The Belgian Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms – BCCM – unite seven decentralised biological resource centres with complementary expertise. Funded by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Belspo, and coordinated by a central Coordination Cell, BCCM makes biological material, related data and scientific know-how available to academic and industrial partners.
Its collections include more than 280,000 well-documented and authenticated strains of bacteria, yeasts, fungi and diatoms, as well as plasmids, DNA libraries and custom services.
BCCM asked me to conduct market strategy research into the perceived value of its service offering and the needs of academic and industrial customers. The goal was to define a sharper market positioning and formulate recommendations for marketing communication, service development and service flows.
I conducted 38 one-to-one interviews with existing customers, lost customers and new potential customers, focusing on BCCM/LMG, BCCM/MUCL, BCCM/IHEM, BCCM/GeneCorner and BCCM/ULC. The project resulted in a final report with recommendations on the service portfolio, positioning and commercial service flow, developed in close collaboration with the BCCM collections and the Coordination Cell.
References:
Marleen Bosschaerts, Belspo Deputy Director Research Programmes
Virginie Storms, Marketing & Communication Manager
