Life Scientists Surveyed on Effective Print Advertising

Fifty-five percent of more than 1,450 life scientists surveyed agree that print advertising helps them understand and discuss their labs needs with suppliers.

ARLINGTON, VA (PRWEB) August 20, 2003 --- Fifty-five percent of more than 1,450 life scientists surveyed agree that print advertising helps them understand and discuss their labs needs with suppliers. Scientists also feel that ads help drive product development and lower prices by spurring competition among biotechnology tools companies.

While there is a degree of skepticism that ads fairly describe a products actual benefits, most of those surveyed are confident of their ability to distinguish between scientific and promotional material appearing in the scientific publications they read.

These were among the many findings in the second edition of Advertising to Life Scientists," released today by market research firm BioInformatics, LLC (http://www.gene2drug.com). The 2003 edition of the report provides unbiased readership profiles and side-by-side comparisons that examine the preferences of life scientists as they relate to fifteen widely read scientific journals, magazines and newspapers, and the advertisements that are contained within their pages.

Life science suppliers invest enormous amounts of time and money in print advertising, but its getting more difficult to know where an ad should be placed due to the proliferation of new publications geared to this market," says Dr. Robin Rothrock, Director of Market Research at BioInformatics, LLC. Indeed, when asked to name the publication they find most useful in their daily work, the respondents to the survey named hundreds of different titles. Despite the diversity of responses, a number of publications, including BioTechniques," Nature," Science," and The Scientist," are the most widely read by the life science community. Other publications enjoy particularly strong followings in specific market segments.

Biotech products and instrumentation are increasingly complex, and 62% of the scientists we surveyed admit that its difficult for them to stay abreast of all the new products available to them," observes Rothrock. From the scientists perspective, ads are a convenient way of becoming an informed consumer."

Scientists are also paying particular attention to ads from certain companies: Invitrogen (NASDAQ 100:IVGN), Amersham Biosciences (NYSE:AHM), Bio-Rad (AMEX:BIO), Sigma-Aldrich (NASDAQ 100:SIAL), and Promega were all cited as having especially attention-grabbing advertisements.

The report helps suppliers evaluate advertising opportunities by providing an understanding of what their scientific customers consider to be most useful in both a publication and an ad. Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) publishers are also using the report to learn more about their readers and support their readership statistics with the goal of attracting more subscribers and advertisers.

Advertising to Life Scientists" contains over 100 charts and/or tables and multiple cross-tabulations for the 32 survey questions, and includes detailed readership profiles of 15 leading scientific publications. For a complimentary Executive Summary of this report, please visit http://www.gene2drug.com/reports.59.html.

ABOUT BIOINFORMATICS, LLC

BioInformatics, LLC (http://www.gene2drug.com) is a market research firm located in Arlington, Virginia. BioInformatics supports marketing, sales and R&D executives in the life science, medical device and pharmaceutical industries through published research reports, custom research and consulting.

BioInformatics sponsors the worlds largest market research panel of scientific customers-The Science Advisory Board (http://www.scienceboard.net)-which consists of more than 15,800 scientists, physicians and other life science and medical professionals from 62 countries who participate in surveys that address emerging technologies, test customer reactions to new product concepts, measure brand awareness and assess advertising effectiveness.

For more information, please contact:

Alyssa Martin
BioInformatics, LLC
2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 250
Arlington, VA 22201
703.778.3080 x12 (phone)
703.778.3081 (fax)
a.martin@gene2drug.com
http://www.gene2drug.com

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