The Rise of Marketing and Branding for Life Sciences Real Estate
Growth in the life sciences sector, including biotechnology, medical devices and pharmaceuticals is surging—it’s become a darling real estate asset class to say the least.
Often we regard high growth as a sign that marketing will be treated as a sidebar, a necessary component but not critical, since demand would seem to ensure the lease absorption of all the inventory on the market. But not all life science corporate tenants are the same, and because of COVID leasing timelines have been stretching out, expectations for investor returns are rising, reflecting the growing opportunities.
So, in an asset class that commands the highest rent rates and the steepest construction costs and specialties, marketing could be the make-or-break “critical isotope.” At this early point in 2021, here’s what we see from the point of view of marketing, messaging and broker leasing toolsets:
More than MEPs—Construction Quality, Elevated
Wet labs are required to perform at the highest levels of clean conditions. Now with health and safety concerns for workers, those standards must be further elevated with everything from increased air quality and touchless interfaces to biometric screenings and more.
Attracting Talent
Life sciences workers are among the most educated and sought-after professionals, a distinction that creates scarcity in the talent pool. Developers have wooed life sciences tenants and their workers with traditional property amenities, from food, to fitness and lifestyle resources. But some investments are often not as well articulated in the marketing initiatives, and a stronger emphasis could be valuable. For example, developers have also conducted considerable analyses in order to situate their developments within healthcare clusters for the attractiveness of funding, the implied promise of job growth and career opportunities. Every submarket and every life sciences development has a unique value promise and story. But to elevate property marketing from the noise, the story must be carefully curated and conveyed or it will be lost in a long list of amenities and benefits for workers.
The Story of Clusters
Not all universities, hospitals and supporting office parks are created equal. Now, life sciences lab properties need to market the specific advantages of their clusters, how they suit subclasses of life sciences companies and how the cluster as a whole presents opportunity to the investor community.
Direct-to-Tenant Programs
Tenant rep broker outreach is an essential leasing tactic, but many agency leasing teams do it reflexively, depending on the project to “sell itself.” Aggressive leasing brokers are now reaching out directly to incubators, investors, chief science officers and other influencers and decision makers to engage the consideration and decision process earlier and also to form more personalized selling rapport. Those high value targets need good incentives to engage the marketing materials coming their way.
Virtual Sales Strategies
More than just tools for visualizing pre-construction projects, virtual selling practices and tools have the potential to bring life sciences lab construction details vividly to life, and also allow decision teams to preview far more options early in the selection process. The war for consideration is decided much sooner in the process than ever before.
In-House Marketing, and Then Some
Some agency leasing teams are supported by strong marketing teams. But with all the COVID rollbacks, the marketing teams that remain on-staff have their hands full providing the basic marketing and selling tools to brokers. Aggressive leasing teams that want to win are looking for partners who understand the asset class and can translate complex scenarios into strong value propositions.
Times Change
Every business and every submarket has its own conditions, but all share this in common: even with the hope that the worst of the COVID disruption of 2020 behind us, disruption and change are harder and deeper than ever before. The remedy: open minds for new insights, new ideas and new ways of driving business.