Executive SummaryMicroanalysis Customer ResearchResearch process organized and executed by Julia Ramos (UW-Madison School of Business, Thermo Fisher Scientific)

General Recommendation for Information Utilization:Analyze data specific to segments on an individual basis if there are future campaigns that target a specific segment. Campaigns may be specified toward a segment based on current prominence of segment within the overall Microanalysis customer group or based on expected growth of a segment due to current offerings we’re promoting and/or new offerings. With this in mind, some of these said segments may not be included in the overall recommendations of this executive summary but the findings related to these segments may nonetheless be worth investigating on a needed basis.

Please Note: See end of document for key phrase definitions (emphasized in bold) which may not

otherwise be clear Actionable recommendations are emphasized in blue Our most prominent segments are emphasized in green: Research, Investigative,

Metallurgy, and Advanced Materials

To Think About

As marketers we work within the assumption that it’s not always the level of significance of our benefits that allow us to effectively compete in a market, but rather, it depends on the significance placed on our benefits in our target customer’s frame of mind. We must position our products in a way that effectively allows our customers to place significance on the benefits we provide. So a good question might be: what makes something significant within a person’s frame of mind? Well, one thing that we know for sure is that something cannot be significant without being remembered. Although (and perhaps because) we tend to remember things that we deem more significant, we also place more significance on things that are easily remembered (see: Availability Heuristic). We must learn how to manipulate our customers’ recall of our benefits if we hope to generate significance about our products in the minds of our customers. So, what makes something easily remembered? Some studies have shown that the following factors influence recall:

Frequency (frequently used in marketing, in fact, overly used)

Specificity (something that we as a scientific instrumentation company with many relevant applications can take great advantage of. We have specific uses for our instruments which are quite memorable, these uses shed light onto the potential of other applications that may be more relevant to a specific customer while occupying the customer’s thoughts purely out of intrigue/interest)

Recency (we remember what is most recent) Stereotypical (easily categorized and organized within our minds) Relatability to present state (relating our messages to the state that our customers are

in most often) Comparability (that which is easy to compare is easy to recall)

Information Sources

Research Question: What information sources are utilized most often?Recommendations for Effective Communication:

Stage A of Information Receptiono Communicate to our customers through articles featured in Microscopy Today

and M&M without including explicit product promotion. Rather, consider intriguing our customers within Stage A of information reception with interesting information involving the power of and benefits gained through very cool and interesting technology and abilities. See other types of articles commonly featured in these popular magazines/websites for examples of what peaks our customers’ interests.

o Emphasize what may interest the Research, Semiconductors, and Advanced Materials segments within articles/content submitted to Microscopy Today. Close to half of the Research and Semiconductors segments and one-third of Advanced Materials named Microscopy Today as one of their favorite magazines/websites.

o Emphasize what may interest the Research, Investigative, and Teaching segments within articles/content submitted to M&M.

o Be Specific. Specific examples of the power of our instruments are more easily remembered as compared to listing general abilities and applications. When you provide specific uses of our instruments that are interesting, these are remembered more readily and because of this, the abilities demonstrated in the example can be more readily relatable to the applications that are more specific to the customer receiving the information. In addition, research has strongly suggested that people use information that is most readily available when making their decisions (Availability Heuristic).

Stage B of Information Reception

Stage A of Information Reception: Customers are receiving information passively or coincidentally.

Stage B of Information Reception: Customers are receiving information through an active search about products and techniques but are not necessarily actively looking for information with the intention of making a purchase at some point in the semi-near-future.

o Place emphasis on SEO based on Google algorithms considering 57% free-expression of Google utilization and 20% free-expression of exclusive Google utilization (no other search methods used) during the Stage B of information reception.

o In order to improve SEO where it will make the most difference in terms of sales and making our content accessible to as many customers as possible, place more emphasis on the interests of the Research, Investigative, Metallurgy, and Advanced Materials segments within our web content on the Microanalysis pages. These are the most prominent segments in terms of number of customers but they also utilize both the website and Google heavily in Stage B information reception as well as Stage C information reception.

Stage C of Information Receptiono Communicate to TS reps that half of the respondents named Thermo Scientific

reps as one of the most useful information sources toward making their buying decision. This statistic shows how influential our sales and service reps are in terms of helping customers choose our products over competitors and other methods of analysis during Stage C of information reception. Knowing this can be empowering feedback for our reps and may boost motivation toward maintaining that level of impression as well as improving it.

o Communicate to TS reps: 90% Investigative, 70% Metallurgy, 75% Semiconductor, 66% Contract Labs, 57% Advanced Materials, and 44% of Research respondents, named Thermo Scientific reps as one of the most useful information sources toward making their buying decision. Knowing these specifics may give reps insight into what types of information are effective based on how they interact with and what types of information they provide to different customer types/segments.

o Leverage the impact of Meetings/Conferences/Demos on our customers’ actual buying decision. 35% overall said this was the most useful information source for helping them make their buying decision.

o In order to improve SEO where it will make the most difference in terms of sales and making our content accessible to as many customers as possible, place more emphasis on the interests of the Research, Investigative, Metallurgy, and Advanced Materials segments within our web content on the Microanalysis pages. These are the most prominent segments in terms of number of customers but they also utilize both the website and Google heavily in Stage B information reception as well as Stage C information reception.

Titles and Roles

Research Question: What job titles are commonly used?

Stage C of Information Reception: Customers are receiving information through an active search about products and techniques with the intention of making a purchase at some point in the semi-near-future.

Recommendations for Effective Communication: Use the titles that our customers relate to most within our web content as well as

within our promotions that target specific groups. Because web content should be focused toward our most prominent segments (Research, Investigative, Metallurgy, and Advanced Materials – see recommendations for above research question) we should utilize titles related to these segments most within our web content.

Microanalysis: 29% overall identified as Engineer, 15% identified as Metallurgist, 15% identified as Material Analyst

Investigative: 38% identified as Material Analyst, 31% identified as Engineer Metallurgy: 42% identified as Metallurgist, 33% identified as Engineer Research: 39% identified as Engineer, 22% identified as Researcher Advanced Materials: 71% identified as Engineer, 29% identified as Researcher Semiconductor: 50% identified as Researcher Geological: Unable to make inferences about title preference with such even

distribution across responses within this segment group. Contract Labs: 50% identified as Scientists Teaching: 50% identified as Professor, 33% identified as Researcher

Research Question: Who are the decision makers and influencers?Recommendations for Effective Communication:

Virtually all participants were Decision Makers or Influencers as well as users of the equipment. Utilize information gained from previous research question (what job titles are commonly used?) to identify the most common Decision Makers.

Heavy Considerations

Research Question: What factors are considered most in the buying decision?Recommendations for Effective Communication:

The communication of value based on these factors will be most effective during Stage B and Stage C of Information Reception. These factors should be heavily included in web content in order to improve SEO and usefulness of our pages because both Google and the TS.com are utilized heavily in Stage B and Stage C of Information Reception.

For each message created, define the most targeted segment(s) and include the factors that they consider most based on the data found in the PowerPoint (slide 17).

Microanalysis: Familiarity (47%), we must maintain nurturing activities for our existing customers as well as brand personality reinforcement within our promotions and advertisements in order to create a sense of consistency in the impressions we make to our customers so that they can develop and maintain a sense of knowing what to expect from Thermo Fisher Scientific. The most important parts of these impressions for Microanalysis customers include General Accuracy (35%), Quality of Service (32%),

Reliability (26%), Value (26%), Ease of Use (24%), Results/Mapping (21%), and Efficiency (18%). See definitions of these categories of answers at the end of this document.

Drivers

Research Question: What drives customers to purchase?Recommendations for Effective Communication:

The communication of value based on these factors will be most effective during Stage A and Stage B of Information Reception. These factors can be leveraged within non-promotional content and articles in order to persuade problem-recognition/benefit-recognition for potential customers but can also be included within web content based on improving SEO and usefulness of our pages.

For each message created, define the most targeted segment(s) and include the drivers most relevant to them based on the data found in the PowerPoint (slide 19).

Microanalysis: System Too Old (59%), General Benefits/Problems (47%), Research Justification (29%), Increase Accuracy (24%)

Relevancy

Research Question: What are the biggest headaches in our customers work?Recommendations for Effective Communication:

Frame our solutions in terms of solving our target customers’ most relevant problems. For each message: define who we’d like to communicate value to the most (based on opportunities for growth within segment, current prominence of segment, or other opportunities) and frame the solutions that we offer based on the problems that the segment(s) think about most. The logic behind this lies in that people are more likely to recall information that is specific to them and that relates to their current state. If we speak to our customers based on what they think about most (even if it is not necessarily the most powerful feature or benefit that the instrument offers), our messages become a more relevant piece of information: they are more easily recalled and provide weight to the message and to the significance of our instruments in our customers frame of mind.

Microanalysis: Politics and Bureaucracy (18%), Decreased Funding (11%), Working With Customers/Clients (11%)

Research Question: What do they like most about the work they do?Recommendations for Effective Communication:

Appeal to our customers based on positive experiences they have at their place of work. We can reach them on a personal level through communicating how we can reinforce and improve what they love about their work. The logic behind this lies in that

people are more likely to recall information that is specific to them and that relates to their current state. If we speak to our customers based on what they think about most (even if it is not necessarily the most powerful feature or benefit that the instrument offers), our messages become a more relevant piece of information: they are more easily recalled and provide weight to the message and to the significance of our instruments in our customers frame of mind.

Diversity of Work/Samples: 43% Microanalysis, 80% Investigative, 38% Research, 33% Metallurgy, 33% Advanced Materials

Cool Instruments: 25% Microanalysis, 30% Investigative, 31% Research, 22% Metallurgy, 33% Advanced Materials

Helping People: 11% Microanalysis, 20% Investigative, 22% Metallurgy, 19% Research, 0% Advanced Materials

Independent Work Environment: 7% Microanalysis, 10% Investigative, 11% Metallurgy, 6% Research, 17% Advanced Materials

For Advanced Materials focused messaging, instead of emphasizing helping people, focus the messaging toward an independent work environment.

Brand Perception

Research Question: What is the brand perception of Microanalysis customers?Recommendations for Effective Communication:

Frame the message toward reinforcing the strengths that our customers associate with our brand as much as possible. Familiarity with a company was highly identified as a factor that customers considered most when choosing an instrument, so it is very important to maintain consistency for our customers in order to keep that sense of familiarity in mind.

Microanalysis: Great Service (18%) and Reliability (15%) were our most prominently mentioned ideas of the Thermo Fisher Scientific brand; however, 15% of customers stated that they thought of nothing at all in particular in relation to the brand name. Big, High Quality, and Leading Edge were also commonly mentioned at 12%.

See specific brand perceptions across segments within the PowerPoint data.

KEY PHRASE DEFINITIONS:

Please Note: Stages of Information Reception do not follow a particular order within a customer’s “information search” process but are instead simply separate scenarios in which customers receive information passively or intentionally and with or without the specific intention of purchasing a product. Based on these factors we may change how we choose to gain attention from, as well as communicate value to, our current and prospective customers.

Stage A of Information Reception: Customers are receiving information passively or coincidentally.

The survey question “What are some of your favorite websites, blogs, or magazines related to the work you do?” gains information about this stage.

Stage B of Information Reception: Customers are receiving information through an active search about products and techniques but are not necessarily actively looking for information with the intention of making a purchase at some point in the semi-near-future.

The survey question “How do you search for information online about product and techniques?” gains information about this stage.

Stage C of Information Reception: Customers are receiving information through an active search about products and techniques with the intention of making a purchase at some point in the semi-near-future.

The survey question “When you started looking for which system to buy, where did you find the information that was most useful to you in making your decision?” gains information about this stage.

Free Expression: Answers from participants were given through free expression without influence from multiple-choice answers-to-be-chosen-from and without conscious “prodding” or influence from the surveyor.

Please Note: The segments referred to in this executive summary encapsulate the different groups that we specifically communicate a value proposition to through our marketing communications. These segments are developed by the product team and my research goal was to define them further (in terms of commonalities that I found) through this survey in order to speak to these groups more directly based on a number of factors. These groups are not mutually exclusive so they overlap quite a bit, but the main idea is that we want to speak to each of these groups directly based on the group's common needs/perceptions/experiences. The segments were defined as follows:

Academic/Research: Participant placed in this segment if they do research with the intention of moving science forward and/or with the intention of being published or to benefit the company or organization with advancements from their research. Also, those with the intention of synthesizing new materials were placed in this segment.

Forensics/Investigative: Participant placed in this segment if they identify materials related to crime scene investigation and accidents as well as failure analysis and competitor analysis.

Metallurgy: Participant placed in this segment if they analyze metal parts or products for failure analysis and/or R&D and/or quality control (if analyzed for R&D, participant was also placed within the research segment).

Advanced Materials: Participant placed in this segment if they are involved with failure analysis, R&D, and QC related to superconductors, polymers, dielectric materials or other advanced materials (if analyzed for R&D, participant was also placed within the research segment).

Semiconductor: Participant placed in this segment if they are involved with failure analysis, R&D, and/or QC related to micro and nanoelectronics (if analyzed for R&D, participant was also placed within the research segment).

Geological: Participant placed in this segment if they analyze geological materials. (These participants are likely also to appear in the research segment).

Contract Labs: Participant placed in this segment if they are a contract lab or a university acting as a contract lab for other departments and/or companies (if they specialize in a specific material or analyze a specific material most often, they were also placed in the segment related to that material).

Teaching: Participant placed in this segment if they work at a university or high school teaching students about microanalysis in some way.

Please Note: The following definitions describe how the answers that participants gave through free expression were categorized in order to allow for the quantification of the data and to be able to interpret and give insight into the survey answers with the use of easily-digestible numbers.

Research Question: What Factors are Considered Most in the Buying Decision?Survey Question: What factors made you choose the Thermo Scientific instrument over others?Survey Question: What types of input do people provide for you to consider when you're making your decision/what types of input do you provide to the decision maker?Survey Question: What was your main reason for purchasing a new system? Were there specific problems you were trying to solve or benefits you were seeking to gain?Survey Question: At what point do you upgrade to a new system? What drives you to upgrade?

Familiarity with Co./Compatibility: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to the first survey question listed above participant answered:

it was just an upgrade from the old system because of compatibility in order to maintain familiarity because of a good experience with Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Price to Benefits Ratio (Value): Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to either of the first two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

price and feature comparison against other companies getting more for the price or something to that same effect

Quality of Service: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to either of the first two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

sales support representatives

Reliability: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to any of the questions listed above participant mentioned:

reliability of the equipment

Cutting Edge Technology: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to any of the questions listed above participant mentioned:

keeping standards high cutting edge technology wanting the best technology and/or capabilities available or something to that effect

Customizability/Versatility: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to any of the questions listed above participant mentioned:

customizability versatility Software the ability to modify and personalize the analysis or something to that effect

Results/Mapping: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to any of the questions listed above participant mentioned:

mapping capabilities results

Sensitivity of Detection: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to any of the questions listed above participant mentioned:

sensitivity to increase the ability to detect more substances

General Accuracy: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to any of the questions listed above participant mentioned:

accuracy in general including sensitivity and mapping/software abilities (the logic behind this definition lies in the assumption that these factors together create the

ability to create better accuracy of results. In future similar surveys I would ask them to explain what they meant by accuracy, for example: do they need better software to be able to better identify detected compounds and gain accuracy that way? or do they need higher sensitivity for harder-to-detect substances?)

Efficiency: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to any of the questions listed above participant mentions

speed of analysis efficiency of the process or something to that effect

Ease of Use: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to any of the questions listed above participant mentions ease of use

Past with Competitor: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in response to either of the first two survey question listed above the participant answered that an experience with a different company in anyway influenced their buying decision.

Research Question: What Drives Customers to Purchase?Survey Question: What was your main reason for purchasing a new system? Were there specific problems you were trying to solve or benefits you were seeking to gain?Survey Question: At what point do you upgrade to a new system? What drives you to upgrade?

Software/Mapping Capabilities: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

software capabilites mapping capabilities

Sensitivity: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

sensitivity enhanced detection abilities

Increase Accuracy: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

accuracy in general

software/mapping capabilities sensitivity detection (the logic behind this definition lies in the assumption that these factors together create the

ability to create better accuracy of results. In future similar surveys I would ask them to explain what they meant by accuracy, for example: do they need better software to be able to better identify detected compounds and gain accuracy that way? or do they need higher sensitivity for harder-to-detect substances?)

Increase Efficiency: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

speed of analysis enhancing efficiency of process

No Liquid Nitrogen: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

not having to deal with liquid nitrogen

Integrating Routine Analysis: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

need for new equipment in order to not have to outsource their analysis needs

System Too Old: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above they mentioned:

the system was too old in need of a replacement

Research Justification: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

They needed new equipment in order to gain the needed data justification for their research findings

Needing to be able to provide better proof of their findings

Time since Last Purchase: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above participant mentioned:

the time since last purchase

Gain Ease of Use: self-explanatory

General Benefits/Problems: Participant answer qualifies for this answer-category if in answer to the two survey questions listed above they mentioned in general:

being driven toward purchasing based on benefits of any kind that they’d like to gain

a problem or problems that come up that they need to solve. (In the future I would ask for more specifics on what types of benefits or problems.)