Advice You - Business

Today I got a promotion in the mail that was a total waste. Not only did someone spend dollars and/or time writing a 4 page sales letter, glossy 4-color brochure,

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

and reply device - they spent more money having it all printed, getting a mailing list, and paying postage to get their message to my home.

They shouldn't have bo

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

Examples of combination products may in

hered. Not contacting me would have gotten the same results at zero cost.

Now, I know that I am not a typical buyer, but I also know that one of the first rules i

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

direct marketing of any kind is to make it easy for your prospect to buy. If he sets your promotion aside to "come back to later" it probably won't happen.

That'

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

s why we copywriters work hard to create enough excitement to get that prospect to whip out a credit card or a checkbook - or to pick up the telephone or jump in t

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

Combination pro

e car to rush to our place of business.

This promotion was for a garden composter. Since I love gardening, they did have the right list. The letter didn't excite

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

e. It was just - lukewarm. But… since I have seen this kind of composter in use and do want one, I went in search of the price and the order form.

Sorry - not 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

re. Instead of an order device, I found a reply device inviting me to mail back the postcard to get more information. No price, no opportunity to buy - just an in

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

itation to learn more. When? In two weeks? In three weeks perhaps?

Since Spring is nearly here, and since I think I'm on every gardeners' mailing list ever create

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

, I'm sure I'll get another offer before long, and be able to purchase my composter with ease.

Meanwhile, this company just wasted a lot of money - because I'm su

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

e I'm not alone in my reaction.

The message for you as a marketer: Make it easy.

No one is going to beat down your door and beg to be allowed to buy your product

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

Following aspects would a

s. And no one who wants something today is going to mail you a card and ask for more information. Not when they could drive to a store and buy the same thing after

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

examining it in person.

f you want to sell merchandise by mail, you absolutely must make it easy to buy.

The "send in the card" system works with many ser

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

ice-oriented products - such as insurance, real estate, in-home health care, and even landscaping.

It also works with huge items like buildings, medical equipment

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

, and perhaps even computers. But it's just fool-hardy to use it with a physical product that someone can buy when they walk into a store.

Now… anyone care to pon

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

er the reason why they tried this method? The only valid reason I can think for not including the price in a direct mail piece such as this is: It costs too much.

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

Even so, a well-written sales letter could have justified the price and created that buying urge. Without even trying, I can think of 2 or 3 ways to justify buyin

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

g a composter - even if it is expensive.

The second reason might be that this letter writer didn't want to bother with finishing the job. He or she didn't want to

.

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

justify the price or be responsible for the results. It was easier to just say "Write and find out the rest."

Those postcards could easily be sitting in envelopes

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

right now - with checks attached - on their way back to the company that sells composters. Instead, most of them are in that famous round file - never to resurface

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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