Advice You - Business

DISCOVER THEIR ATTITUDES AND VALUES

In a recent BtoB Magazine feature "Connecting With Engineers", author Roger Slavens points out the need to get away from the stereotype of the geeky engineer. Slavens quoted results from McClenahan

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

Bruer Communications' 2005 survey "Breaking the Code: A Look At Engineers' Attitudes and Behaviors". Slavens still seemed to advocate treating engineers in a general way, even after considering what he called their 'deeper psychographi

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

Examples of combination products may in

s'.

Terms like 'psychographics' drive me ballistic. Even if you're going 'deeper', they're just another way to pigeonhole people. But discover prospects' biggest worries, and you have the heart of a campaign on a silver platter. You

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

eed those specific problems just to plan a product, long before you offer your specific solution. Survey data doesn't begin to tell the whole story.

How do you find out your prospect's problems, the ones they lose sleep over?

You got

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

a talk to 'em!

BE SPECIFIC

I was disturbed enough to respond to the feature's excerpt in McClenahan Bruer's blog:

"Broad surveys tell you things like affinity for Star Trek and preference for friends with technical backgrounds. But

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

Combination pro

hey don't give you the specifics of the biggest problems an engineer faces."

A RESPECTED INTERVIEWER GETS CRITICAL ANSWERS

I added, "Interviews with the client's customers or field applications experts many times will reveal the big

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

problem I can build an article or case study around. The emotional factors come out, too.

When you want to understand a prospect, there's no substitute for an interviewer the subject trusts. An interviewer with a technical background

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

ike the customer's can find out things surveys won't tell you.

Surveys can establish broad strokes, but specific information about your target market shows you what a prospect really needs. Most technical advertising is too generally

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

ocused, and many ads are unmeasurable. Claude Hopkins wrote about the importance of providing service tailored to the prospect's specific needs in his classic 'Scientific Advertising' in the 1920s. He also was among the first to measur

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

response to a campaign. Many manufacturers today ignore his principles."

YOU CAN'T TALK TO ALL OF THEM

McBru's Senior Communications Counselor Jeff H. brought up the impossibility of interviewing every engineer:

"In reference to yo

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

r post about whether to rely on surveys or not, do you think that b-to-b technology marketers should interview each engineer with whom they're communicating before embarking on a communications campaign of some sort?

Obviously, indiv

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

Following aspects would a

idual interviews can help color an entire integrated marketing campaign with application examples (for example). But wouldn't it be inefficient to interview each and every target before planning, say, an online advertising campaign? Th

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

t's one instance in which surveys come in handy."

BUT INTERVIEWS FIND OUT WHAT THE CUSTOMER VALUES MOST

I agreed on the impossibility of talking to every engineer. But "...talking with the client's FAEs [field applications engineers]

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

or one of the client's primary customers reveals what the customer values most. A trusted interviewer gets answers a focus group or survey never could.

Those specific answers are the key to that conversation with the prospect any suc

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

essful campaign needs, online or in print.

Last year I spoke with a fastener distributor to research copy for a postcard promo. I discovered the most important benefit was on-time delivery of what was actually ordered to customers lik

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

Fender Musical Instruments. That was not one of the benefits I'd guessed before the interview. The marketing agency I was working with hadn't discovered it either."

DISCOVER AND ENTER THE CONVERSATION

I continued, "Granted, a produc

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

t's customers won't give you every answer you need for a promotion. Survey data give you the broad outline. But it comes down to a specific conversation your marketing piece has with the prospect. You need to talk to enough prospects o

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

the client's customer contact people (or both) to understand what that conversation should be."

Jeff responded:

"Couldn't agree more. That's why I like working solely with b-to-b technology clients and am a big proponent of customer

.

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

reference programs. Both give you the opportunity to talk to all types of folks involved in making the tech industry hum."

Jeff's reply still left the feeling of a generic agency approach. If you don't know your customer well enough t

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

zero in on his worst problem, your marketing won't reach him.

It's all about the conversation. Enter the prospect's world, that talk they're having with themselves about their biggest problem, and you'll get their undivided attention

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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