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Life Science Marketing Radio

Life Science Marketing Radio

Chris Conner

I interview marketing leaders inside and outside the life sciences (and an occasional scientist) to share the best ideas for making your marketing more effective.
cclifescience.substack.com
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Top 10 Life Science Marketing Radio Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Life Science Marketing Radio episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Life Science Marketing Radio for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Life Science Marketing Radio episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Life Science Marketing Radio - Saving Money in Your Event Budget

Saving Money in Your Event Budget

Life Science Marketing Radio

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11/20/19 • 27 min

For most life science companies, I'm pretty sure the event budget makes up the biggest fraction of the total marcom budget. Sometimes it's over half. If you are producing or hosting the event, such as ...
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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Life Science Marketing Radio - What Kind of Stories Should You Tell on Your Podcast?
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10/06/20 • -1 min

Dodi Axelson explains how Cytiva (formerly GE Healthcare Life Sciences) thinks about heir podcast.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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Life Science Marketing Radio - Sparking Creativity: Innovation Begins with Observation
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10/09/24 • 32 min

With the life science tools industry facing a 7% drop in revenues, innovation and fresh approaches are needed to hold on to your slice of the pie. I spoke with Marina Hop, Managing Director, and Gary Brooks, Creative Director at Viveo Consulting, to explore creativity in life science marketing. Our discussion focused on how creativity can be a powerful tool to not only optimize business operations but also generate new ideas to address these challenges.

In a downturn, companies often retreat into operational efficiency, cutting costs and tightening the reins. However, real growth and differentiation come from creativity—an approach that not only applies to marketing but spans across the entire business strategy, product development, and even internal team dynamics.

Creativity as a Key to Performance

Marina pointed out that while companies are focused on optimizing their operations, there's a limit to how much optimization can drive growth. “The optimization side addresses the bottom line,” she said, “but creativity really addresses the top line.”

I've seen the same pattern—companies cutting budgets and focusing on short-term savings. I once asked my VP of marketing why, instead of cutting back, we didn’t go full throttle to take market share when our competitors were pulling back. My guests agreed on the need to push forward with disciplined creativity, even when times are tough. As Marina pointed out, Bruker—a company that has excelled in this downturn—successfully combines operational excellence with what they call "disciplined entrepreneurialism."

Balancing Operations and Innovation

Gary elaborated on how companies often live in two worlds: the operational world of structure, metrics, and routines, and the innovation world, driven by curiosity and experimentation. He emphasized the importance of maintaining a balance between these two worlds, especially during challenging times. “When companies struggle, they revert back to the operational side because it’s manageable,” he said, but added that without creativity and innovation, growth stalls.

He pointed out, creativity is not just about artistic expression—it's about connecting insights to create something valuable, whether it’s a new marketing channel, product innovation, or strategy.

Creative Thinking in Marketing and Beyond

Around here of course, we’re focused on marketing creativity, and we discussed how companies could be creative not just in their messaging, but in the types of marketing they do. I suggested that creativity in marketing isn’t just about making clever ads, but about exploring new ways to engage with customers—new channels, content types, or interactions. Marina agreed, saying that creativity should permeate any generative business activity, from formulating a strategy to developing a new product.

One key takeaway from this part of the conversation was that creativity shouldn’t be confined to one department. As Gary put it, “It’s not just marketing, it’s communication.” Every interaction a company has, whether with investors, customers, or even internally, is a chance to think creatively about how you present your brand.

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The Power of Observation

Marina introduced a concept that I found particularly interesting—phenomenology, the practice of observing and describing human experiences without immediately analyzing them. This practice helps stimulate creativity by encouraging people to step back, observe, and understand what’s really happening before jumping to conclusions. Viveo might send teams to observe a simple activity, like how people interact in the cafeteria, and then come back and write a narrative about it.

Gary emphasized the importance of observation in creative thinking, noting that many people don't take the time to observe what’s happening around them. “People don’t really observe people doing stuff,” he said. By focusing on observation, companies can gather insights that lead to more informed, creative solutions.

One powerful example Marina shared was when Viveo worked with a client that had developed an automated sample prep system for next-generation sequencing (NGS). The company had expected this product to be a hit because it saved time and effort. But by observing how scientists actually worked in the lab, they realized the product wasn’t solving the problem scientists cared most about—reproducibility. Scientists didn’t mind spending extra time on manual prep because they wanted to ensure the highest quality samples for the expensive s...

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Life Science Marketing Radio - ResearchGate Survey of Scientist Purchase Behavior
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02/23/21 • -1 min

Darren Alvares discusses the results of a ResearchGate survey of scientist purchasing behavior and the impact of COVID 19.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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Life Science Marketing Radio - The Competitive Audit: What and Why

The Competitive Audit: What and Why

Life Science Marketing Radio

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12/15/20 • -1 min

Amy Duncan explains the purpose of a competitive audit for your marketing and what goes into it.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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Life Science Marketing Radio - Positioning and the Most Overlooked Opportunity
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06/03/20 • -1 min

Hamish Mackenzie talks about positioning strategies and the one position that is often overlooked because it seems obvious.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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Life Science Marketing Radio - How to Create Authoritative Content That Matches Audience Intent
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05/19/20 • -1 min

Hans Kaspersetz describes a data driven approach to creating content that Google sees as authoritative and meets your audience needs.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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Life Science Marketing Radio - Switching Jobs in 2022? How to Prepare

Switching Jobs in 2022? How to Prepare

Life Science Marketing Radio

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06/21/22 • 34 min

Darcy Bevalacqua is a career coach and executive recruiter for senior marketing executives over 50. Nevertheless, this episode has good advice for anyone looking to change jobs and even companies that are competing for talent.

Challenges for companies

I asked Darcy about the state of the job market. Companies are having a hard time attracting talent right now. She verified what I have seen a lot on LinkedIn and that is that companies have a hard time “getting candidates through the pipeline in any reasonable period of time. And so many times they lose great candidates because they take too long to make a decision about who they wanna hire.”

The second challenge is compensation. Companies are giving small raises but job switchers are getting 15% raises. Expectations for flexibility and other factors have changes during the pandemic.

Meet the new boss...

Even with those large raises however, more than a third of people who switched jobs last year are looking to move again. Darcy explained that if you don’t understand what motivates you and what you are looking for you can trade bosses and still end up hating the job because it isn’t any different that what you had before.

One thing you, as a job seeker, need to do is really start to think through what is it that I really want in a job?

What is making me unhappy now? Is it the scope of the job? Is it the culture? Is it the lack of flexibility? Is it not enough collaboration or teamwork? Not enough creativity? You need to really look inside and figure out what are your important skills and what motivates you to keep happy in a job.

And once you know those things and you set your career path, it's much easier to look for those in the new opportunity.

In the current environment, she notes that balance is more important than ever and given all that’s going on in the world, people want to work where they feel they are making a difference and making the world a better place.

Getting yourself through the pipeline

As marketers, I hope you’ll all appreciate this. You need to be able to sell your unique skills and do whatever it takes to find that ideal job. Darcy gave an example of a candidate that was not hired but was the 2nd choice. She felt she could really help the company. Darcy encouraged her to talk to the CEO and offer to help as a consultant to demonstrate what she could do. She ended up being hired as the VP of Marketing and got a (ka-ching!) $100,000 raise.

If you’re an older worker, you undoubtedly have skills. But you might have to think about how you frame those to be relevant in today’s market. This is where some coaching could definitely help.

What about imposter syndrome? I personally believe that most people who have it, shouldn’t worry and some of those that don’t probably should. In any case, Darcy laid out some ideas about how to overcome it and focus on what you know you are good at. You should also trust that anyone who invited you to an interview hasn’t made some awful mistake or been somehow fooled by you.

Finally it’s important to keep up a positive routine. It’s easy to start feeling down when the job search is a string of no’s followed by a yes. Volunteering, exercise and a regular get-together with friends are all good options. You’ve got this.

Darcy on LinkedIn

Chat with Chris about content for demand generation.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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Life Science Marketing Radio - Online Marketplaces and Multiple Value Propositions
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04/21/21 • -1 min

Mark talks about the value props for buyers and sellers as well as tailoring them for resistant customers.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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Life Science Marketing Radio - Market Shaping and Staffing Commercial Pre-Launch
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09/21/22 • 34 min

PharmExec.com published a study in 2020 of 25 first commercial launches. 48% of them missed their first year forecast for sales (<70% of forecast).

Almost a third of them outperformed (>130% of forecast). Outperformers started commercial planning more than 2 years ahead of approval and typically spent more on SG&A.

It has to be difficult for a CEO or CFO to devote resources to commercializing a therapy when approval is still uncertain and far away. I invited Maureen Franco and Mike Hodgson to talk about the activities that make these launches successful and who is brought on to make it happen.

Key takeaways:

Understanding the market, customers and market access is important. If it’s misunderstood or unappreciated, even the best product will struggle to get traction.

Positioning your drug, the disease and your company is key. Those things have to fit together. And when they do, it becomes easier to make decisions and attract the right employees to carry your vision through. Strong positioning is the beginning of establishing a culture.

Your first commercial hire will do a lot of educating the founder and others on the value of commercial planning. It can be a lonely position.

As an example of shaping the market and positioning a disease, Mike shared the story of how Pfizer repositioned impotence into erectile dysfunction which made a huge impact on the success of Viagra.

In essence, Pfizer launched two products, right? They relaunched the disease with a totally new name and then they launched their drug...We think that's applicable to just about any condition in any therapy you're launching. You've really gotta... you don't necessarily have to rebrand the disease, but you should understand its perception and its relationship to your product.

PRE Commercial

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Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cclifescience.substack.com
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FAQ

How many episodes does Life Science Marketing Radio have?

Life Science Marketing Radio currently has 212 episodes available.

What topics does Life Science Marketing Radio cover?

The podcast is about Life Sciences, Marketing, Podcasts, Science and Business.

What is the most popular episode on Life Science Marketing Radio?

The episode title 'Saving Money in Your Event Budget' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Life Science Marketing Radio?

The average episode length on Life Science Marketing Radio is 31 minutes.

How often are episodes of Life Science Marketing Radio released?

Episodes of Life Science Marketing Radio are typically released every 13 days, 23 hours.

When was the first episode of Life Science Marketing Radio?

The first episode of Life Science Marketing Radio was released on May 17, 2014.

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