Peer Reviewed Articles on How to Develop a Marketing Plan and Strategy
Solutions (Burlingt). Writer manuscript; available in PMC 2019 April xv.
Published in final edited form as:
Solutions (Burlingt). 2018 Apr xv; ix(2): 1.
PMCID: PMC6011750
NIHMSID: NIHMS971774
A Marketing Programme for Scientists: Building Effective Products and Connecting with Stakeholders in Meaningful Means
Claudette Ojo
1Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Educational activity Participant, U.S. EPA, Office of Inquiry and Development, National Wellness and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett, RI 02882
Kate Mulvaney
2U.S. EPA, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Ecology Effects Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett, RI 02882
Marisa Mazzotta
2U.S. EPA, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Partitioning, Narragansett, RI 02882
Walter Berry
2U.S. EPA, Role of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Furnishings Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett, RI 02882
In Cursory
More than e'er before, scientists are under tremendous pressure to demonstrate the usefulness of their work. While millions of dollars are spent yearly to fund the production of various scientific tools and resources, these end products frequently practise not end up in the easily of those they were created to help - either considering stakeholders didn't know they existed or didn't retrieve they would exist of much help. Marketing, a field unremarkably ascribed to business, tin provide scientists and scientific institutions with methods they tin utilize to strategically build products for college rates of buy-in, usage, and exposure.
This commodity presents the core components of marketing, explains how to integrate marketing into scientific research and provides scientists with the 4Ps+1 marketing plan, a template they tin utilize to more finer get their inquiry products and findings into the hands of their desired audiences. In particular, this paper presents a case study detailing how scientists at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) used the marketing programme template during development of their Rapid Benefit Indicators (RBI) research production, a resources created to help stakeholders assess the societal benefits of ecological restoration using not-monetary indicators.
Key Concepts
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A disconnect often occurs between the cosmos of scientific inquiry outputs and their use by intended stakeholders. Even with the diligent efforts of scientists to create products of value, many scientific outputs are underutilized by intended stakeholders.
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Marketing methods can help scientists and scientific institutions more strategically build products to garner college rates of purchase-in, usage, and exposure amongst intended stakeholders.
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Effective marketing incorporates methods that are utilized before, during and after product evolution to keep intended stakeholders in listen throughout the process and nowadays them with a product or resource they will desire.
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The 4Ps +1 marketing plan template can exist used by scientists to more effectively create and distribute their products. Framed within the context of the 4Ps (product, promotion, price, place), a key marketing principle, scientists can use this template to delve deeper into the field and utilize its tenets to their ain piece of work.
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The level of application of the 4Ps +1 marketing plan is up to the scientist, and tin can go more complex or more simplified with each projection iteration. No previous marketing experience is necessary to employ it.
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A team of U.S. EPA scientists applied the 4Ps+ane marketing plan template during the development of their Rapid Benefit Indicators (RBI) research product and establish it to be a useful approach towards scientific product development and dissemination.
Many scientists work diligently to produce tools and resource that can exist used to accost existent globe bug. However, a disconnect oft occurs between the creation of these scientific outputs and their employ by intended stakeholders. Some reasons for this disconnect include limited interest of users throughout the evolution of new products or a lack of marketing effort. Commonly thought of as a topic solely for the purpose of conducting business, or selling people things they don't demand, marketing is, in actuality, a beneficial multidimensional process applicable across various fields, including the sciences. Marketing is divers by the American Marketing Association as "the activeness, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that take value for customers, clients, partners, and gild at large"ane. Aspects of marketing tin be identified in virtually every discipline, including the sciences, where product testing and science communications are among its most mutual usages. Beyond the caste to which marketing strategies are generally employed, scientific institutions and scientists can gain more from applying deliberate and effective marketing strategies towards enquiry creation and dissemination.
Marketing for Science
Marketing scientific tools and resource ofttimes requires a different arroyo than traditional marketing conventions. Many scientific products, specially those from the not-profit, academic, and authorities sectors, do non generally involve financial transactions. However, marketing presents a helpful framework for defining the non-financial value of scientific outputs, and scientists can utilise marketing principles to assistance them to understand user needs and pathways for effective communication. A popular conceptual description of marketing dating back to the 1960s is the marketing mix, or the 4Ps: Product, Promotion, Price, and Place.2,3 Partnerships, also referred to every bit relationship marketing, is a more recently added member of the Ps that is explained along with the original 4Ps and their awarding to science in Table 1.four
Table 1
The traditional marketing 4Ps +1 definitions and their application to science.
| "P" | Explanation in Marketing | Application to Science |
|---|---|---|
| Product |
|
|
| Promotion |
|
|
| Price |
|
|
| Place |
|
|
| Partnerships |
|
|
Table 1 identifies marketing as a process that is relevant to many aspects of science, and applicable from inception to completion of any tool or resource that scientists develop. Effective marketing requires that both traditional business people and scientists alike employ each of the Ps-product, promotion, price, place, and partnerships- earlier, during and after developing their production. This keeps intended buyers or potential users in heed throughout the procedure to produce a production they will want and use.
Case Report: Application of the 4Ps+1 to the Rapid Do good Indicators Approach
Located in Rhode Island, Usa, a team of U.Due south. Environmental Protection Agency inquiry scientists convened to develop the Rapid Do good Indicators (RBI) approach.five The approach was designed to assist restoration managers, watershed groups, and communities with evaluating the social benefits of wetland restoration using non-budgetary indicators. Rhode Island state managers and restoration advocates identified the RBI as a resource they could employ to more effectively carry out their work, and the research team worked to meet that need.
The team consisted of social scientists, ecologists, and environmental economists who were able to draw upon their collective multidisciplinary expertise to develop the production. The RBI was packaged to include a guidebook, which walked users through the site assessment procedure, PDF, Excel- and ArcGIS-based checklist tools to record and summate metrics, and an example application of the RBI to the Woonasquatucket River watershed in Rhode Isle.
For traditional businesses, marketing plans are used to meet a company'southward demand to effectively interact with customers and brand sales.6 The research squad built upon this approach by using a marketing plan to systematically build the desires of their stakeholders into the RBI.
The team modified the 4Ps+one marketing program from standard marketing plans used for businesses to be suitable for scientific application.7,eight The plan was designed to link the desires of the intended product users with the efforts of the scientists throughout product development. Tabular array 2 is an outline of the resulting program, followed by a clarification of how the enquiry team applied each section towards the evolution of the RBI.
Table 2
4Ps +ane Marketing Plan Template for Scientists
| 4Ps+1 Marketing Plan Template for Scientists |
|---|
| Product: What you (the scientist) put into the commutation |
|
| Promotion: How you lot (the scientist) advertise the benefits of the production |
|
| Price: What the tool/resource user puts into the exchange |
|
| Place: Where you lot (the scientist) deliver the production |
|
| Partnerships: Collaboration with other groups |
|
| Bonus: Assessment of Marketing Effectiveness |
|
Production
The product section took the inquiry team direct into marketing by directing them to describe the primary elements of their new product and list the target users. Target users, besides referred to as the target market in traditional business organization literature, are the specific groups of people for whom a product is being developed.9 The development of this section is crucial to the successful marketing of any new production, as people tend to respond most greatly to what they see themselves in.10
Creating a target user grouping consists of compiling an exhaustive list of the stakeholders and others who inspired and/or collaborated in the development of the production, and then further sorting this grouping by selecting appropriate segmentation strategies. Segmentation strategies in marketing are methods used to ascertain customer groups by detail preferences or identifiers, so as to better tailor and deliver products to the ideal user.xi Scientists can apply one or more than of the segmentation strategies listed below in Figure 1, or even create their own to gain deeper insights nearly their target users.
Standard marketing target user segmentation strategies applicable to science. Demographic and behavioral images by Fiona OM and Gilbert Bages from Substantive Project.
The EPA team built their target user listing by outset calculation the names of the stakeholders who voiced a demand for the resource, and then continuously updating it with additional contacts whom colleagues thought may also be interested in the approach. The team applied geographic and industrial segmentation strategies to organize this list, and decided that, because of its organized construction, their list of target users would also be useful as their tool distribution listing. The team's resulting user list included the names and contact data of close to 200 individuals representing the federal, land and local government sectors, as well as ecology NGOs and businesses. Close to threescore% of the target users were based in Rhode Island: an intentional representation past the team, since the RBI was primarily intended for use by local stakeholders given its case references to local waterbodies.
Post-obit the development of their target users, the research team continued with the product section past compiling a list of tools and resources similar to their own that were currently available for use. To do this the team looked at readily available information, pulling insights from a study recently completed by the squad's social scientists that captured the opinions of restoration managers in Rhode Island.12 Many of the managers interviewed for this report expressed the demand for something like the RBI, and gave insights as to which similar products they were using, why they were using them, and what they needed from these types of tools to do their jobs more finer. This data helped the team to fine-melody their product idea and place necessary boundaries on what their resource would and would not exercise in society to arrive an achievable undertaking.
Later on compiling like products' strengths and limitations, the research team was able to more than accurately gauge their product's perceived strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately exam the viability of their product idea. The research squad institute from completing this section that their resource would be a unique offer as compared to those currently available, and that it would add considerable value for their target users.
The team ended this department past noting the anticipated help and maintenance tasks associated with their production. They did this past assessing potential component issues and designating team members who would exist the points of contact to address user inquiries. Finally, the team entered their cursory ideas for future related products.
Promotion
For the promotion component of the marketing program, the inquiry team considered how they would promote the unique aspects of their product to target users. The questions in this department led the research team to ready the central points they would use to persuade their target users into obtaining the RBI. The team adult the post-obit promotional paragraph to summarize the product:
The RBI is an easy-to-use process for assessing restoration sites using not-monetary benefit indicators. The RBI uses readily-available information to judge and quantify benefits to people around an ecological restoration site. Whether y'all are a federal, state, or local managing director, or a fellow member of an involvement group or funding organization, this simple yet powerful site analysis will make restoration decisions clearer for you and for stakeholders.
This text highlighted the strengths, benefits, and target users of the RBI. The team emphasized them and provided examples of how the RBI can be used in all of the product's guidance documents and when describing it to others. The team institute that because the strongest points of their production and how they would be promoted prior to the product'southward completion helped them to build the product effectually their audience's needs.
The promotion section introduced the research squad to the concept of branding- a major component of marketing. A brand is a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other characteristic that identifies one seller'southward good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."i Branding "defines and focuses a company'due south image; it emphasizes the need to build an emotional connection between products and users."7
The branding elements that the research team incorporated into their marketing plan included: quality, reliability, response fourth dimension, and service. These branding elements were selected past the team as elements they could incorporate into the RBI past evaluating the general perceptions of similar EPA product offerings and evaluating aspects they would like to maintain or meliorate.
A unproblematic but important question, "when are the users almost likely to obtain your production?" prepared the enquiry squad to have the RBI available when target users were most likely to want information technology. Though this question can exist answered in terms of season, occasion, or situation, the team interpreted information technology by considering which times in a restoration decision process their target users could utilize the resource. They found, based on their interview results and professional experience, that target users could use the RBI: 1) at any point during the year, 2) when restoration funding becomes bachelor, iii) when triggering events like extreme weather atmospheric condition occur, or iv) to prioritize and justify any pressing decisions. The points developed from this section helped them enhance the blueprint of the production and consider the best advert methods to raise awareness about the RBI. The team agreed their advertising methods would include alive product demonstrations at seminars, webinars, conferences, and posts on frequently-visited websites.
Price
The price section expanded the standard give-and-take of value by prompting the team to evaluate the toll of the RBI in terms of what the user would give in exchange for using the product. This customer-focused view of pricing allowed the squad to consider all of the variables that target users would need to acquire their product outside of just budgetary cost.
The team recognized that target users would demand sure equipment and specialized knowledge in order to apply the RBI. They also noted time and energy every bit user inputs of the resource, which are often overlooked variables that users take into peachy consideration upon using a new production.13 With this enhanced awareness of the price of their product, the research team was able to lower the overall price of the RBI to minimize potential deterrents to users. The team implemented strategies to simplify the tool, such as reducing complication and equipment needs, and minimizing the number of steps in the process to reduce fourth dimension and try needed to apply it.
Considering what they would get in render from users of the product, the team recognized they would receive feedback, and information on the types of products and resources that are needed. These are all valuable returns that tin can help scientists with organizing their interests effectually stakeholders and developing more meaningful, long-term relationships.
Place
The place department congenital upon the squad's previous marketing plan entries for product, promotion and price to develop their distribution strategy. For direct and indirect distribution, the squad decided to implement some of the common product distribution methods employed past EPA, such as email and periodical publications. They decided to focus more on opportunities to distribute the RBI at seminars, webinars and workshops to more effectively brandish its capabilities.
The squad reviewed their target user list, which had been adjusted for use as their distribution list, and decided to apply the same distribution strategy to all of their target users. This resulted in all target users being first notified via email about the RBI'south release, and and then calling specific individuals for whom the production was thought to be of greater involvement. Distribution strategies can differ within a target listing, as some audiences may exist more receptive to different methods of receiving products.
Partnerships
Many scientific institutions develop partnerships for technical back up, product testing, funding, or other critical demand. This marketing programme takes the implementation of partnerships further by asking scientists to identify persons and groups who would hold to help distribute the product within their corresponding networks. Scientists can increase the scale of the distribution and promotion of their products if they have partners who agree to strategically assist with advocating for the product in their networks.
For this section, the research team generated a list of colleagues, communications specialists, and external stakeholders that provided input during the evolution of the RBI who would help pass the resource along in their networks wherever in that location was an opportunity to do so. The inquiry team made sure to include these names in their distribution list, and fabricated a note to send an additional reminder to these partners well-nigh their agreement to assist with distribution once the RBI was released. Scientists can create more formalized distribution partnership agreements if advisable.
Assessment of Marketing Effectiveness
Since virtually of the marketing plan templates reviewed past the research team did non contain information on how to track and measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts, the team added this section every bit an additional step. The team members brainstormed and contributed what they considered to be indicators of the successful marketing of the RBI. Visibility, number of downloads, number of citations and references, as well every bit skillful workshop turnouts were some agreed upon metrics that the group decided to utilize to assess marketing effectiveness. Metrics of marketing success may vary depending on a scientist's institutional constraints, resources, and personal ideals. As a result, scientists should build this section as they see fit.
One month after the RBI'southward release, the team met to rank the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Every bit an early assessment of the visibility/publicity metric, the team noted that they had presented concepts of the RBI at conferences and agency seminars across the United States before the product was officially released. The team gave more than 10 presentations in which the RBI was referenced. From these presentations, the team recognized they were on the right track towards making the RBI more than visible and expected this visibility to increase as they presented it more comprehensively at upcoming events.
The team secured public facing web-spaces for the RBI, including an updated and piece of cake to navigate webpage on the EPA website5. An early assessment of how successful they were at getting people to download the resources and to testify up to workshops revealed an increase in visitors to the RBI webpages after their starting time webinar. The squad recognized that, with additional planning, they could ensure that the RBI would be placed on highly visited scientific websites to promote wider distribution and attendance at future workshops.
Other scientists at the EPA had already begun to tie the RBI into new projects by building off its groundwork research. These new projects would serve to extend the life and relevance of the resource. It was still too early to track the publications metric, simply based on the new projects in development, the squad was hopeful that they would practice well with this metric. The squad decided that in a few months, they would revisit this department for a more consummate cess of their marketing efforts, but were content with the progress they had fabricated so far.
Conclusion
The benefits of applying a marketing program to the production of scientific tools and resources are manifold. Merely equally effective planning sets the trajectory for any worthwhile initiative, using a marketing plan is a great way to increase the likelihood that a new product will exist well received by target audiences. The marketing plan template provided in this paper can be filled out individually or with a squad, and setting apart some time to become through each section of the program is the majority of the effort needed to employ it. Whether certain preplanned elements are followed through or not, the marketing plan provides scientists with a framework to incorporate the needs of target users into their piece of work, rail their efforts, and share learned insights with their institutions and colleagues. The level of application of this marketing programme is upward to the scientist, and tin can go more circuitous or more simplified with each projection iteration.
The EPA inquiry squad found that afterwards using the marketing plan they had a greater sense of fulfillment and accomplishment once they completed their product. This was largely because most of their early product intentions as outlined past the marketing plan were captured in the terminate result. The team's completion of the marketing plan highlighted areas where the agency infrastructure could better support the efforts of staff to increase work productivity and efficiency. Because this was their first time applying a marketing plan, more structure could take been allocated towards the monitoring and updating of the plan while the product was beingness adult, still almost of the necessary information was captured in the program, and updated as large changes occurred. Every bit scientists use this plan in their work, it is recommended that at least one team fellow member is dedicated to updating and revising the plan, capturing changes as they occur, and reminding the squad of their initial plans. No prior marketing experience is needed to do this. Past implementing marketing methods into their work, scientists are off to a swell start towards building more constructive products and connecting with stakeholders in more meaningful means.
Acknowledgments
Role of this research was funded by the Oak Ridge Plant for Science and Education. The authors would like to give thanks Justin Bousquin, Peter Celone, Sara Ernst, Marilyn ten Brink, Tim Gleason, Wayne Munns and the many other EPA staff members involved in the product of this work. The views expressed in this commodity are those of the authors and practise not necessarily represent the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Any mention of trade names, products, or services does non imply an endorsement by the U.S. Authorities or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA does non endorse any commercial products, services, or enterprises. This article is ORD tracking number ORD-021047.
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Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6011750/
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