Advice You - Business

Community relations is one of those marketing strategies that isn't talked about much, even though I venture to say practically everyone ends up doing it at one time or another. Basically, community relations is when you and

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

your business become involved in your community. For instance:

* Your business donates money to nonprofit organizations.

* You or your employees volunteer at a fundraising event.

* You or your employees volunteer for a n

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

Examples of combination products may in

nprofit organization.

* You or your employees join a service club.

* You or your employees network and/or volunteer at industry association meetings or business functions (such as Chamber of Commerce events). Some people

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

might consider this networking and not community relations, but I would argue networking falls under community relations. Regardless, you get the idea.

I'm going to go through the pros and cons of community relations in a

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

oment, but first I want to encourage all of you to think about ways to not only add community relations to your marketing strategy but also to get better at leveraging those opportunities to grow your business. But first, le

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

Combination pro

's go through the pros and cons.

Pros:
* Builds credibility for you and your business.
* Builds personal relationships with customers.
* Works well with advertising – similar to public relations, community re

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

lations is a "soft" sell approach that can make your customers more receptive to your advertising.
* Can be a stepping stone for PR.
* Creates goodwill (and good karma).

Cons:
* Time – community relations can

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

consume a ton of it. All that volunteering can suck up a lot of working and/or leisure hours.
* Long wait to realize results – like public relations, you implement a community relations plan for the long haul. And I do

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

ean the long haul (even longer than PR).
* Difficult to track – I'm talking mainly about the non-business networking activities here. You may never be able to trace sales to community relations. Actually, chances are y

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

ou probably won't. You need to trust it's working on some cosmic level and let it go.
* No payoff at all – this can happen if you find yourself donating time and/or money to charities that are wonderful causes but offer

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

little advertising and/or promotional opportunities. Now, that doesn't mean I'm advocating only supporting high-visibility causes. On the contrary, there are many good reasons to have a community relations program in place.

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

Following aspects would a

or one, the good feeling you get knowing you're supporting a worthy cause (not to mention all the good karma you build).

Basically, you can sum up the cons to this: spend lots of time or money for little/no return.

Not a g

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

ood marketing strategy.

But, it doesn't have to be that way. You can and should find ways to increase your ROI (return on investment) for all the community relations activities you take part in. And one good way to do that

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

s to leverage them into marketing strategies.

Creativity Exercise -- How to get a return on investment with community relations

Grab some sheets of paper and a pen (I like the fun gel pens myself) and get ready for some br

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

instorming.

First, list all the activities you're doing that are considered community relations. Write them all down.

Next, analyze those activities. What ROI are you currently getting from them? Do your customers know you

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

donate time and/or money to those activities? Do you get sales because of your involvement? Are you building your brand and/or awareness of your business because of your donations?

Don't know? Well, then you probably aren'

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

getting much return.

Next, I want you to brainstorm ways you can start leveraging those activities. Can you devote a section on your Web site to telling people about your involvement? Can you use your Web site to help rais

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

money and/or volunteers for the causes you support? If there's an event involved, can you more aggressively market your services during it? (Set out flyers or brochures or have a really good elevator speech if you're able t

.

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

o introduce yourself.) Can you send out press releases? Can you have your logo added to the organization's marketing materials? Or have the organization link to your Web site?

Try and brainstorm 20 ways you can increase you

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ROI. Some will be silly, some will be completely impractical -- but that's okay. All you need are one or two gold nuggets to really jumpstart your marketing and make that investment in time and money really start to pay off

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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In this article you will explore different precautions you must take for the safety of your business from fraudulent individuals and customers with whom you do transactions through credit cards. This article will definitely add valuable knowledge to ensure risk free and secure financial transactions for your business.

Every year you will find millions of fund raising events happening all across the country. They range from very large scale fund raising events-

The knowledge mix influences creativity output. There are many ways to look at it.

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