Digg It - Business

I am currently working on a site to feature my own personal design separately from my work with Form Creative . Despite just feeling a little better when I have a current and fully developed portfolio ready to go, I am going

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

to be targeting businesses that are frightened off by the perceived cost of hiring an agency. It is a bit of a strange phenomenon, actually, and one that stuck in my mind as a great example how creative alone can be such a

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

Examples of combination products may in

owerful force in marketing in any medium.

When we started Form Creative, our goal was to create a different kind of agency. A virtual agency that had embraced 21st century technology and leveraged it to bring together some

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

really smart people at strategic thinking and tactical execution while skipping the big agency fees. This was in 2001 and at that time, that idea was not such a cliche'. We laid out our strategy and developed our materials,

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

ncluding our web site, to fulfill our strategy. In short order, we had grabbed some big business, at least in the context of our little agency.

Not terribly long after that, the virtual model really caught on industry-wide

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

Combination pro

nd we found ourselves competing with a slew of other very talented people and our new business opportunities began to diminish. We retained the lion's share of clients that we had acquired but it was becoming harder and hard

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

er to win new business. There are multiple reasons for this (as any entrepreneur will tell you) but one of the consistent messages we heard was:
"We can't afford to go with a big firm on this. We just don't have the do

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

gh..."
At first we were all a little taken aback. What were these people talking about? Did they not read our materials? We are practically the champions of little guy! Bringing agency quality thinking and execution wi

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

hout the huge agency fees!!

Then we started to poll people. We started asking prospects their impressions of our materials. For the prospects that had passed us over in favor of another firm, the overwhelming and consistent

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

response was: "Oh we didn't even go through your Web site. We all sat around my computer and hit your home page and realized we couldn't afford you" Certain people in our organization were elated at this, of course, as

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

t's a huge compliment to those who created the site. But we as the groups leadership, realized that we had missed our mark and that our own talents had outstripped our strategy. We had deployed the best graphic design we cou

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

Following aspects would a

d to showcase our abilities in an attempt to illustrate that we were indeed as good as the larger agencies and in doing so, positioned the perception of our little slice of the web squarely in the big agency space. And we di

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

d it all with the creative - both the design and the copy. Won a few awards for it too, but had to redo it. The design was too slick. The copy overladen with industry catch phrases that made perfect sense to us, but scared o

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

f our prospective clients.

The Lesson for Creatives
Think hard about target audience and what message is being broadcast and how that message needs to be perceived . Apply the correct creative solution to the strategy

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

Favor 'problem solving' over 'award winning' and both may occur.

Could I design and develop a site that is fully Flash enabled with all of the slick animations and visually dynamic interface elements? Sure. But what proble

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

m does that solve? What is the perception that such a site would impart on the consumers of my material? It would certainly help me catch the eye of the designers and art directors that I am competing against but is it going

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

to leave the targeted audience with the same impression? In 95% of the cases it is going to alienate them and distract them from why they sought me out in the first place - to solve their business problem.

The Lesson for Ma

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

keters
Great design is not measured by aesthetic value alone. It is measured by its ability to communicate a message using tactics that appeal to an aesthetic. When hiring a creative professional, be it a freelancer or

.

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

mega agency, evaluate their commitment to purpose first, only then their tactical execution skills. Insist that they take the time to understand and work to fulfill your strategy. Don't let them go off on creative tangents t

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

at do not solve your business problem or worse, leave your prospects with an erroneous perception of your business. Work perception into your strategy and stick to the strategic focus that you know is right for your business

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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Redundancy is very common. As firms downsize they can often lay off large numbers of people. While there is often compensation, this can do little to make up for the changes it forces upon people.

When it comes to medical billing and NSF, field number 18 of the FA0 record is one that gets rejected more than any other. Keep reading to find out what the field is for and why all the problems.

When businesses say one thing yet do another, to their customers, the results can be bad. This article helps you avoid this pitfall and make sure your company's messages are consistent with your actions.

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Digg It - A Spotlight on Perception

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