A French biotech, with a novel plant-based bioproduction platform, needed a comprehensive go-to-market plan to raise further funding that would take the company to the next phase of its growth. The plan needed to demonstrate the company’s market approach and customer acquisition strategy to potential investors. ​
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As a start-up with limited resources, the client needed a pragmatic approach that would fit their budget, deliver their revenue objectives and satisfy investors.​

We conducted customer interviews to understand the drivers of new technology adoption, and how customers viewed the company’s value proposition and business model. Using this insight, we worked with the client to develop the go-to-market plan that outlined the company's strategic position and commercial execution strategy. As part of the process, we refined the value proposition and messaging and designed a marketing campaign to build brand awareness and familiarise the audience with this new technology. ​

A robust and clear go-to-market plan, frank budget discussions and a creative approach helped us to design an effective marketing plan to fit the client’s needs.​

A Danish analytical services provider wanted to enter the cell and gene therapy (C&GT) market in the UK. Both the segment and the geography were new to the company making it necessary to carefully assess the market opportunity before deciding to invest. The company was not known to the audience who also had limited knowledge of protein analysis by LC-MS.

Customer research showed that there was a need for LC-MS-based protein analysis services in the UK C&GT sector. However, successful market entry required the client to quickly capture market share with a targeted approach focussing on a sub-segment (process development) where they could have the greatest impact. ​

The value proposition, messaging and marketing campaign were designed to build brand awareness as well as get the audience to consider LC-MS as a credible alternative to ELISA. The marketing campaign was content rich to demonstrate domain expertise and included an ad campaign to promote the brand and build share of mind. ​

Customer research was essential for understanding the market dynamics and customer viewpoints to be able to craft a credible market entry strategy and marketing campaign.​

The client entered into a new market through acquisition with a product that competes with home brew CRISPR gene knockout (KO) cell lines. The marketing campaign needed to change the way scientists think about how they source KO cell lines and persuade them of the greater benefit of buying readymade cell lines from a catalogue despite a low awareness of their availability, usefulness and quality.​

Customer research allowed us to quickly understand how customer needs could be met by a catalogue of products offered in a limited number of cell backgrounds. We identified customer segments where there was less concern about the cell background and more focus on the target of interest e.g. antibody and reagent validation and early stage target identification and confirmation studies. ​

The value proposition, messaging and marketing campaign were designed to build awareness using tools such as a search engine keyword strategy focused on current, home brew behaviour, and shareable content to spread awareness. ​

Understanding of customer needs and the drivers of behaviour were critical to creating a marketing launch plan that could produce a sustained shift in use to readymade KO cell lines.

The client had mainly sold to innovators and early adopters who were happy to change their experimental methods to accommodate the new product. The need for users to change SOPs was a barrier to uptake. In addition, the client faced strong competition from providers offering complete solutions with products and protocols for the whole cell culture process.​

To be able to go beyond the early adopters, the client needed to dominate a smaller market segment who could influence the behaviour of the wider industry. A Clinical segment was identified which had the potential to set the standard and push these reagents into other sectors of the cell culture market.​

We worked with the client to find a strong value proposition. For clinical customers developing cell therapies, using human-derived components in the preparation of the product is beneficial so we focused on this aspect of the product.​

We designed a marketing campaign which would challenge scientists to think about the effect of starting conditions on their stem cell culture (where the product is used) and the impact that this has on the overall outcome rather than concentrating on the differentiation step where they tend to focus most of their effort. Using independent data, we showed that the product gives better overall results with the additional benefit of being human derived.​

Finding the right audience and reframing how they think about their cell culture process was critical to winning over this market.​