Abstract
Even though advertising is a critical and expensive marketing effort, it is estimated that as much as half of all advertising campaigns are ineffective. To help improve the success of your company' s advertising efforts, BioInformatics' newest report offers insights into advertising creation and design from your customers' -the scientists-perspective.
Based upon a 34-question survey of more than 1,500 life scientists from around the world, Advertising to Life Scientists: Evaluating Ad Concepts is intended to help executives understand what elements are essential in shaping the accessibility, appeal and "call-to-action" message of their advertisements. It also provides guidance as to which publications promise to be the most effective for print advertising based upon specific criteria important to different customer segments. Not all scientific publications are created equal, and the challenge for advertisers is to design memorable ads and place them in publications where they will have the greatest impact.
The Value of Segmentation
Setting clear objectives for the ad becomes easier and measuring the success of the ad becomes possible when segmentation is used to support advertising. Once a life science supplier targets a well-defined market segment, this report can be used to help identify the targeted customer' s reading preferences, develop ads that address the segment' s unique needs and place them in the appropriate publications.
Companies that implement an accountable advertising campaign will gain competitive advantage not only through more effective ads, but also through an improved and greater understanding of their customers.
Such targeted advertising requires on-going market research, which can provide executives with an indispensable tool for setting advertising budgets, monitoring advertising effectiveness and clarifying the relationship between advertising costs and a company' s (or product' s) market performance. Advertising to Life Scientists: Maximizing Ad Effectiveness can be the first step toward tracking changing perceptions and continuously measuring the impact of a company' s ads through more in-depth custom studies.
Print advertising constitutes a large portion of most life science suppliers' promotional mix. While advertising is not typically associated with directly driving sales, it can be effective in generating broad product and brand awareness. Since advertising often accounts for sizable expenditures, it is essential that managers have an understanding of how to manage it effectively.
Ad Concept Testing Model
In addition, this report features a first look at BioInformatics LLC' s Ad Concept Testing service, AdAssay. Based on our unique model, this service provides suppliers with diagnostic insights designed to improve their advertising effectiveness. By measuring the collective "communication effect" of an ad, i.e., its potential impact on awareness, knowledge, and likely course of action, suppliers will be in a better position to determine whether their ads will obtain the results they want. Better advertising can help build brand equity and boost long-term profitability.
Through ad concept testing, an ad can be evaluated for key factors (i.e., actionable, emotional, intellectual and negative) and correlate these factors with specific outcomes (e.g., likeability, ability to convey one' s message, intent to purchase, etc.). This proprietary assessment is done using a mathematical model, based on 15 key attributes to determine advertising effectiveness. Our methodology seeks to explain why a particular ad is likely to be effective or ineffective. Its unique scoring system offers the flexibility necessary to easily accommodate geographic and demographic differences, allowing suppliers to test ads in different target markets.
Table of Contents
Section 1. Analysis and Interpretation of Survey Results
- Executive Overview
- How Researchers Learn About Scientific Information
- Awareness and Usefulness of Leading Life Science Publications
- Parameters to Consider when Selecting Publications for Ad Placement
- Key Readership Profiles of Top Publications
- Researcher' s Perceptions of Suppliers' Advertising Campaigns
- Value of Different Types of Publication Content
- Researchers' Receptivity to Life Science Advertising
- Conclusion
Section 2. Study Methodology and Demographics
- Methodology
- Definition of Terms
- Demographics
- Questionnaire
Section 3. Presentation of Survey Data
- Professional Reading Preferences
- Percent of time spent looking at each type of content
- Number of scientific publications received per month
- Regularly read scientific publications
- Scientific publications that are most likely to help selecting a new product or instrument
- Most useful scientific publications
- Personal subscriptions to publication currently read
- Time spent reading scientific publication
- Action upon receiving a scientific publication
- Primary reason for reading a scientific publication
- Number of other people who read a given copy of a scientific publication
- Readership of online version of a scientific publication
- Saving copies of a scientific publication after reading
- Readership of ads in a scientific publication
- Sources of Product Information
- Most valuable types of product information
- Level of knowledge regarding new products and services to support research
- Sources used and trusted for new product and technique information
- Aspects of an advertisement that would most likely draw attention
- Typical response to an interesting ad
- Most convincing drivers to purchase
- Life science supplier with the most attention-getting ads
- Demographics
Section 4. Introducing Ad Concept Testing
Section 5. Appendices
- Insights and Perspectives
- Cross-Tabulations of Survey Data
- Other Recent Publications
- About BioInformatics
- Our Valued Clients
