Next week at AdvaMed2010 in DC

Next week I will be attending AdvaMed2010 in Washington DC in an attempt to mingle with the top of the food chain of the Medical Device industry. If you didn’t know AdvaMed is the premier industry organization for the Medical Device industry and the AdvaMed2010 conference is its annual meeting. Essentially it is a place for smaller Med Device companies to market themselves to venture capitalist and larger companies.

Medical Devices is one of our core markets at NNE Pharmaplan and hence we are hoping to leverage this event to make ourselves better known in the industry. Kind of old school marketing but I am hoping that there is value there? I look forward to an interesting week and getting to meet some interesting companies and people. Also last time I have been to DC is in 1995 so I am long due. If you are around give me a shout.

Next week at CBI MES conference

Next week I will be at the CBI MES conference in San Diego. It is set to be very interesting conference with a good representation from MES vendors but more importantly there is broad participation from the life science industry both Med Device and BioPharma. A great opportunity to learn how these companies have been able to leverage technology to improve performance and compliance. I will have my notebook ready since I need to get some good real-life examples for a session that helping to plan for the ISPE annual meeting. I have also been able to involve MESA and we are planning to promote the European Conference and other events.

I also look forward to the conference because I have never been to San Diego and the venue isn't to shabby either J. I hope to see many of you out there and do some catch-up. Follow me on Tweeter to get live updates from the conference if you are interested.

What is it that I do?

Have you ever tried to explain to somebody what it is that you do, who is unfamiliar or not that interested in what you do. I have that problem with my wife and family all the time. When I try the interest-loss is immediate – somewhere after the middle of the 3rd sentence. When I ask my kids what they think that I do – they say that I sit in front of the computer all day and talk on the phone, which in a way is quite precise. Typically a specific keyword from my description sticks and so when asked what I do, it comes back as; ‘I think he is fixing software’, or ‘oh yes he is training’.

Although this may seem trivial the exercise in explaining what it is that you do is very valuable. When marketing in the new media it is important to tell the story in simple language – I call it the ‘children’s’ explanation. A simple plain English description of what it is that I do, without using any technical or industry jargon and without complicated adjectives. The less ‘gobbledygook’ the easier it is for people to understand and by the way it also helps to keep their attention. As in the Hebrew adage – “If you explain it slowly, I will understand quickly”.

Try it you will be surprised how hard it is and how much value it brings.

Here is mine:

I help people and companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry that produce medicine, drugs and tools for doctors with their computer systems. The use computers to make sure that their products have no defects, as wells as to make sure that they produce their products exactly the way the recipes instruct. The computer systems save and maintain all the information during the production so that it can be used to analyze what happened if there is a defect, or how to improve the production process. The computers also help automate some of the steps in the process.

What makes a home sell?

This i a bit off topic, but still and interesting question...

What makes a house sell? I have been pondering this question, obviously since I am trying to sell my home. How do you get into the minds of the people that may be potential buyers? There are of course the standard things that the real estate agent tells you to do such as the de-cluttering, remove personal objects, make it clean and tidy, price, the signs, etc. But when you walk into a home what is it that makes one like or dislike this home?

I wish I could get into the minds of these buyers, but as a seller you get no exposure to the real people that visit your home when it is cleaner than it has ever been. They leave no trace, no scent, and no feedback. Maybe I should consider some hidden cameras? Maybe ask them to fill out a questionnaire before they leave – right!

My only method of understanding my potential buyers is by asking others within my network; what is it that made them buy the house they currently own? So this is it, my plea to all - please let me know who my buyer persona is?

Experimenting with the "New Rules of Marketing"

During the last few years I have been learning and experimenting with the concepts of "The new rules of marketing", David Meerman Scott (see his blog). I must say that it has been a great learning experience. The latest exploit is helping my Wife to promote the rental of her mother’s house. We found a semi free website that allow listing of rentals. We made sure that it ranked high in a relevant Google search. Then we created a Facebook group and thus we started to promote it through our online social network, which apart from FaceBook also included Twitter, LinkedIn, and this blog of course. It is really kind of an experiment but I really love to see how it unfolds. My Wife is ecstatic about how quickly you can reach out to people for help in promoting it.  She is constantly on Facebook looking at how many people joined the group. Yes I know that is not directly equal to somebody actually renting it but it still has a certain buzz to it. 

I have been doing similarly in building my personal brand and also marketing the sub division that I live in. We have created a blog that is used to exchange and share information with our members, a Twitter profile to send updates and information around, a Facebook group, and a Google profile. I must say that it has taken much longer than I expected to gain momentum. However I have been receiving very positive feedback about how well this works and more, and more of our members are starting to use all these different resources. Of course there is the added value of promoting our neighborhood allowing people that may be interested in a home purchase to get a peek at our community and the people who live there – hopefully this will also help our real estate value.