Advice You - Business

Let’s start with a working definition. Your competitive advantage is the benefit of your company which answers a target market’s want or a need, and which you provide better than your competition.

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

Competitive advantage can be any of a number of things, but it usually boils down to three basic categories—better price, better service, or better value.

So why do you need to find your competitive

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

Examples of combination products may in

advantage? One of the biggest dangers to small business success is lack of differentiation, or being the same as everyone else. Why would customers buy from you if you’re exactly the same as every

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

other company that provides your product or service? Why would they choose you?

They’ll stay with the guy down the street that they may have done business with for years rather than try your produc

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

or service because there’s no incentive for them to change. Or, if they’ve never bought what you offer, they’ll go with the company they find first in the yellow pages or the local newspaper ads.

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

Combination pro

The point is, getting them to choose you if you’re the same as everyone else is like shooting craps or playing roulette. There’s one chance in ___(fill in the blank with the number of competition yo

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

r small business has).

But, how do you go about finding out what your competitive advantage is? If you’re like me, you want to know how to do it step by step. And the answer actually lies in the d

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

efinition, so let’s break it down.

First of all, it’s a benefit. To find your company’s benefits, list all the features of your product, service or business as a whole. For every feature you’ve li

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

ted, identify the benefit to your target market.

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether something is a feature or a benefit. It’s a feature if it answers what the product or service does. It’s a

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

benefit if it tells you what need or want it will satisfy. Here’s a test for determining a benefit’s strength: if you can’t convincingly answer the question “So what”? to the benefit, it probably i

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

n’t strong enough.

Second, it needs to answer a want or need of your target market. If what you’re offering isn’t something your target wants or needs, who’s going to buy it? This statement has a

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

Following aspects would a

two-pronged approach.

You need to identify both a target market and that target market’s wants or needs. And, maybe keep in mind that wants are more important than needs. People usually buy from a

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

n emotional level first and justify it later. So who exactly is your target market, and what do they want? And the stronger your target market’s wants, the easier it is to sell that want to them.

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

hird, you need to provide that want or need better than the competition. To do that, you need to first identify your competition. And then you need to spy on them just a little. But please make it

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

ethical spying. Pick at least three competitors, find out who they are, how similar their product or service is to yours and try to determine their benefits.

One of the best ways to find out about

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

your competition is to visit their website. You can often find enough direct and indirect information for a good start in your investigation. Or you can visit their store. Or write them a letter r

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

equesting information.

Consider buying something from them. How does your product or service compare with theirs? What’s their service like? Do they have a guarantee or return policy? How does y

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

ur price compare with theirs?

Now take all the information you’ve just gathered about those competitors, and list their features and benefits just like you did for your own company. Which of the be

.

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

nefits you’ve listed about your company are not on the list of your competitors’ benefits? Those benefits are your competitive advantage.

Voila, just like that you’ve found your competitive advanta

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

e. And here’s one more reason why you need to find it. Your competitive advantage forms the basis for all your marketing materials. Your tagline, your web site, direct response, brochure, etc. etc

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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