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Customer information categories

The following information categories form a frame of good understanding of the Customer.

Customer behavior:

• Products and services that are purchased

• Product portfolio, product versions, sup

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

plementary services, product features

• Recency and frequency of purchases, monetary value of transactions

• usage characteristics of a continuity service (e.g. a credit card or a telephone subscription)

• Share of wallet spe

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

Examples of combination products may in

d with the business and with competition

Customer interaction history:

Service calls, complaints, campaign offer contacts and customer reactions

Customer value estimations:

• Customer total and per product revenue value

• Cu

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

tomer lifetime value or equivalent metrics

Purchase-decision making process by the Customer:

• Factors which influence choices (e.g. cost, product manufacturing quality, product design, product packaging, product/business reput

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

tion)

• product information which is essential to support the decision (e.g. cost, product features)

How does the Customer purchase:

• purchasing channel preferences

• interactions required in order to carry out a purchase

C

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

Combination pro

stomer service after the purchase:

• support type and frequency, the Customer requires during products or services usage

• preferred customer service channels (e.g. web channel or call center)

Personal sociographic profile of

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

he Customer:

• Marital status and household characteristics

• Financial condition (income and disposable income)

• Education level

• Lifestyle / Preferences

• how does the Customer relate to predefined customer segments or p

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

ofiles (e.g. Prizm clusters in the US or Meta-Milieus profiles in Europe)

• demographics of the neighbourhoods in which the Customer base lives (geodemographics)

• Other factors affecting purchasing behavior

External factors a

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

fecting Business Customer behavior:

• Competitive environment and market trends

• macroeconomic factors which influence the market

• Regulatory environment in the market

In certain cases, the data gathered can be overwhelming

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

For example the phone calls made by a long list of Customers, are generating an enormous volume of call detail records. The telecom company should design a realistic approach to handle this valuable information effectively.

Cus

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

omer holistic view

Many Businesses operate legacy systems serving exclusively a specific business process or a specific organizational unit. These legacy systems capture customer information and they are hardly accessible by oth

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

Following aspects would a

er organizational units. Therefore, information on customer interactions with the Business, is dispersed in uncoupled systems which form ‘information silos’. This Business cannot develop a ‘complete view of the Customer’ and offe

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

it to all relevant channels.

As Businesses recognize the competitive value of the enhanced knowledge of the Customer, an international trend to better exploit Customer information on all customer lifecycle stages, is witnessed.

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

Information for new Customer acquisition

Information captured, is used to segment the market into groups and shape products based on the needs of these groups. As the degree of market segmentation increases (segmentation into s

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

aller more focused groups - microsegmentation), the required information for each Customer must be enriched (e.g. richer demographics, analysis of behavior, customer value analysis).

Information for Customer retention

Customer

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

etention & loyalty is a difficult task, in the modern competitive environment. Customer & market information should be fully exploited in order to strengthen the relationship with the Customer.

Information which:

• contributes

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

o the understanding of the customer profile, the market segmentation and the focused provisioning of products and services on selected Customer groups

• allows the development and use of Customer value models

• allows value-bas

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

d servicing of the Customer

• allows the adoption of Customer service to specific customer requests or preferences

• allows the guidance of certain Customer profiles to advanced products which are of strategic importance to the

.

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

Business development or better serve Customer needs (e.g. identify Customer groups of a specific profile for upselling)

• relates to areas of Customer dissatisfaction, in which improvement is needed

• supports the internal asse

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

sment on the customer service quality level

• contributes to the identification of differentiation and value creation opportunities, should be systematically captured and used efficiently.

Copyright 2006 – Kostis Panayotaki

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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