any particular marketing message, and asking the audience to
understand the complex relationships among brand-stories could detract
from their ability to understand other parts of the message.
The children-only approach is different than parent-dominant or child-
dominant approaches because you are not asking the audience to understand
the relationship between the different brand-stories. But this approach still
requires the audience to understand that there are multiple brand-stories,
each with its own position and message.
Figure 31. Some approaches are easier for your audience to understand
than others. The approach that is the simplest to understand is parent-only.
The Number of Impressions the Audience Will See
The more times your brand-story touches your audiences, the more effective
it will be in shaping their image of your organization and cementing its
place in the market. In other words, more impressions yield the chance for
greater influence.
Parent-Only: When the only relationship is parent-only, there is no other
brand-story being presented to the audience, so the total number of
impressions of this message seen by any audience member (known as
message frequency) will be the highest. This increased frequency increases

the ability of the brand-story to affect the audiences’ attitudes, beliefs, or
behaviors.
Parent-Dominant and Children-Dominant: Both of these approaches
present multiple brand-stories to the audience and so, for a constant number
of total impressions, reduces the number of impressions of any one brand-
story received by the audiences.
Children-Only: In this approach, all impressions received by the audience
will carry one of the messages of the various children (but no message at all
from the parents). Given a constant total number of impressions, or a
constant total budget, the more children there are, the fewer impressions
each child will be able to transmit, diluting the impact of the overall
message.
Figure 32. In the parent-only approach, there is only one brand-story, and
so every impression will carry the same message. (This assumes, of course,
that the marketers are doing their job by remaining consistent and on-target
with their message.)
If each approach were to be given a certain number of impressions to be
divided among the entire family, the parent-only approach would maximize
your marketing impact by ensuring that your audiences would see the
highest number of consistent messages.
Budget Efficiency
For the purposes of this discussion, budget efficiency is defined as the total
number of impressions divided by the number of different messages, per
dollar spent. In other words, to achieve high efficiency, the number of
impressions should be high and the number of different messages should be
low. The number of different messages should be low because audience
awareness and/or response are often linked to the number of (identical)

repetitions seen. Below a certain number of impressions (sometimes called
the effective frequency), no awareness or response can typically be
expected, so any expenditure is considered wasted.
Given this, the efficiency of a given marketing budget will be highest
when using an approach from the left of this model, such as parent-only.
When choosing an approach from the right side, such as children-only, each
brandstory must have its own marketing budget and total expenditures must
be higher to enable each brand-story to reach an effective frequency.
When the factors of complexity and repetition of impressions I just
discussed are combined with the fact that marketing budgets are not infinite,
then it should be clear that approaches on the left will deliver more
impressions per dollar spent than approaches on the right, and that those
impressions, being less complex, will be also be more understandable.
Figure 33. Budget efficiency will be highest when the total number of
impressions is high and the number of different messages is low. The
efficiency of any given marketing budget will be highest when all messages
are identical, that is, when using an approach from the left side of the
model.
Why then, would you choose an approach from the right side of the
model? The answers are simple yet compelling.
The Ability to Tailor Messages
Zyrtec and Tylenol are two children of McNeil Consumer Healthcare. By
using two brand-stories, McNeil has the freedom to communicate relief
from allergy symptoms (Zyrtec) in a different way than it communicates
relief from headache pain (Tylenol). The ability to tailor the message about
the exact type of relief being offered is significant, and is one of the
strongest reasons to keep children distinct from parents.
But this is not the only reason; there are several other reasons to separate
the messages of the parent from those of the children.

Figure 34. The approaches on the right of this model–such as children-
only–have an overwhelming advantage: it is easiest to deliver a tailored
message about multiple products to multiple audiences.
Damage Control
One classic example of damage control comes from the Tylenol poision-ing
scandal (1982). In this case, there was minimal damage to the other brand-
stories owned by McNeil and Johnson and Johnson, even though the
damage to Tylenol sales was substantial–including a temporary drop in
market share from 37 percent to 7 percent.
Other McNeil brand-stories did not suffer as much from this drop in
market share. The difference is mainly attributable to the relationships (or
lack thereof) among the brand-stories. By following a children-only
approach, McNeil prevented trouble in one brand-story from contaminating
another.
Figure 35. When children are distinct from their parents, damage control is
easier. That is, a scandal that affects one child’s brand-story may be kept
isolated from another child, or even from the parent.
The Ability to Divest (or Acquire) Assets
Brand-stories have value above and beyond the physical assets or the
products and services that they represent. This brand-story equity can be
significant, and can require significant effort to create.
If a life science organization follows the approach from the left side of
this model–that of parent-only–then individual products or services are not

articulated in a separate brand-story with their own trademarks or corporate
identities. Therefore, products or services can be added (or removed) from
the overall mix of services at will, without having to devote marketing
resources to creating and promoting a new brand-story.
So, approaches from either end of the model allow greater freedom in
adding or divesting products and services. When the children-only approach
is used, however, marketing resources must be dedicated to the children. In
the children-only approach, any new product or service would require its
own brand-story, and need to be marketed separately from the rest of the
organization’s brand-stories.
One of the primary values of this model is that it provides a framework
for a strategic marketing discussion and helps compare and contrast the
advantages and disadvantages of the various possible approaches in
defining the relationships among brand-story families.
Figure 36. With separate brand-stories, following the approaches on the
right side of the model, one brand-story’s equity can be kept distinct from
other brand-stories’. This distinction means that it is possible to divest or
acquire an asset without the need to create new or revised brand-stories.
Figure 37. Different approaches have different advantages. The approach
you choose will have a significant impact on your future marketing tactics.

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Three Examples
If you pay attention to how families of brand-stories are presented in the life
sciences, like I do, you’ve probably noticed that certain sectors in the life
sciences favor certain marketing approaches. To better understand these, I’ll
examine three life science sectors:
Approved pharmaceutical and medical-device products
Service organizations, such as CROs, CMOs, and labs
Scientific research instrumentation and supplies
Approved Pharmaceutical and Medical-Device
Products in the Life Sciences
Approved pharmaceutical and medical-device products tend to use a
children-only marketing approach. That is, there is typically no visible
parent brand-story in marketing these products.
Though you may find the name of the parent brand-story somewhere on
the package, or even in very small type on a print ad, at the topmost level
the parent brand-story is not prominent. The benefits of this approach are:
The marketing messages describing each individual product can be
finely tailored.
The spread of damage from one brand-story’s reputation to another
brand-story in the family can be more easily contained.
The ability to divest (or aquire) an individual brand-story is
maximized.
From the parent organization’s standpoint, however, this approach also
has several disadvantages, including:

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The parent organization now must maintain multiple marketing
voices.
The number of repetitions of any given message seen by any
audience member are the fewest of any of the relationship options
(assuming that limited marketing resources are divided among several
children).
The budget efficiency (the cost for each consistent impression, with a
given marketing budget) is the lowest.
In the marketing calculus that happens inside pharmaceutical and
medical-device companies, these disadvantages are outweighed by the
advantages offered by following a children-only approach. How do I know
this? Simply look at a formulary list when considering prescription products
or walk down the aisle in any drugstore for OTC (over-the-counter)
products and you will find that nearly all are reflective of the children-only
approach.
Service Organizations in the Life Sciences
Service organizations, such as CROs, CMOs, and labs, among others, tend
to use a marketing approach from the left side of the model, such as parent-
only. The benefits of this approach are:
The parent organization has to maintain only a single marketing
voice.
The structure of the family of brand-stories being presented to the
audience is the simplest.
The number of repetitions of any given message seen by any
audience member can be the greatest.
The budget efficiency (the cost for each impression, with a given
marketing budget) is the highest.

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Adding or divesting products or services under a parent-only
approach does not require the introduction of any new brand-stories.
The marketing messages describing each individual service (such as
patient enrollment for a CRO) cannot be finely tailored separately
from the parent’s message.
The spread of perceived damage from the reputation of one service to
the entire parent’s organization is difficult to contain.
The ability to build brand-story equity that would have value in a
divestiture of just a part of the organization is minimized.
Additionally, it is typical for these types of organizations to grow through
acquisition. These acquisitions combine new products and services with
existing products and services and thereby achieve synergies for the parent.
The fact that these synergies exist tends to reinforce the parent-dominant
or parent-only model. Also, the acquisitions can occur at any time, which
tends to increase the difficulty of managing and maintaining a large and
stable family of children.
Were a children-only approach to be followed, the challenge of
maintaining a large family of completely unrelated children with widely
diverse backgrounds while maintaining consistency among all brand-stories
would not only be very difficult, but also would require individual
marketing budgets for each of the children. Prospective customers would
also be less informed about the wider scope of the organization’s offerings,
leading them to favor purchasing individual services only, rather than a
more inclusive assortment.
Most service organizations use the parent-only approach–though there
are a few exceptions.
Scientific Research Instrumentation and Supplies in
the Life Sciences

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Scientific research instrumentation and supplies often use the parent-
dominant or children-dominant approach. This sector is characterized by
technology that is constantly changing, and new products and new models
are introduced frequently.
Using a parent-dominant or child-dominant approach allows the parent
organization to tailor the individual messages to specific audiences while
also leveraging the image of the parent organization’s brand-story. These
models allow some tailoring of marketing messages for individual product
lines, while still providing a beneficial “halo” effect–either from the parent
to the child brand-story (parent-dominant) or from the child to the parent
(child-dominant).
The benefits of this approach are:
The marketing messages describing each individual product or
service (such as patient enrollment for a CRO) can be finely tailored.
An overall brand-story for the parent organization can still be
maintained.
The structure presented to the audience is flexible. It may be simple,
or it may be more complicated, depending upon the number of
children and the approach taken (parent-dominant versus children-
dominant).
Adding or divesting products under this type of approach is possible
without creating a new brand-story for the entire organization. When
adding products and services, offerings that relate closely to an
existing one can follow a parent-dominant model; offerings that do
not have such a close relationship may be introduced using a
children-dominant model.
The ability to build brand-story equity that would have significant
value in a divestiture is strengthened. Note that the brand-story value
for a stand-alone divestiture may be higher for an approach from the
right side of the model.

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The number of repetitions of any given marketing message seen by
any audience member may not be very high (depending on the
number of children in the family). However, with each repetition, the
parent brand-story can be reinforced.
The budget efficiency (the cost for each impression, with a given
marketing budget) is worse than if a parent-only model were
followed.
The parent organization has to maintain multiple marketing voices:
the parent voice and the voice for each child.
The spread of damage from one service to the entire parent’s
organization is difficult, but not impossible, to contain.
When establishing family relationships, take the long view. The decision
to follow a particular approach should be made with a long life span in
mind, so a careful analysis of your competitors’ approaches is a prerequisite
to making an informed decision. Also I am not advocating that all
organizations follow the marketing strategies of their peers. In fact, a good
case could be made for developing a contrarian approach.
Planning a Transition from One Set of
Brand-Story Relationships to Another
Now that you understand how the model can plot a set of static
relationships, let’s discuss another advantage of this model: plotting
transitions among families of brand-stories over time.
Think of the model as a continuum that enables your organization to
migrate the relationships of its brand-stories from one approach to any
other, choosing both the type of relationship and the resulting benefits.
Here’s how this works:
A move toward the right side of the continuum will decrease the
dominance of the parent brand-story.

» A move toward the left side will increase the dominance of the
parent brand-story.
When companies are introducing new assets, or building assets that they
may want to divest, one option is to move toward the right side of the
model, either in discrete steps or in one large leap. Making this transition
will provide the ability to tailor messages for each individual child, while
insulating the parent and children from each other.
During mergers and acquisitions, however, it is not unusual to start out
with many individual brand-stories. Purchased brand-stories typically enter
the model as children-only. A strategic decision must then be made: What
relationship should ultimately be presented to the public?
Migrating some or all of the brand-stories to the far left–making them
parent-only–would provide multiple benefits, such as greater budget
efficiency. The entire organization would then be seen as parent-only, which
would provide the ability to maintain a single brand-story despite a stream
of ongoing acquisitions.
Let’s take a look at the different options available to a fictitious company
XYZ Co., which has just acquired a set of individual companies, ABC,
DEF, and GHI, each with its own brand-story. What are the possible
relationships–and the implications of these realtionships–between the
parents and the children? See figure 38.
Figure 38. The individual offspring could remain as children-only, with
little or no mention of XYZ.

In the first option, the individual offspring could remain separate, as
children-only. No marketing changes would need to be made, but the
budget efficiency is very low.
In the second option (Figure 39), the parent can be introduced through a
children-dominant approach. The individual children would remain,
augmented only by a small typographic addition to the logotype.
Figure 39. A children-dominant approach keeps much of the equity of the
children’s existing brand-stories.
This approach has the advantage of speed and convenience; it is both
simple and quick to make a small change to the logos on the individual
websites, business cards, etc. This effort could result in greater harmony
among the individual logotypes, while leaving the presented relationships as
an embodiment of the children-dominant approach.
In the third option (Figure 40), the parent can be made the dominant
brand-story by following a parent-dominant approach–subordinating the
original children to the new parent.
In the fourth option (Figure 41), the children could lose their individual
identities entirely, and be subsumed under a parent-only approach.
The need to consider these options is not limited to the aftermath of a
merger or acquisition. Brand-story families do not have to be stuck in one
approach forever. They can migrate from one approach to another over
time.

Figure 40. A parent-dominant approach subordinates
the original children to the new parent.
Be aware, however, that a shift in approach requires both resources and
the willingness to reeducate your audiences about the nature of your family
relationships, and so must not be undertaken lightly.
Figure 41. In the parent-only approach, the children lose their individual
identities entirely.
In summary, with foresight and careful planning, you can “dial in” the
strategy that makes the most sense for your family of brand-stories, now
and into the future.

Extending the Model
Consider the example of Tylenol, which is shown in Figure 28 as a
children-only approach. How should brand-stories such as Tylenol PM or
Tylenol Cold and Cough be handled? The model will have limited utility
unless it can accommodate these types of relationships. Are they
grandchildren (as shown in Figure 42) or should the labels shift, so that
McNeil becomes the grandparent, Tylenol the parent, and Tylenol PM
becomes an example of a child in the parent-dominant approach (Figure
43)?
Either approach can work. In one sense, the labels at the top of the figure
are a sliding scale that can be adjusted left or right to handle each individual
situation. The absolute label being used is less important than the ability to
address the different marketing relationships among family members.
Despite the relative simplicity of the model, it is flexible enough to
handle either situation, and most important, either application would enable
a discussion of the pros and cons of a particular marketing relationship
between brand-stories. So arranging the scale so McNeil is the parent and
Johnson and Johnson is the grandparent (Figure 42) would be appropriate to
support a discussion of all the different children that McNeil owns, such as
Tylenol, Zyrtec, etc. And arranging the scale so Tylenol is the parent
(Figure 43) would be appropriate to support a discussion of all the children
brand-stories in the Tylenol family, such as Tylenol PM, Tylenol Cough and
Cold, etc.
Figure 42. The model can accommodate multiple family relationships.
Here, Tylenol PM is depicted as a grandchild.
Figure 43. Here, Tylenol PM is depicted as a child, while other brand-
stories have been shifted; for example, Johnson & Johnson is now a great-

grandparent.
This is one of the primary values of this model: it provides a framework
for a strategic marketing discussion and helps compare and contrast the
advantages and the disadvantages of the various possible approaches in
defining the relationships among families of brand-stories in life science
marketing.
Brand-Stories and the Launch of New
Products and Services
This model also can be used to figure out your organization’s optimal
brandstory relationships for new product or service launches.
For example, a new product launch under the children-dominant model
would achieve many of the benefits achieved by a merger under the same
model. In this sense, a product or service launch can be viewed as a merger
out of thin air; that is, the acquisition of a product or service that did not
exist before.
AN EXAMPLE: PLANNING A TRANSITION
STRATEGY

Forma worked with a client during a consolidation of several similar
life science business-to-business service organizations. There were
six individual organizations that were purchased to form a new
family of individual children.
Without divulging all the strategic reasons that were proposed for
the various transitions, the tactical expression of Forma’s strategies
took the children quickly from a children-only approach to a
children-dominant approach. Then, after a period of preparation, a
new organization was launched under the parent-only approach.
During this final transition, the original brand-stories for the
individual children were phased out in favor of the brandstory of the
new parent.
This enabled the organization to be presented as a single large
organization, one better able to compete on a global scale. In
addition, this approach made further acquisitions simple to envision,
without worrying about the types of organizations that might be
acquired.
Whether it is a merger, acquisition, launch, or divestiture, when it comes
to establishing the relationships between the new entities, mapping those
relationships with this model provides you with a framework to guide your
strategic discussion and judge the potential implications of your
organization’s strategic decisions.

Appendix 2
MARKETING PERFORMANCE
ASSESSMENT
Are you curious about how well your organization is doing with your
marketing efforts? This short assessment is designed to give you some
feedback.
With 24 questions, this assessment can only provide a big-picture view of
your marketing performance and how it compares to best practices. In other
words, this assessment is a quick appraisal of the state of your marketing
and lead-generation activities, but it is no substitute for a focused, detailed
examination. To use a health analogy, this assessment is like measuring
your BMI (body mass index); though it cannot substitute for a complete
physical examination, it does give an overview of some issues surrounding
your health.
This assessment should be easy and simple: don’t think too hard about
any one question. You should know the answer quickly. If you have any
doubt about what your answer should be, choose the response you feel most
sure about.
There are two ways to take this assessment. You can take it right here in
this appendix, or you can go to
MakingTheComplexCompelling.com/Bonus/Assessment and you’ll have
access to an online version of the assessment. Taking the online version has
several advantages: your score will be totaled automatically, and you’ll
have access to additional information (unavailable in this volume) to help
you interpret your results. Additionally, taking this assessment online could
allow you to track your progress over time.
Please answer every question in each of the following six sections.

a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
This assessment is available online at
MakingTheComplexCompelling.com/Bonus/As
sessment
Section One–Your Position
1. Does your organization have a unique, well-defined position (also known
as a unique value proposition)–one that you are trying to “own” in your
market sector?
I don’t know.
We don’t have a well-defined position.
Our position is well defined, but it’s not that different from our key
competitors.
Our position is truly distinct from all of our competitors.
2. Is your position documented for your internal audiences (employees) in a
clearly written statement? (Please note, I am not referring to your mission
statement or your vision statement, which are also for external audiences.)
Our position is well defined but isn’t written down.
We have a position statement written down, but we don’t refer to it as
we plan and implement our tactical marketing efforts.
We have our position documented in a clearly written position
statement. We refer to this document often; it guides our tactical
marketing efforts.

a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
3. How well is your position understood within your organization?
We don’t have a common understanding of our position.
Our position may be understood clearly by some, but this
understanding is not shared throughout the company.
Our position is widely understood within the organization.
Management continues to stress this position to the entire
organization.
4. Is this position clearly and consistently articulated in your brand-story
(including your tagline, messages, visual appearance, and trademarks)?
No.
Only a few of the components of our brand-story (e.g., our messages)
articulate our position clearly and consistently. Other components of
our brand-story do not.
Many of the components of our brand-story (e.g., our tagline and
some of our messages) articulate our position clearly and consistently,
but there is still some inconsistency within our brand-story.
Our entire brand-story (including our tagline, messages, visual
design, and trademarks) communicates the same position clearly and
consistently.
Section Two–Your Brand-Story
5. What is the focus of your marketing messages?
Our messages are unfocused and vary widely.

b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
Our messages tend to focus on us: who we are and the features of our
products and/or services.
Our messages tend to focus on a mix of features and benefits. Our
messages could be more customer-centric.
All of our messages are written in customer-centric language and
focus on the benefits of our products and/or services.
6. Have you tested your messages with prospects or customers?
No, we’ve never tested our messages with prospects or customers.
We occasionally test our messages informally–by asking a small
selection of customers what they think about individual messages.
We have tested our messages–infrequently–with both customers and
prospects using formal testing methods to determine how important,
believable, and compelling these messages are.
We routinely test our messages with customers and prospects using
formal testing methods to determine how important, believable, and
compelling these messages are. We use the results to guide our
marketing efforts.
7. Are your messages consistent across all touchpoints, such as your
website, e-mail blasts, brochures, and trade-show booths?
Our messages are inconsistent across our touchpoints.
Some of our messages are consistent, but many are inconsistent.
Many of our messages are consistent, but not all. We have standards
or guidelines for creating messages, but we don’t use or apply them
consistently.

d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
Our messages are consistent across all touchpoints. We have a clear
set of standards or guidelines that we use when we create or apply
messages.
8. Do you monitor and manage your brand-story (e.g., your tagline,
messages, visual appearance, and trademarks) to ensure consistency, using a
set of standards such as brand standards or a style guide?
We seldom monitor our brand-story. As a result, it is extremely
inconsistent.
We occasionally monitor our brand-story. We do not refer to brand
standards. As a result, our consistency leaves a lot to be desired.
We monitor our brand-story consistently. We do have a set of
standards, but they are not widely understood or adopted, particularly
by vendors.
We monitor our brand-story consistently. We have a set of standards,
and they are widely understood and followed.
Section Three–Personal Interaction
9. Do you have a clearly defined set of topics (or a sales script) that is
covered in all sales presentations or outbound calls?
No, each salesperson makes this up on his or her own.
We have a verbally shared understanding of the important points that
should be covered in each outbound solicitation, but we do not
monitor a salesperson’s performance in this regard.
We have documented the important points that should be covered in
each outbound solicitation, but these points seem to be followed only
rarely.

d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
We have documented the important points that should be covered in
each outbound solicitation. We train and monitor our team as
necessary to ensure that these points are followed consistently.
10. Do you attend or exhibit at industry trade shows?
We don’t attend or exhibit at trade shows.
We attend or exhibit at the same shows every year. We don’t really
track how effective they are.
We evaluate our mix of trade shows every couple of years.
We evaluate our mix of trade shows every year, and make a decision
about which shows to attend based on a set of clearly defined
decision criteria.
11. Before you attend or exhibit at trade shows do you use targeted
marketing–such as preshow mailers, e-mails, or phone calls–to drive traffic
to your booth or to schedule meetings?
We don’t attend or exhibit at trade shows.
We hardly ever use these tactics to drive traffic to our booth or set up
meetings.
Our individual salespeople are responsible for using these tactics;
some are much more successful than others.
We carefully plan and implement company-wide targeted marketing
efforts to drive traffic to our booth and set up meetings.
12. Which of the following best describes your use of e-mail or direct mail
as a part of your marketing strategy?

a)
b)
c)
d)
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
We do not use e-mail blasts/direct mail as part of our marketing
strategy.
We use e-mail blasts/direct mail, but we do not pay a lot of attention
to the results.
We use e-mail blasts/direct mail and we track their performance.
We use e-mail blasts/direct mail, and we use A/B testing and have
integrated the performance data with the visitor’s behavior data from
our website.
Section Four–Paid Exposure
13. Which of the following touchpoints does your organization use on a
regular basis? Check all that apply.
In-person contact (e.g., trade shows, symposia, conferences, etc.)
Direct mail or e-mail
Print (e.g., brochures, PDFs, etc.)
Website
Twitter and/or blog posts
Advertising (e.g., print, online, pay-per-click, etc.)
Social media (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)
Video (e.g., on your website or on a specific video site, such as
YouTube)
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Sponsorships

a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
14. Have you clearly identified which website performance metrics are
critical to your business success (e.g., signups, conversions, leads,
purchases, etc.)?
No, we have not identified any website performance metrics.
We have identified just a few metrics, like total website visits. We
monitor these infrequently.
We have identified many metrics. We track these regularly.
We have identified many metrics, which we track regularly. We have
carefully structured programs in place to improve our performance on
these metrics.
15. Which of the following best describes your investment in managing the
visitor experience on your website?
We do not understand how to manage the visitor experience.
I am not sure if we invest in our visitor experience, but our website
needs help.
We invest in our visitor experience, but we do not track individual
visitors.
We invest in our visitor experience and use marketing-automation
software to track individual visitors and optimize their experience.
16. Which of the following best describes your search engine optimization
(SEO) program?
We do not have an SEO program.
We’ve run an SEO program in the past, but it’s not very active now.

c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
We have an active SEO program that focuses primarily on link
building.
We have an active SEO program in place that focuses on link
building and optimizing our results for a clearly defined set of
keywords and key phrases.
Section Five–Content Marketing
17. How often are you generating new thought-leadership content, such as
white papers, blog posts, webinars, etc.?
We never generate thought-leadership content.
We generate thought-leadership content very rarely (once or twice a
year).
We generate thought-leadership content frequently.
We generate thought-leadership content according to a strategy and
on a schedule.
18. What is the focus of your thought-leadership content?
We do not generate thought-leadership content.
Our content focuses primarily on promoting our products and
services.
Our content focuses primarily on non-sales-oriented educational
thought leadership.
Our content focuses exclusively on non-sales-oriented educational
thought leadership that is unique in the marketplace.

a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
19. What information must a visitor to your website provide in order to
receive access to your content?
Visitors must provide extensive information (such as name, title, e-
mail address, company name, phone number, and physical address) to
receive access to any of our content.
Visitors must provide minimal information (such as name, title, and
e-mail address) to receive access to most of our content.
Visitors can access all of our content without providing any
identifying information.
Visitors can access most of our content without providing any
identifying information. For some carefully selected content, visitors
must provide minimal information (such as name, title, and e-mail
address).
20. Do you have an active program that encourages and asks your audiences
to subscribe to your content, resulting in an ever-growing list of
subscribers?
We do not generate thought-leadership content.
We do not actively encourage our audiences to subscribe to our
content.
We have some methods that we use to encourage our audiences to
subscribe to our content, but they are implemented only
intermittently.
Yes, we have an active program (including a call to action on almost
every page of our website) that results in an ever-growing list of
subscribers.
Section Six–Earned Exposure

a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
21. Does your organization make consistent efforts to raise your public
profile by working with an employee, consultant, or firm responsible for
public relations?
No.
We have worked with these types of employees or firms in the past,
but we don’t put much emphasis on this effort.
We work with these types of employees or firms intermittently (as the
situation demands).
We have an ongoing effort that is consistent and focused to work with
these types of employees or firms.
22. How often do members of your organization speak locally or nationally
at conferences, seminars, or trade shows?
We never speak.
We are sometimes invited to speak.
We are often invited to speak, and if we receive compensation it
might be in the form of free attendance to the event.
We are often invited to speak and are frequently paid a speaking fee.
23. How involved is your organization with social media (such as LinkedIn
and other outlets)?
We do not participate significantly in social media.
The bulk of our participation in social-media conversations is limited
to reading, not contributing. Occasionally, we will contribute to a few
social-media conversations.

c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
a)
b)
c)
d)
We regularly participate in and contribute to social-media
conversations related to our area of expertise.
We consistently lead social-media conversations related to our area of
expertise.
24. How often have members of your organization written articles for
national trade publications?
We have never written articles for national trade publications.
We have written a few articles for national trade publications.
We have written many articles for national trade publications.
We have written many articles for national trade publications and we
have an active campaign to develop these types of opportunities.
Scoring Your Marketing Performance
Assessment
I encourage you to take this quiz online at
MakingTheComplexCompelling.com/Bonus/Assessment. If you do, your
scores will be totaled automatically and there will be additional information
available to assist you in interpreting your results.
Scoring is simple. Each answer gets a certain number of points:
0
3
6
10

For question 13, each selected answer gets a single point.
Total all the points in each section and write your answers in the spaces
provided below. The maximum total for any of the six sections is 40.
___Section one relates to your position (also known as your unique value
proposition). This is the foundation of all high-performance marketing.
High scores in this section reflect positions that are unique, clearly defined,
well understood within the organization, and consistently articulated in your
brand-story. If your score is low, refer to chapters seven and eight.
___Section two relates to your brand-story. Your brand-story should be the
articulation of your unique position. High scores in this section reflect a
brand-story that is customer-centric, tested with audience members,
consistently applied, and well managed. If your score is low, refer to
chapters nine and 10.
___Section three relates to the lowest rung on the ladder of lead generation:
your personal interaction efforts (one-on-one and one-on-a-few), such as
sales presentations and trade shows. High scores in this section reflect
efforts that are well documented, consistently shared internally, and well
managed. If your score is low, refer to chapter 11.
___Section four relates to your paid exposure. There are many possible
activities on this rung of the ladder of lead generation–I’ve chosen to focus
primarily, but not exclusively, on the website, because that’s one of the most
significant tactics available on this rung. High scores in this section reflect
well-managed efforts relating to managing the visitor experience, your
search engine optimization, and other performance metrics. If your score is
low, refer to chapter 11.
___Section five relates to your content-marketing efforts, the newest rung
on the ladder of lead generation. High scores in this section reflect efforts
that result in content that is unique, freely available, generated frequently,
and well promoted. If your score is low, refer to chapters 11, 12, and 13.
___Section six relates to the highest rung on the ladder of lead generation:
earned exposure. High scores in this section reflect well-managed efforts to

raise your organization’s public profile, such as public relations, speaking
engagements, authorship opportunities, and social-media engagement. If
your score is low, refer to chapters 11, 12, and 13.
If Your Score for This
Section Is between:
Your Marketing Performance for This
Section Is:
0–15 Very poor. Immediate action is needed.
16–25
Poor. You have some of the basics in place,
but you need improvement.
26–35
Acceptable. You are obviously doing some
things well.
36–40
Outstanding. Great job; keep up the good
work.

Index
Page numbers in italic refer to figures.
A
AAA, 135
A/B testing, 161, 224–227, 225
Action stage (of change), 48, 50, 51, 143
Adobe, 135
Advocacy stage (of change), 49
Alchemist archetype, 125
Alexa.com, 208
Alignment, in brand-story, 106–109
Allstate Insurance, 135
Amazon, 74
Anecdotes, using, 111, 114–115
Anonymous shoppers, 230–234
Anthropologie, 135
Apophenia, 120
Apple, 117, 135
Archetype(s), 119–139
benefits of using, 129–130
caution when choosing, 138–139
consistency with, 129–130
damage from, 126–127
defined, 119
examples of, 121–122
history of, in marketing, 121
identifying characteristics/attributes/ actions of, 136
key question to ask when using, 130–131
in life science marketing, 122–123, 127–129, 137–138
and pattern recognition, 120–121
shadows of, 126–127, 137
10-step process for choosing an effective, 131–138
12 families of, 123, 123–126, 126
and unique brand-story, 118–119, 139
Archetypes in Branding (Hartwell and Chen), 123
Arrogance archetype, 126
Assessment of marketing performance, 277–292
brand-story, 280–281
content marketing, 286–287

earned exposure, 288–289
outbound solicitation, 282–283
paid exposure, 284–285
position, 278–279
scoring, 290–292
Assets, ability to divest/acquire, 264–265
Athlete archetype, 132
Attention
getting the audience’s, 33
paying, 235
Attribution challenge, 215–216, 216
Audience(s)
brand-story and perceptions of, 108–109
and brand-story family relationships, 259, 261–262
and content strategy, 189–190
focusing on your, 180
identifying archetype of, 131
internal vs. external, 246
listening to your, 192–194
Audience(s) continued
in marketing mechanism of action, 59–60, 62
position from perspective of, 74
presenting choices to, 174, 176
in ROI pathway, 212, 213, 213, 215–219
search engines as, 109
target, 87–88, 93–95
Auditory channels, 112
Authenticity, of your position, 71
Automated marketing, 241–242, 247
B
Band-Aid, 135
Being complete (as priority of science), 23
Being systematic (as priority of science), 23–24
Believability, of your position, 73–74
Bezos, Jeff, 74
Big data, 247
Brand archetypes. See Archetype(s)
The Brand Gap (Neumeier), 113
Brands and branding, 101–104
in marketing mechanism of action, 57–58
research on, 34–36
Brand-story(-ies), 101–115, 251–276
and acquisition/divestiture of assets, 264–265
and anecdotes, 114–115
assessing your, 280–281
and audiences’ perceptions, 108–109
brand vs., 101–104
and budget efficiency, 262–263
building a strong, 110–115

clearly articulating your, 238–239
consistency and alignment in, 106–109, 239
and damage control, 263–264
emotional layer of, 112–113
family relationships between, 253–258, 270–274
as foundation of LOLG, 150, 151
and launch of new products/services, 275–276
life science sector examples, 265–270
as link between strategy and tactics, 106
in marketing mechanism of action, 57–58, 61, 62, 63
as new paradigm, 104–106
and number of visible impressions, 261–262
and perceived complexity of relationships between, 260–261
possible relationships between families of, 257–258
primary purpose of, 104
as RNA of marketing, 104
and tailoring of messages, 263
and touchpoints, 142
transitioning between sets of, 270–274
uniqueness of, 118–119, 139
and voice of the organization, 259–260
Budget efficiency, 262–263
Bully archetype, 122
Bumpers, 201
Business models, disintegrating, 16
Buying process, 45–53
misconceptions about, 45
support for buyer in, 46
and transtheoretical model of change, 46–52
C
Campaigns, marketing, 239
Car, buying a, 50
Caregiver archetype, 124, 131, 132, 135
Chanel, 135
Change, transtheoretical model of, 46–52, 47, 51
Channels, marketing, 246
Chen, J. C., 123
Chick-fil-A, 121–122, 135
Child archetype, 122
Children-dominant model, 255, 256, 261
Children-only model, 256, 256–257, 261
Chipotle, 135
Cirque du Soleil, 135
Citizen archetype, 124, 135
Claims, translating your position into specific, 98–99
Clear positioning, 70, 248
CNN, 135
Coke, 135
Cold calls, 148

Colors, corporate, 111
Commoditization, avoiding, 76
Communicating (as priority of marketing), 25
Companion archetype, 130, 132
Compelling aspect, of position, 74
Compete.com, 208
Competitors
identifying archetypes of, 131–132, 133
positioning and your, 92
Comprehending (as priority of science), 22
Consistency
in archetypes, 129–130
in brand-story, 106–109, 239
in measuring marketing ROI, 223
Consolidation, 247
Consumer Reports, 73, 135
Contemplation stage (of change), 47, 48, 50–52
Content creation, 184–185, 199–203
Content development life cycle, 183, 183–185
Content environment, 190–192
Content marketing, 165–185, 168, 187–188
attitudes for successful, 180–181
and audience choice, 174, 176
benefits of, 169–170, 178–180
defined, 166
essential core of, 167
future of, 209–210
goal of, 176
interruption marketing vs., 172, 174
and Ladder of Lead Generation, 177–178
and life-cycle management, 209
in life science sector, 176–177, 182
outsourcing of, 181–182
peer-review publishing vs., 170–172, 173, 175
as rung on LOLG, 145, 146, 151
tracking effectiveness of, 207–208
value of, 168, 169
Content maximization, 185, 203–207
Content promotion, 241
Content strategy, 184, 187, 188, 189–199
audiences and, 189–190
environment and, 190–192
listening as part of, 192–194
personas and, 190
and success plan, 194–199
Control challenge, 216, 217
Conversions, 160–161
Core competencies, 16
Corporate trademarks, 31–32

Cost increases, 16
Creativity, 112–113
Creator archetype, 125, 135
Credit, limited, 17
Crick, Francis, 18
CRM, 240
Crossing the Chasm (Moore), 86
Current offering, positioning statement based on your, 95
Customers
anonymous, 230–234
and your brand-story, 59
D
Damage control, 263–264
Demand, rising, 18
Deming, W. Edwards, 224
Describing (as priority of science), 22–23
Design, 112–113
Differentiated image, creating a
with publishing, 179
with unique benefits, 117–118
with a unique brand-story, 118–119
Differentiation, 19, 39–43, 41
Discounts, 74
Discoveries, new, 18
Disintegrating business models, 16
DNA, 18, 67–68
Duke University, 34
Dyson, 135
E
Earned exposure, 145, 146, 147, 151, 288–289
Economic challenges, 17
Editors, 189–190
Educating (as priority of marketing), 26
Education, in transtheoretical model of change, 52
Educational communication, 52
Efficiencies, decreasing, 16–17
Emotional layer, of brand-story, 112–113
Environment
content, 190–192
in marketing mechanism of action, 60, 62
European Medicines Agency (EMA), 23
Evil Dictator archetype, 122
Explorer archetype, 123, 125, 135, 136
External audiences, 246
F
Facebook, 171

FedEx, 255
Flickr, 171, 206
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 16, 18, 23, 42, 147
Ford, Henry, 16
Forma Life Science Marketing, 13
Free shipping, 74
Future
of content marketing, 209–210
of life science marketing, 245–248
Future offerings, in positioning statement, 95
G
Gatekeepers, 189–190
Geico, 135
Genentech, 135
Genetic code, 18
GIGO (garbage in, garbage out), 226
Gillings, Dennis, 114
Giving away information, 180, 197–198
Globalization, 15, 247
Goal(s)
of content marketing, 176
of marketing vs. science, 27–29
Godin, Seth, 172
Godiva, 135
Google, 135, 174, 191, 212, 232
Google Alerts, 193
Google Analytics, 208
Graphs, 24–25, 28
Great Recession, 14, 17
Greenpeace, 135
H
Häagen-Dazs, 135
Harley-Davidson, 135
Hartwell, M. P., 123
The Hero and the Outlaw (Mark and Pearson), 121
Hero archetype, 123, 124, 126, 135
High-performance marketing
and anonymous shoppers, 230–234
and differentiation, 43
leads generated by, 229
offering value in, 234–236
prerequisites for, 237–242
and shifting relationship between sales and marketing, 236–237
tactics for, 242–244
High-quality content, increasing importance of, 248
I

Image(s)
audience-centric, 103–104
and brand-story, 111
position vs., 96
Immunity to marketing, myth of, 31–37
Importance of your position, to your audiences, 72–73
Impressions, visible, 261–262
Inbound leads, 148
Industry influencers, 190
Influencing (as priority of marketing), 26–27
Information
explosion of, 190
giving away, 180, 197–198
Innocent archetype, 124, 135
Innovator archetype, 138–139
Inspiration, in transtheoretical model of change, 50, 52
Inspiring (as priority of marketing), 26
Internal audiences, 246
Interruption marketing, 172, 174, 236
iPhone, 117
J
Jester archetype, 119, 121–122, 125, 135
Johnson & Johnson, 257, 263, 275
Jung, C. G., 121
L
Ladder of Lead Generation (LOLG), 141–163
assessing performance of your, 156, 158–159
brand-story as foundation of, 150
and content marketing, 177–178
creating your own, 153–154
optimizing your, 159–163
position on, 151
rungs on, 144–151, 145
sales funnel vs., 143, 143–144
template for, 154–156, 157
and touchpoints, 107
and value of leads, 148
ways to use the, 152–153
Lead(s). See also Ladder of Lead Generation (LOLG)
defined, 142
from high-performance marketing, 229
inbound vs. outbound, 148
qualified, 142–143, 236–237
Leadership, thought, 111, 176–177
Life-cycle management, 209
Life science marketing
archetypes in, 122–123, 127–129, 137–138
determining ROI in, 212–224

future of, 245–248
and strategic content creation, 199–203, 206–207
uniqueness of, 211–212
Life science sector
content marketing in, 176–177, 182
examples of brand-stories in, 265–270
reasons for failure of products/services in, 11
turmoil in, 15
Life Technologies, 102, 254, 255, 258
LinkedIn, 135, 171, 192, 206
Lipitor, 17
Listening, to your audiences, 192–194
Logical layer, of brand-story, 112
Logos, 31–32, 33–34, 102, 111
LOLG. See Ladder of Lead Generation
Lover archetype, 123, 124, 135
M
Magician archetype, 125, 135
Maintenance stage (of change), 49
Manhattan Project archetype, 134
Mark, Margaret, 121, 122, 129–130
Market context, of positioning statement, 89
Marketing. See also Content marketing;
High-performance marketing
differentiation through, 19
five priorities of, 25–26
impact of, 36–37
position as foundation for effective, 83–84
push vs. pull, 104–105
relationship between sales and, 236–237
worldview of, 25–27, 29
Marketing automation, 241–242, 247
Marketing campaigns, 239
Marketing channels, 246
Marketing claims, 42
Marketing immunity, myth of, 31–37
Marketing mechanism of action (MMOA), 55–66, 56, 62
application of, 61–63
audiences component of, 59–60
brand-story component of, 57–58
environment component of, 60
example of, 63–66
organization component of, 56–57
touchpoints component of, 58–59
Marketing messages, 32–33
Marketing ROI
attribution challenge to determining, 215–216, 216
control challenge to determining, 216, 217
difficulty of measuring, 219–220

guidelines for measuring, 221–224
for individual marketing activities, 214
methodology challenge to determining, 219, 219
multiple buyer-types challenge to determining, 218, 218
revising metrics for, 227
and sales pathway, 212–213, 213
split testing for determining, 224–227, 225
and uniqueness of marketing function in life science organizations, 211–212
visibility challenge to determining, 215, 215
Matchmaker archetype, 128, 129, 136
Mayo Clinic, 135
McDonald’s, 254
McNeil Consumer Healthcare, 254, 256–258, 263, 275
Measuring
of content strategy effectiveness, 198–199
and high-performance marketing, 240
increasing importance of, 247–248
of marketing ROI, 219–224
Mechanism of action, 55. See also Marketing
mechanism of action (MMOA)
Medical-device products, 265–266
Mercedes-Benz, 122, 135
Messages
brand-story in, 111
marketing, 32–33
tailoring your, 263
Metadata, 196, 197
Methodology challenge, 219, 219
Metrics
content-marketing, 207–208
and high-performance marketing, 240
questioning your, 227
MMOA. See Marketing mechanism of action
Monetization, 166
Money-back guarantees, 74
Moore, Geoffrey A., 86
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 135
Motivation to buy, 46
Multiple buyer-types challenge, 218, 218
N
Nabisco, 255
Name, organization, 110
Narrative, 101, 104
NASA, 135
National Geographic, 135
Neumeier, Marty, 113
Newton, Isaac, 22
Nike, 135
“Non-unique” products and services, 80–83

O
Occupy Wall Street, 135
Olfactory channels, 112
Optum, 254, 255, 258
Organization
voice of the, 259–260
Outbound leads, 148
Outbound marketing
positioning for, 75–76
Outsourcing, of content marketing, 181–182
P
Paid exposure, 145, 145–146, 151, 284–285
Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (Schwartz), 174
Parent-dominant model, 255, 255, 261
Parent-only model, 254, 254, 261
Pattern recognition, 120, 120–121
Paying attention, 235
Pay-per-click (PPC), 231, 233, 241
PDF documents, 200
Pearson, Carol S., 121, 122, 129–130
Peer-review publishing, 170–172, 173, 175
Personal interactions, 144, 145, 145, 151
Personality, organizational, 102–103
Personas, 190, 240
Pfizer, 17
Pharmaceutical products, 265–266
Pinterest, 171
Pixar, 135
Ponzi schemes, 72
Popper, Karl, 23
Position (positioning), 57, 63, 67–84
from audiences’ perspective, 74
authenticity of, 71
believability of, 73–74
clarity of, 70, 248
compelling aspect of, 74
and the competition, 92
condensing your, 96–98
defined, 67
as DNA of marketing, 67–68
as foundation for effective marketing, 83–84
and image, 96
importance of, 72–73
on Ladder of Lead Generation, 71
with “non-unique” products and services, 80–83

for outbound marketing, 75–76
as strategic guide, 91–93
sustainability of, 72
translating, into specific claims, 98–99
uniqueness of, 71, 76–80, 238
Positioning statement, 85–99
characteristics of, 85–86
market context of, 89
pitfalls in creating your, 93–95
private nature of, 85, 86
and reasons to believe, 90–91
target audience for, 87–88, 93
template for creating a, 86–91
unique benefits described in, 89–90, 95
Potential customers, 59
PPC. See Pay-per-click
Precontemplation stage, 47, 49–52, 143, 148
Predicting (as priority of science), 23
Preparation stage (of change), 47, 48, 50, 51
Privacy, of your positioning statement, 85, 86
Prochaska, James, 46, 144. See also
Transtheoretical model of change
Procter and Gamble, 257
Product launches, 275–276
Profiling, 240
Prospects, 142
P7 cycle, 183, 183–185, 203, 207, 210
Publishers, 189–190, 248
Publishing, 204–206
Pull marketing, 105
Purchasing, as action stage, 48
Push marketing, 104–105
Q
Qualified leads, 142–143, 236–237
Quantcast.com, 208
Quintiles, 102, 114–115, 254
R
Rational layer, of brand-story, 112
Reasons to believe, 73–74
Reason to buy, mistaking uniqueness for, 95
Reassurance, seeking, 50–52
Reassuring (as priority of marketing), 26
Rebel archetype, 125, 135
Refutability, 23
Regulatory scrutiny
homogenization resulting from, 13–14
uncertainty of, 17–18
and unique benefits, 81

REI, 135
Republishing, 205–206
Repurposing content, 204–205
Return on investment (ROI), 214. See also
Marketing ROI
Revenues, decreasing, 17
RNA, 104
ROI pathway, 212–213, 213
Rorschach inkblots, 120, 120
Ruler archetype, 119, 122
S
Sage archetype, 124, 128–131, 135, 136
Sales, relationship between marketing and, 236–237
Salesforce.com, 240
Sales funnel, 143, 143–144
Sales pathway, 212–213, 213
Schmidt, Eric, 212
Schwartz, Barry, 174
Science, 21–29
goals of, 27–28
marketing compared with, 25–29
worldview of, 21–25, 29
Scientific research instrumentation and supplies, 268–270
Scientist archetype, 125, 128, 129, 138–139
Search engine optimization (SEO), 179, 196, 197, 202, 204, 205, 208, 233, 241
Search engines, 109
Self publishing, 204
SEO. See Search engine optimization
Service organizations, life-science, 267–268
Shadows, archetype, 126–127, 137
Shipping, free, 74
SMEs. See Subject matter experts
The Smithsonian, 135
Social media, 147, 171, 206–207, 241, 246
Sold stage (of change), 49
Sovereign archetype, 119, 122, 123, 125, 135
Spartan Army archetype, 134
SpeedyTech (fictional company), 63–65
Split testing, 224–227, 225
Standards of efficacy, increasing, 17
Stem cells, 18
Storytelling, 101, 104
Strategic “road map,” your position as a, 91–93
Strategy, brand-story as link between tactics and, 106
Style, organizational, 111
Subject matter experts (SMEs), 178, 181, 193–194
SurveyGizmo.com, 208
SurveyMonkey.com, 208
Sustainability, of your position, 72

Symbols, 102, 111
T
Tactics
brand-story as link between strategy and, 106
for high-performance marketing, 242–244
Tactile channels, 111
Tagline, 110
Target audience, for positioning statement, 87–88, 93–95
Taxonomy, 196, 197
Technologies, new, 18
Template(s)
for creating a positioning statement, 86–91
for creating Ladder of Lead Generation, 154–156
Termination stage (of change), 49
Testing
of marketing messages, 138
split (A/B), 161, 224–227, 225
of touchpoints, 161
Thought leadership, 111, 176–177
Touchpoints, 63, 142
and brand-story, 142
defined, 107
in ROI pathway, 212, 213, 215–219, 216
testing your, 161
Tracking, 240
Trademark(s)
and branding, 102–104, 111
corporate, 31–32
Transtheoretical model of change, 46–52, 47, 51, 109
Tricksters, 119
Trust, cultivation of, 191
Tumblr, 171
12 families (of archetypes), 123, 123–126, 126
Twitter, 206
Tylenol, 263, 274
Typography, 111
U
Undifferentiated claims, 39–43
Uniqueness
of brand-story, 118–119, 139
demonstrating, in your position, 71, 76–80, 238
in positioning statement, 89–90, 95
and reason to buy, 95
UnitedHealth Group, 258
University of Waterloo (Ontario), 34
U.S. Army, 135

V
Value
articulating unique, 238
offering, in high-performance marketing, 234–236
Venture capitalists, 17
Verbal channels, 110–111
Virgin, 135
Visibility, increasing your, 179
Visibility challenge, 215, 215
Visible impressions, 261–262
Visual channels, 111
Volkswagen, 122, 135
Volvo, 96
W
Walt Disney, 135
Warrior archetype, 132, 136, 137
Watson, James D., 18
Website, your, 199, 207, 208, 239
Woolf Group, 103
Word documents, 200
Worldview(s)
of marketing, 25–27, 29
of science, 21–25, 29
Y
Young and Rubicam, 121, 130
YouTube, 171, 206
Z
Zoomerang.com, 208
Zyrtec, 263

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