Sefa entered the fifth floor conference room, prepared to be a major player in the meeting and lay out his plans for ongoing research. His assumption seemed to be confirmed when some of the people in the room congratulated and commended him on his breakthrough. Though he didn't recognize any of them, he assumed this was because he had been elevated in the company hierarchy. He sat at the large, white, oval table preparing to deliver his list of priorities when the time came.
Louis Ratham entered the room, sat, and surveyed the executives gathered around the table. “Good morning everyone. We are here to discuss plans for the rollout of Telmara. We have an important guest with us, Iosefa Leota, the data scientist who identified the Martian variant. Telmara is an astronomical success, no pun intended. In the six months since we fast-tracked the launch of a lower cost test, sales have exceeded our projections and we anticipate being able to increase sales while reducing production costs. Within the next year, we expect Telmara to join our longevity treatments at the top of our profit generators.” Ratham looked over to Sefa, “Can we take a moment to recognize the data scientist who made this success possible? Iosefa, would you stand up please?”
The room broke into applause and a few cheers. Ratham picked up a small box from the table, walked over to Sefa and opened it as he held it out. Inside was a gold lapel pin, encrusted with rubies, in the shape of the Telomics brand T. Sefa took the box and thanked Ratham, who announced, “This is the highest honor this company can give you. Wear it in good health.” Then, handing a card to Sefa, he added, “And a commensurate award has been transferred to your bank account, as well.” Sefa opened the card; it was a one-million-dollar bonus.
Sitting down again, Ratham began the meeting. “The Telomics mission has always been to develop innovative treatments that extend and improve human lifespan. But, thanks to Iosefa, that mission now includes helping people discover their true potential through Telmara testing. We intend to increase access to the test in high value populations, using the acquired data for internal research into new indications and leveraging the Marked database for partnership extensions.” He gestured to an executive at one end of the table. “Tell us your plan and update us on the outreach from Logisen.”
The young, clear-eyed executive began with the dissemination strategy in three stages he identified as: Imbed, Strengthen, Expand. He identified the high value populations—which Sefa had already guessed—white, suburban households in the upper middle to high income brackets. These were the populations into which early marketing had been imbedded through VIP programs with influencers such as those on the VIP track at the New Mars Conference. Messaging implying an association between the Martian variant and mental and physical performance had been positioned to devices in these demographic sectors and customized according to affinity with the Red Planet series among other Mars-related programming.
The young executive smiled exuberantly. “Using these influencers, combined with continued peer messaging, we plan to strengthen the desire to test in those key communities. However, when the high-value communities become saturated, then the circle would expand to adjacent geographic and economic communities.”
Ratham interjected, “What about the insurance companies?”
“At this point, we're working toward that necessity sometime in the future. We don't need to negotiate price with insurance companies at this point; the income level of our target is high enough that this is an easy spend for them. But, as our expansion reaches the income fall-off, we'll begin negotiations with insurance companies to make the test available to lower income families. Our research confirms that the percentage of Marked positives is as high or possibly higher in lower income families.”
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Listening to the presentation, Sefa realized why he hadn't recognized any of the individuals in the room: they weren't scientists, they were the marketing team!
Next up, another enthusiastic meat-chaser discussed the potential value of the genetic data they acquired with each test. Of course, they were prohibited from marketing to individuals based on their gene maps, but they could indirectly associate positives and negatives to devices and street addresses. That, in turn, could be correlated with income data, purchase patterns, affinities, political affiliations and more to provide a data-rich picture of each household that was tested—both Marked and unmarked.
She then described the next level of assimilation: Strengthening the bond. Marked positives would automatically be registered in an opt-out Marked affinity campaign. “The initial communications are updates about research into the Martian diaspora and the Martian genotype. But we feel that since Marked people have already invested in their identity by their interest in the test, we can add value to the relationship by introducing one of our partners, the Marked Martian Ancestry Association, M2A2, which studies and supports Marked societal and historical connections. The Association provides the next logical progression for Marked individuals by connecting them with Marked partner offers tailored to their data profile.”
Ratham nodded his approval of the presentation, then asked how the partnerships function.
The speaker smiled back at Ratham with pride. “There are two types of benefit we provide to Community members through M2A2: one is a tangible, visible benefit—products and services they purchase through partners sourced by M2A2; the second is the result of their partnership with Logisen—and it is completely invisible to members: we will be able to give them a more comfortable life through the quality and the availability of the experiences they access through the program. Thanks to Logisen’s predictive behavior models and infrastructure AI, when they call an autonomous, it gets them to their destination faster than non-members—and it is a better quality vehicle. When they go to a restaurant, they are seated when others are turned-away. They are able to vacation where others can't; meet with members in clubs that others can't join. Through Logisen, Marked positives are able to leverage access to experiences in a way that also provides access to people.” She smiled and nodded her head repeatedly. “We feel good things will come of that.”
Ratham was not sure he was following her logic. “But how does running, essentially, a social club benefit a medical device division?”
“That is the third stage: Expand. The popularity of testing is rooted in the romanticized image of this advanced Martian civilization. People already believe they are somehow better for testing positive—like finding-out you have a royal ancestor. No one wants to be ordinary. People will only care to be tested as long as it conveys some special aura about them. We can't make someone smart if they aren't smart, but we can present them with opportunities that others don't have.” She smiled enthusiastically and opened her arms as if bestowing a gift. “Their success will be attributed to the Martian variant, not to the opportunities we made available to them. By putting our finger on the scale to favor those who test positive, we create the illusion that Marked people are better. And that keeps people wanting to learn if they are Marked.”
Ratham grinned. “Brilliant. Well done.” Then he turned to Sefa. “Iosefa. Can you provide us with a view into your research priorities, moving forward?”
Sefa looked at his notes—correlation of variant hot spots with the rise of innovative societies throughout history; tests of as many historically important leaders as is feasible to see if a correlation can be drawn between genius and the variant. He listed these priorities and others in concise sentences and was soon finished.
“Good!” exclaimed Ratham. “That will be good content for our updates. Great job, everyone. Thank you.” He stood and smiled at the group, then quickly left the room.
Sefa picked up his tablet and card and walked quietly down the hall in the direction opposite from the other exiting executives. That was his reward for his hard work? he wondered. Providing content?