Cases - Business

Whether you’re a startup or an established small business, one of the toughest decisions that you will make is how much money you are going to spend on your advertising and marketing communications. Prospects need

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

to be acquainted with you, need to know what you do and how your product or service will benefit them. They need to know where to find you, and how to contact you. But how much should you spend to get that word out

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

?

For companies who are just beginning a communications program, the tendency is to decide where you think you need to advertise, and then spend whatever it takes to get to be there. You rely on your instincts

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

to tell you what communications vehicles you ought to be using, and then price out what it costs to use them. Perhaps you do know your market very well, and you won’t waste a lot of time, money and energy in the w

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

rong places. However, this approach has a definite flaw. You are not taking into account either what your company can really afford, or the dynamics of the marketplace, both of which are important factors that shou

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

ld play strongly into your thinking.

There are other, better ways of determining your marketing budgets, and at least one of them just may fit better into your company’s strategies.

1. Take a look at what

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

your competitors are spending, and establish your budget based on the competitive marketplace. This approach works well when your competitors are around the same size that you are, and when they are pitching the

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

same size accounts that you are pitching. If everyone is spending at a fairly similar rate, then you can be comfortable that you know what the price of entry is into the market. You don’t necessarily need to use th

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

e same promotional vehicles that your competition uses, but you do want to try to capture a comparable share of voice in your prospect’s mind. The downside of this approach is that it really cannot be implemented e

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

ffectively if there are only one or two very big spenders in your particular area. As a smaller business person, you cannot outspend or even match their big budgets, and so you must find a more creative way to gain

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

mindshare among your prospects.

2. Take Approach #1 one step farther, and factor in your relative position in the market compared to the competition. For this method, you still have to be aware of what your

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

competitors are doing, but now you must also acknowledge that you need to be spending somewhat more if you are a late-comer to the market, or if your goal is to improve your market position. Conversely, you can spe

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

nd less if you are already one of the leaders in your market. Take a look at what the average spend rate is in your product category, matching your geography and target audiences, if you can. Then think about using

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

a dollar range that is 5% plus or minus that average, depending on whether your position is where you would like to be or not. Once again, you can be successful here if everyone in the market is around the same si

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

ze, and you can be comfortable in their spending patterns.

3. Base your communications budgets on a percentage of your projected gross revenues. Now you are taking into account what kind of monies you will hav

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

e available for communications, and also you are leaving yourself the flexibility to revise and adjust your budgets as your situation changes. If your program is very successful and sales increase, you can increase

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

your budgets. In slow times, you can cut back, but still maintain a presence in your marketplace. You won’t spend yourself out of business, but you still need to take into account your particular market. The perce

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ntage that you will want to work with will vary by industry, but you should think about what it will take to be visible in the advertising media that your industry uses.

Any of the three methods outlined above

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

will bring a sense of discipline to your marketing program. Whether you choose one of these options, or choose to work out a combination of techniques, you can feel more confident that your marketing efforts refle

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ct a prudent business base, and that they integrate well into the personality of your company and the dynamic of your marketplace. And those are ultimately the keys to a successful marketing communications program.

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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