Scientists are immune to advertising

Question everything, trust no one is the rule scientists live by.


Scientists by nature are the most skeptical people on the planet.  Its our job to be that way!

How does this affect you? Check this out.

I recently asked a group of academic scientists on simple question. 

"What information do you rely on to make a purchasing decision on reagents, equipment, consumables, etc?"


Here is a summary of the results (I distilled the responses to these simple methods)



94% - Word of mouth (labmates, PIs, collaborators, blogs, forums, etc)

76% - Materials and Methods or publication data

53% - Free sample or in lab trial for equipment

29% - Information on company websites

05% -  Advertising in magazines, email, online, and at conferences


These numbers pretty much mirror the results of a recent study for all advertising shown pictorially in Marta Kagan's brilliant two-part slideshow called What the F**K is Social Media? You can watch both slideshows by following this link.   Summary - 78% trust peers 14% trust advertising

Of the top two results, the first one (Word of Mouth) you can do some thing about; the second takes  good products (i.e., not marketing or selling)

So what can you do to spread your product information by word of mouth positively?

Pick a cause that Scientists Champion and loudly publicly support it.

Example - Lobby Congress to spend more on Research

Another possibility - Open Source Publication

Scientists will begin to associate your company with positive action in their best interest not some evil creature bent on bending them over for a buck.