Advice You - Business

Let’s say you’re the marketing director of a professional services firm, the director of corporate communications, or the company president. You know you’re good at what you do and that your company provides outstanding services. What’s troubling you is the dissonance between these outstanding services and the level of corporate marketing collateral and the web site. You’re worried that marketing communications are sending mixed messages and thwarting business development efforts. In fact, corporate literature design has become a

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

reactive process, often driven by the need for a piece for an upcoming event. With clients and prospects savvier than ever, you’re concerned that the right image for business has not been created.

Creating image is the job of a visual identity system. It is the result of the integration of business goals and creative design. It defines the use of typography, image, color, layout and logo to reflect your business, making certain that all communications send a singular message. A system will provide the underlying architecture for

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

Examples of combination products may in

ll external and internal communications, ensuring a consistent presentation from corporate literature design to signage.

Musical Chairs

Creating a visual identity is a process that begins by switching seats with clients and prospects to view your business from their perspective. As seen from your former seat, the variety of ways to interact with your business can look like a series of unrelated events. On the surface there doesn’t appear to be a relationship between corporate collateral, public relations initiat

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

ives, interior office space design, and the web site. To an individual client or prospect though, these internal and external touchpoints combine to create a single picture of your business. More than passing impressions, these imprints become one’s collective ‘Experience’ of your business. There is no official port of entry into this world. Where someone may enter your sphere cannot, and should not, be controlled. Having many points of entry is optimum. Therefore, it is crucial that the Experience be consistent from portal to por

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

al. Clients and prospects will find it confusing if different encounters send different messages about your firm. The danger to business is that your Experience is spinning without thoughtful input, creating a hodge-podge world of mixed messages and images, all featuring the corporate logo.

Let’s apply this Experience principle to corporate literature design. In this scenario, you’re the marketing director of a mid-sized law firm. Each of your firm’s clients works with a multi-disciplinary team of attorneys who solve a variety of

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

Combination pro

legal needs across a spectrum of issues. This forward-thinking structure is the unique factor that distinguishes your firm from among the top 10 in your city. Is it enough to state this in the firm brochure or in each practice area brochure? What type of design approach would visually reinforce that message to a prospect looking for a firm of conservative risk-takers? If the content says conservative risk-takers, but the presentation says only conservative, dissonance has been created. If the content says creative and forward-thi

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

king, but the presentation says stodgy, or, if the content says high level of expertise and the presentation says low production values, message and presentation are not aligned. Design and message need to reinforce one another. A seamless integration of content and presentation is a winning combination. Anything less will result in confused prospects.

Who Are You?

What Experience do you want to create for clients and prospects? The answer to this question begins with a definition of your business. This groundwo

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

rk needs to be in place before a designer can determine how anything may look. Many professionals find the following questions a good place to begin:

who are our key clients, existing and targeted;
what are their major concerns and issues;
what skills, resources, strengths, experiences do we have that will address these concerns;
what do we want clients/prospects to know about us (exclude the obvious: we have a combined 100 years of experience; we provide fresh, creative solutions; we provide top-n

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

tch support and follow-through; we listen to our clients…);

which clients/industries make up the largest portion of business now; how do we want that to change;

how would clients describe us;

is there a discrepancy between how the company is perceived in the market and how we perceive ourselves;

is there a discrepancy between current perception and how the business looks to us in 5 years;

what messages about the company, positive and negative, are being delivered by current corporate literat

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

ure design?

Try thinking of the business as a ‘who’ rather than an ‘it’ and sketch a personality. Start with obvious adjectives (casual, formal, friendly, quiet) to get them out of the way, allowing for more idiosyncratic and differentiating descriptions to emerge. Anything goes during this stage of the process. Leave the editing for later.

Honest and thoughtful answers will drill below the surface, where unique ideas are born. A definition of your company will emerge that truly distinguishes it and its Experience. All

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

creative decisions to come will support this definition as a designer translates it into a visual statement. When linked with business goals and objectives, these creative decisions become strategic rather than capricious. For example, a monochromatic color palette will send a different message than one that features bright, primary colors. Additionally, just because your computer system has 200 fonts, doesn’t mean it makes sense to use them all. Depending on the messages to be supported, a family of traditional fonts may be selec

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

Following aspects would a

ted over those that are contemporary. Or a sophisticated combination of traditional and cutting edge typestyles may make the best visual statement. What about imagery? Would it be better to use photos or would illustrations best reflect the message? Architecture firms often prefer large site photos and minimal copy, allowing the work to speak for itself. In this scenario a flexible layout grid would need to be created to accommodate a variety of projects. Creative options are endless; consistency is the key.

As a dynamic entity,

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

he Experience must be defined with care given to the messages it will deliver and the type of responses they must generate. Provide value by crafting content that illustrates your working knowledge of the major issues for clients and prospects. While it is good to know that a company has many years of experience, these ‘we’ messages, (we have 100 years of experience, we have won many awards, we understand) will not resonate like messages that mirror a situation that a client or prospect is facing. The former is a monologue, the la

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

tter mimics a dialogue by demonstrating knowledge of issues, understanding of consequences, and an ability to envision and craft solutions.

The same principle applies to web site design and content. Several years ago there was widespread panic to get a web site ‘out there.’ Many companies did just that: got something out there. They mistook action for progress. Today these sites are being gutted because they cost a lot and generated little. Listing resum? content is acceptable, but shouldn’t drive the site design. It creates a mo

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

ologue where there should be dialogue. Visitors to the site must be able to pick up their issue thread on the home page. A web site is not confined by binding or page count. Take advantage of the medium to let prospects easily find exactly what they are looking for. This is how to avoid creating a digital brochure. Refer back to the definition exercise and review your list of client issues. Demonstrate to users that not only do those of us at Our Company understand these issues, we have anticipated questions and furnished answers,

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

so please click here. This provides real value, imparting working knowledge that can make the site a reference point.

Maybe Later

This process of defining the Experience, the business, and visual identity is a difficult exercise. It lends itself to procrastination and excuse-making. Do any of the following sound familiar?

We’re too busy to deal with this now.
I don’t have the budget to do this.
We know we should do this, but we’ve decided to give it another year to see where business go

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

s first.

If you find yourself thinking that you’re too busy, remember that identity is all about perception. At the same time that you and your staff are hard at work, corporate collateral is working too, creating an Experience of your company for people you may never have met, who may be working for firms you’ve never heard of, or ones you’ve been trying to get into. Communications that align with the Experience will support your efforts and strengthen business. A disconnect will generate headaches that will make their

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

way to the top of your to-do list.

Budget is an ongoing concern. Time and money were invested in those one-off pieces created for that upcoming event. A system will eliminate costs incurred reinventing the design decision wheel. Laying a strong visual foundation first and adding components (literature program, web site, advertising, etc.) in phases will ensure that the pieces developed today will work with those added next year. Each addition to the system, even if it is for a one-time event, will add equity to the logo and supp

.

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

rt name recognition efforts.

If you want to give it all a little more time, ask yourself why. As temporary solutions, existing communications will be out of alignment with your Experience and confusing to prospects and clients. The marketplace is moving too fast to lose position through confusion. During that same timeframe an identity could begin to develop a presence, planting seeds for the future. Because it is about perception and capturing the essence of the Experience, a visual identity will provide a solid foundation for e

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

xpansion. The strokes are broad enough to accommodate transitions and adjustments. Imagine the system as a structure: too narrow in its vision and it will be quickly outgrown.

Everyone is clamoring for clients’ or prospects’ attention. Noise in the marketplace is loud. With a visual identity that has thrown your company’s Experience out of alignment, its voice is unable to strike the clear and resonant chord that will rise above the din. Intelligent design will bring a quiet symmetry to the Experience that will be clearly audible

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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A brief look at the players in the national and international background check market, and comparison ranking.

Every consultant has had the feeling: the conviction that your own private service practice is your true calling. Your passion quest. Yet, the mundane details of actually running a business make even the most inspired business person ask whether the choice was the right one-

TV advertisements are often considered as expensive and unaffordable. That comes mainly from the great respect people have for the television as a media. It is admitted that TV plays the biggest role in our lives, as a regulator of our public opinion, and a navigator of our social behaviour. Ever since its invention, television has become so vital a part in our daily routine, that a world without TV sets is almost impossible to imagine.

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