Digg It - Business

When it’s all said and done, all you’re truly left with at the end of the day is your company’s brand and what your brand stands for in the minds of both your customers and employees. But do you m

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

anage your company brand for the benefit of both constituencies: customers and employees?

Most companies that I consult with focus their brand management efforts solely on the customer. But if y

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

Examples of combination products may in

ou’re really serious about differentiating your brand from your competitors, then I suggest that you begin to manage and think about your brand from a dual, yet fully aligned point of view: custom

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

rs and employees.

Your brand, be it appliances, electronics, automobiles, clothing, etc. serves as a powerful magnet that attracts both customers and employees to your front door, while also serv

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

ing as an anchor to hold them. The best companies manage their brands from both the customer and employee perspective. And why not, after all isn’t it your front-line store employees who are the

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

Combination pro

face and personality of your brand to your customers?

Your current brand management focus and responsibilities should encompass the two most important components of your business: your customers

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

and store employees.

Customer Perspective: Great brands connect with their customers on an emotional level vs. logical. It terms of emotion, what does it feel like viscerally to do business wit

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

you?

Brand positioning starts with a frame of reference that communicates to your customers an expectation they can achieve when doing business with you. However, you have to know who you are b

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

efore you can convince others.

Many companies often promote attributes of their products and services that consumers don’t care about. It’s important to assess not only product benefits and feat

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

res but in addition the customers buying experience: every point of contact, commonly referred to as “moments of truth" or “touch points."

From the moment your customers approach your stores to t

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

he moment they leave, what was the experience like? From exterior, to store design, to product offering, to service - is your customer buying experience fast, friendly, and helpful?

It’s the ove

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

Following aspects would a

rall experience that your customers will recall when it’s time for them to purchase again, therefore make it positive and memorable. While careful consideration of your brands point of differenti

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

tion is important, just as important are your points of parity with your other products and services. Be sure to assess on a continual basis your points of parity otherwise brand attributes that

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

were once differentiators may become minimum requirements, also know as “price of entry."

Employee Perspective: If providing your customers with a fast, friendly, helpful and memorable buying ex

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

erience is key to success, then I think we’d all agree that the folks serving your customers are the critical link. Not technology, products, or store design; but people! Don’t get me wrong, tec

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

hnology, products, and hard assets are indeed important to your business, however, successful branding is all about connecting with your customers on an emotional level, and that can only be achie

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ed on the human level.

Technology is a great enabler, however your brands real moment of truth is when your customers are standing at the transaction counter looking into the face of your sales a

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

ssociate. It is at this moment that all your branding efforts (promises) are either fulfilled or broken (*). Managing the employee dimension of your brand involves: recruiting, interviewing and

.

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

election, training, career development and business culture, which includes: motivation, teamwork, reward and recognition, and leadership. It is the people side of the business that represents yo

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ur brand to your customers that create the emotional link for brand loyalty.

* For a free report: “Motivating Non-Performers: 20 Do’s & Don’ts of Employee Motivation" go to: http://www.eps-i.com

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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Several success stories have emanated from the lean manufacturing initiatives. Although some organizations were not able to sustain the success after a few years, many others kept building on the initial success through continual improvements in processes. Discussed below are the keys to lean manufacturing success that were common for most of the success stories:

Being a trustworthy professional in business today might seem obvious, but not always followed. This represents 95% of your business success.

To accentuate your business brochures you need to think professionalism. Believe it or not if you are too professional and a small business and you have spent too much on your brochures making them look corporate and slick some customers are afraid to do business with you because they think the prices are too high.

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Digg It - Brand Management: Customer vs. Employee

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