Advice You - Business

I’ve been an advertising consultant to thousands of businesses over the past 35 years. During that period, I listened to various companies bemoan the fact that another competitor was entering their marketplace. I asked them

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

why that was a problem, and they usually explained how the new guy would probably take away some of their customers. If this appears to be a legitimate complaint, this article is directed at YOU! Let me tell you why and how compe

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

Examples of combination products may in

tition could actually increase your business.

I was a Yellow Page consultant for 25 years before I started my own web-based business with my wife. I even wrote an insider’s book about my experiences during that quarter-cent

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

ury. One of stories in the book had to do with competition. A large local waterbed company used to run an expensive television campaign every Friday to promote their multiple locations. When I went to visit with my own waterbed ac

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

count, he laughed when I asked if those commercials scared him. I was somewhat surprised at his reaction until he explained that his business actually shot up every weekend. People would go in the phone book looking for the other

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

Combination pro

guy’s address and end up calling him, thinking that they were the ones on TV. Of course he instructed his people to tell the callers that they were the TV waterbed firm and then they came in droves. When the competitor final

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

ly began cutting back the ads, my account became upset because he knew that sales would trail off.

So, do you get the message? You can profit from other business’s advertising. The same is true for any media, including 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

Internet. Because this is a limited article, let me highlight just some of the ways you can benefit from the competition:

It increases public awareness of your service or product (like my example).
It allo

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

ws you to see other aspects of your business that might be profitable.

You can learn about new industry trends you didn’t know existed.

You get to compare others current pricing and marketing schemes.

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

It will make you better at what you do, by making you work harder just to keep up.

You also won’t be as complacent and it forces you to be make needed changes.

It gives you an opportunity

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

to buy them out or have them partner with you.

It gives the customer choices and you can see who is doing the best job of selling.

If it’s a profitable industry, there is always room for one more busi

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

Following aspects would a

ness.

Therefore, you should never fear competitors. After all, you are one yourself. Do all the other guys fear you, or do they shrug their collective shoulders and go about their daily business? I doubt that they have

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

time to worry about you when they have customers to service.

Here’s another example. When Home Depot came into a small rural town, the local Ace Hardware store saw no reduction in customers. The reasons were many: local lo

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

yalties, the Ace was easier to park and find things, they ran frequent sales, they had a better location, and they offered free popcorn. That’s right, the owner told me that their customers loved the fresh popcorn at the en

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

tryway and you could smell it in the parking lot. And that was something the Home Depot didn’t offer. That small difference helped them maintain their customer base. That and far more personal attention. They knew almost eve

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

ry customer by name in that tiny town of 13,000.

So that’s one way to compete with the big boys. When I sold the Yellow Pages, I once told another fearful customer, how would you like to be the only ad in the heading? They

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

immediately replied that it would be terrific. I had to bring them back to the real world and explain how the small listing would be overlooked entirely. The heading would be buried by the surrounding headings and his ad, regardle

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

ss of size, would be overlooked. The larger headings like “Plumbing” have many pages and are never passed by. In fact, because of their shear size, the consumer is forced to flip many pages to find someone. So what hav

.

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

e you learned so far?

Competition is part of the free-enterprise system that has helped the United States become a super-power and contributed to the wonderful quality of life most of us enjoy. The small, home-based, or local bus

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

iness, is still the backbone of the economy. It typically accounted for most of my directory accounts. Always remember that, when you got your business phone number, you instantly became the newest competitor. And how bad was that

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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What is article submission and why should you consider it when marketing your online business? This is an area that many have not considered to increase their business sales. It is easy and fun but do you need any skills to do it?

A product consists roughly of two main elements. The function of the product – what it does or is capable of doing and the usability of the same: how it does it. Product developments starts often focusing on the first element. Compare for example the evolution of the windows operating system. When the first windows (95) arrived...

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Advice You - Attention Businesses: Why You Should Welcome Competition

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