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Doing Science with a Marketing Plan: Developing the Rapid Benefit Indicators Approach
Citation:
Berry, W., C. Ojo, M. Mazzotta, J. Bousquin, K. Mulvaney, D. Martin, AND Rick Mckinney. Doing Science with a Marketing Plan: Developing the Rapid Benefit Indicators Approach. SETAC North America 39th Annual Meeting, Sacramento, CA, November 04 - 08, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Scientists are often unfamiliar with or untrained in the concept of “marketing” their research products, but marketing is something that is vital to getting our work into the hands of those who can use them. This can result in a disconnect between our research products and their intended audience. We used a standard business tool, a marketing plan, to see if we could address this problem. We created the plan to help us design, develop, and disseminate a user-friendly approach to prioritize wetland sites for restoration, the Rapid Benefits Indicator (RBI). The approach worked. Extensive stakeholder engagement made for a better, more user-friendly product, and one which is getting out to the user community. In the first year we had over 1,500 page views, over 400 downloads of the RBI Excel checklist tool, and over 300 downloads of the manual associated with the tools. Hopefully this research will encourage other scientists to better “market” their research. Better marketing should lead to better tools, which are more useful, and used more, by the people who need them.
Description:
Many scientists work diligently to produce tools and resources that can be used to address real world problems. However, a disconnect often occurs between the creation of these scientific outputs and their use by intended stakeholders. Some reasons for this disconnect include limited involvement of users throughout the development of new products and a lack of marketing effort. Several approaches are currently being used by scientists and government agencies to address this problem, including Structured Decision Making and Translational Science. These approaches stress the importance of working with stakeholders throughout the entire process of developing a science product, from problem formulation, through initial planning, all the way to user support of the product. Scientists are often unfamiliar with or untrained in the concept of “marketing” their research products, but it is something that is vital to getting their work into the hands of those who can use them. We used a marketing plan based on the principle of the 4 Ps+1 (product, promotion, price, place + partnerships), during the development of the Rapid Benefit Indicators (RBI) approach, a resource created to help stakeholders assess the societal benefits of ecological restoration using non-monetary indicators. The RBI grew out of stakeholder discussions around the need for a user-friendly set of tools to help make decisions about what sites to target for marsh restoration. We worked with stakeholders through the entire process, from initial design to the development of a web page, a manual, an Excel-based tool, and a GIS-based tool. The marketing plan helped us to target stakeholders for initial discussions, reminded us to keep in touch with stakeholders through the process, and to get the word out to potential users when the product was finished. The approach worked, as evidenced by the fact that in the first year we had over 1,500 page views, over 400 downloads of the Excel checklist tool, and over 300 downloads of the manual. The RBI is also being hosted on several tool compendium web sites, and has been presented at a number of conferences and meetings. In the end it does not matter exactly what approach you use to market your products. What matters is that you have a plan to involve your stakeholders in the development of your products, from start to finish.