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As I was preparing for a presentation recently, I was trying to figure out why small businesses have trouble marketing themselves consistently. If we know we need to be marketing, why don’t we just do it? Is it for a lack of planning or that we’re just not sure what to do or where to start?

Yes, maybe. But in trying to figure out what those hurdles

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

are that keep us from marketing consistently; I came up with two hurdles that I think might be as big as any other for most. Like a lot of things with regards to our business, if we’re aware of the hurdles that keep us from achieving effective marketing, then we can plan and act accordingly on how we can either go around or over them.

So what

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

Examples of combination products may in

are these hurdles? Well, they certainly aren't the only hurdles, but the two I keep running into time and again with many small businesses are Perfection and Fear of Failure. In fact, I'm sure they have played a part in delaying some of my own marketing including the launch of my web site and my monthly eZine. Let’s take a look at each hurdle and ho

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

we might overcome them.

Hurdling Perfection
Many of us tend to be perfectionist in the things we do. You might say... "When I put out this marketing piece, it really has to hit a home run." But because we know that perfection is really not attainable, it can be a big roadblock to effective marketing. In our quest to make ou

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

marketing PERFECT, we may never even get a GOOD marketing program in place.

Perfectionism in creating a direct mailing piece or a web site or an electronic newsletter can result in significant delays of weeks, months, or even years.

The funny thing is that most of us verbally buy into the concept of "continuous improvement". But then we o

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

Combination pro

ten get stuck trying to endlessly improve before we ever put the idea into action. The pursuit of perfection in itself is not bad. But it can certainly result in great failure when we're unwilling to call an idea "good enough", put it out there, and then look for ways to improve it and put it out there again –- until it's perfect, or almost perfect.

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

If marketing has been a struggle for your business because you're not sure what works best or where to start, then you can't expect to be great at it overnight. It's going to take time. So be willing to start somewhere and learn from mistakes.

Notice the importance of the pursuit of perfection, or "continuous improvement". The opposite sid

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

of this hurdle is settling for "good enough". Sometimes marketing is treated as a one time event and even though it's dull and only yielding mediocre results, it keeps getting put out there again and again without ever trying to make it better. What would you expect to eventually happen to a business that operates this way?

Hurdling Fe

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

r of Failure
I believe the second hurdle -- Fear of Failure is closely related to the first. For most of us, the notion of facing rejection or failure is unsettling at best. And because this whole marketing thing can be an unknown or uncomfortable for us, we sure do hesitate to put something out there and not have it be good. If it fails

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

to produce results, we may feel like we're failing in our business.

Unfortunately, one of the most common approaches to avoiding failure is to avoid taking action in the first place. Or maybe just as unsuccessfully, we spend all our time looking for that magical marketing idea that is going to end all of our client acquisition problems. I call

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

t the "Power Ball" marketing strategy. Guess what? It's not out there -- so you might as well quit looking.

Marketing will take time and effort on your part. But, with persistence and a willingness to potentially even make a mess of it with your first attempt, you can succeed! Be willing to learn from your mistakes and get better as you go.

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

Following aspects would a

R>Do you see why I think the two hurdles are closely related? "I need perfection, and if it can't be perfect, I will have failed. And I just hate the thought of failure, so if it can't be perfect, I'm better off not even doing it."

Let’s look at this using a baseball analogy. Former Kansas City Royal and Hall of Famer, George Brett, was arguabl

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

one of the best third basemen of all time. And anyone who followed the Royals in the prime of George Brett’s career would agree that he was a great, great hitter.

What if George Brett had approached his baseball career as follows: "When I come to bat, I just hate the thought of getting an out (or worse yet, a strike out) -- Fear of Failure. Bu

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

even more so I'm a Perfectionist, so when I come to bat I need to hit a home run every time. Therefore, I'm not even going to swing the bat unless I know that I can hit a home run because I sure don't want to make an out."

What do you think George Brett's chances of having the Hall of Fame career he did would have been if he had taken this app

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

oach?

Sounds like a silly example, but are we doing this at all with our own marketing efforts? Don't get me wrong. I don't suggest that you just start going up to bat and swinging away. Marketing efforts do need to be thought out and planned. But don't let these two hurdles keep you from moving forward.

Take Action To Overcome The

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

Hurdles That Keep You From Marketing Success
If you love what you do and believe in the results you can produce for your customers, then you can experience great marketing success. Be willing to get some help if the "know how" is beyond your means. It just might be the best investment you make in your business.

Don't focus on perfec

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ion, but rather the continuous pursuit of perfection. Brainstorm it, plan it, design it, write it, tweak it, and then GO FOR IT. Be willing to try it on a small test basis and potentially fail. But only if you're willing to learn from mistakes. Then improve it and try it again.

Don't settle for "good enough". If you have marketing tools that ar

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

n't consistently producing results, don't just keep using them (at least not in the format they're in). You may have to tweak again and again so you can start to learn what works and what doesn't work. Testing is critical.

Hurdling "Fear of Failure" takes some courage. Courage doesn't mean you don't have fear. It means finding a way to overcome

.

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

the fear in order to achieve some result. Courageous people get over worrying about feeling like a failure or looking like a fool, because they focus on achieving the ultimate result. They are passionate about what they can do for their clients, and that's what drives them.

I’m sure that someone somewhere has told you to embrace failures becaus

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

it's the way to learn the path to success. My advice is to keep the failures from being catastrophic by testing. Again, I say test it out on a small basis so the taste of failure isn't so bitter in your mouth.

On the other hand, if your test works, you can always go back for MORE of the sweet taste of success.

(c) - Kevin Dervin, KPD Marketin

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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