In the competitive world of chromatography products and solutions, standing out requires more than just technical specs. Whether you’re marketing resins, columns, or chromatography systems, it’s essential to understand product-market fit, connect with your audience through clear benefits and credible data, and outline a streamlined path to adoption.
Below are four actionable strategies to elevate your chromatography marketing; helping you not only showcase your product’s capabilities but also resonate more deeply with the scientists, engineers, and decision-makers who matter most.
1. Features are important, but benefits are even more powerful to showcase.
Whether you are promoting a resin, silica gel, or a column, suppliers primarily focus on their product’s scalability and performance.
“Our chrom system can achieve a gradient accuracy of <1%!”
“Our resin has the lowest backpressure!”
But suppliers would do well to also consider the benefits to the end user in their marketing. Instead of gradient accuracy, call out your chromatography product’s impact on your customer’s product recovery. Instead of low column backpressure, succinctly explain how slightly higher wash flow rates can lead to dramatic time savings on the manufacturing floor.
2. Want to break into new market segment with your product? Align your R&D and marketing teams and present data to demonstrate thought leadership in that niche.
Perhaps your sales team feels like your product is suited for AAV purification, but your R&D team is focused on a project to generate data on the continuous processing of antibodies, while your CEO is pushing you to sell your resin for GLP-1 agonist purification.
This is a classic internal misalignment that hinders growth of your chromatography business. How can you solve this conflict? First, understand product-market fit and the current competitive landscape.
Just because R&D thinks they have a solution….doesn’t mean there is an obtainable market. Perhaps the sales team has identified a niche application with few competitors that is being ignored by the larger suppliers. Estimate the application’s market size, understand your product portfolio’s fit to that application, and if the fit is there, then apply marketing best practices to get your foot in the door:
First, understand the problem statement in the application and have the R&D team focus on develop compelling data internally or (even better) with collaborative partners that illustrates your solution to the problem statement.
Second, parlay that data into a thought leadership position in the niche application – which should be done via an omnichannel approach that includes conference presentations, webinars, and a targeted digital campaign. Reach the right audience with the right data, and watch as sample requests and RFP’s start flowing inbound!
3. Make it easier for your prospective customer; provide a path to a total solution from R&D to manufacturing when possible.
While the R&D scientist may be the gatekeeper at many biopharmaceutical companies for new chromatography resins, know that process engineers, manufacturing heads, and even CDMOs play a role in decision-making. For resin suppliers, think beyond the bench. Can you ensure that your resin can be easily packed on the manufacturing floor? Do you offer a prepacked column solution? Can you offer human technical support to both the sponsor’s development lab and the CDMO across the pond? These elements of your pitch should be included in your marketing materials to give the customer peace of mind.
For chromatography equipment suppliers, your “product technology” is only part of the deliverable. Do you offer a software training course? If you’re supplying into GMP environments, do you have a trusted IQ/OQ package? Can you advise on packing your customer’s unique resin? How about technical experts available to assist with column breakdowns or emergency system maintenance? Do you keep spare parts in stock at all times? Most marketing materials only focus on product; ensure your marketing materials address these myriad customer pain points to help position yourself as a “solution provider.”
4. Data should be presented clearly, consistently, and on-brand in a professional manner.
Whether you are promoting an affinity resin, reverse phase silica gel, empty compression column, or a large-scale chrom skid, you will undoubtedly be presenting data in your marketing materials. Embedding your R&D team’s generic-looking Excel charts or pasting that fuzzy chromatogram screenshot into your brochure may be fine for academia, but in the professional world, presenting data in a professional, legible manner consistent with your company’s brand quite literally demonstrates the quality and reliability that you want your chromatography product to manifest. After all, this is exactly what your larger competitors are undoubtedly doing!
With over 25 years of experience in chromatography sales and marketing, Hapatune helps chromatography suppliers with strategic marketing solutions across the bioprocessing, oligonucleotide, peptide, viral vector, plasmid, and mRNA space.
Reach out to learn how we can help you turn technical purification excellence into commercial success.