Digg It - Business

Chapter 3 of 14

The real goal and hope is that your celebrity endorser will boost the effectiveness of your marketing, product, or company campaign in a positive fashion. The value index, as we like to call it, is extremely important. Just look 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

t companies that had deals with the likes of Kobe or O.J. when they ran into trouble. Disaster was and is always just around the corner if your celebrity endorser has the misfortune of having any form of legal trouble. Bad news for them only means

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

Examples of combination products may in

worse news for you and your company. Over the years, millions of dollars have gone up in smoke because of a DUI, drug, or sex scandal. It just isn’t worth the risk. So, get to know your celebrity endorser and perform a thorough background check.

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

You might be very surprised at what a simple Google search might turn up. Don’t let your celebrity endorser get caught with his or her pants down, as you will also feel like your pants are down.

I can recall all to well a situation where a major s

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

ar was scheduled to appear at a major meet and greet. The deal was done, the athlete had been paid and was scheduled to appear the next day at a very large function. The company decided to fly the athlete in the night before. To bad the athlete d

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

Combination pro

cided to have a few drinks before going to his hotel. Instead of being in a cab he had a rented car…big mistake. He was picked up one block from his hotel for a DUI. He spent the night in jail. He was too embarrassed to attend the function later

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

the next day so he decided to hop the next plane home and leave the company high and dry. Not only did they never recover their money, but the event planned around the celebrity was a disaster, to say the least. Make sure you know your celebrity a

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

d his or her tendencies.

It’s so amazing to me that what you see is not necessarily what you will get. Too many high profile celebrities are just full of themselves. It’s a shame but its reality. There are so many nice, decent, honest celebritie

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

that one need not be subjected to a bad apple.

When considering the value index, another crucial point is to always ask for referrals. It may seem unnecessary but believe me, if you can’t get any it’s time to walk away. When speaking with referr

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

ls, make sure you ask all the pertinent questions such as: Are they easy to work with? Do they arrive on time? How do they dress? Were they cordial? Did they ask for money for doing little extra things? Were they at ease or in a hurry? Did they han

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

around after it was over, or immediately leave? Were they accommodating when asked for autographs? Did they make eye contact? and so on. Ask the questions, as you may be surprised at the answer. Above all, ask if they would hire that person again

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

Following aspects would a

A good question that we ask the celebrity if we can’t get referrals is, who have they have done endorsements for in the past? We then do our own investigating by calling the company directly. It’s usually safe to say that if you can’t get referra

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

s there have been problems in the past. If that’s the case, we advise you to keep looking until you find your perfect match. It will be time well spent.

There are a number of reasons for using a celebrity endorser. But also consider the value pr

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

position of the endorser as a key to your success. The reason you are using the endorser is probably one of the following:

• Credibility

• Adding new ideas to your brand image

• Celebrity can add his or her values and refresh the brand

• Celebr

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

ties draw attention

• Rising above the competition

• PR possibilities

• Way to convince customers about a product or company

• Adding value to the product or company

• Building a solid back end proposition through extended use

There is one rea

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

on to use a celebrity endorser that I don’t want to add to the list above, as it is often the early signs of a company in trouble. That reason is desperation. Companies often times will think that a celebrity endorser might pull them out of the ho

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

e. Unless it is a brilliantly conceived marketing strategy, the chances for failure are greater than the chances for success. Sometimes, if a product cannot stand on its own, companies are lead to believe that a celebrity might produce magic. Usu

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

lly that is not the case as the product or company is already too far gone to hope that a last minute advertising bailout will make a difference. There are certainly instances where a celebrity has come in and immediately turned things around, but

.

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

nless you can afford Michael Jordan or some other big name, failure is more realistic than success.

The bottom line is, don’t count on the celebrity endorser being your savior. The celebrity endorser can certainly enhance most businesses with a we

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

l thought out plan, but to use one as a savior may be asking to much from the celebrity and isn’t fair to the celebrity or to the company. Miracles are hard to come by.

Beware if you are desperate.

Written by: Ron Tyler

© copyright 2006 Ron Tyle

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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