Main Subject - Business

Direct marketing—including catalogs and Internet sales—is a $1.85 trillion industry in the U.S. that accounts for 7 percent of total U.S. sales, according to the Direct Marketing Association. Direct marketers make their money

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

by understanding exactly what customers want and giving it to them. Here are five key public relations lessons to learn from direct marketing:

Target your message

Successful direct marketing is targeted. It gets the

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

Examples of combination products may in

right offer in the right format to the right people who have an interest in or a need for a manufacturer’s product. Direct marketers spend millions of dollars creating and refining mailing lists and subscriber profiles to fin

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

just the right consumers to buy their product.

Direct marketers don’t try to be everything to everybody. They use their budget wisely to reach only the people who are their best prospects and reach them frequently enough to

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

encourage new sales and spur repeat sales.

How targeted is your message?

Do you write your brochures, advertisements and radio commercials with your typical customer in mind? Is your message telling them how they c

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

Combination pro

n solve their problems, achieve their dreams, or meet their needs? Direct marketers know that customer benefits outsell product features. Targeting your message to your most likely buyers will make the best use of your budge

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

t and yield the most sales.

Test your message

Direct marketers base their ad copy, list purchase, media buys and graphic design on research and industry information. Testing is a basic part of successful direct marke

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

ing. Direct marketers will take two versions of an ad—one with slightly different copy from the other—or two different lists, or two different regional versions of the same magazine—and run their campaign tests. All the rese

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

arch in the world can’t substitute for testing. Research gives you a theoretical answer. Testing validates your theories in the real world.

Many business owners give up on marketing if their first ads don’t send customers f

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

ooding into their stores. Or they abandon advertising in a magazine if one ad doesn’t make the phone ring. Direct marketers know that it is often the message—not the medium—that needs to be adjusted to speak more persuasivel

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

y to the customer. Don’t be too hasty to give up on a whole type of advertising because one effort did not bring a crowd. Change your ad, re-write your mailing piece, adjust your list and try again. When the right message r

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

Following aspects would a

eaches a receptive potential customer, sales happen.

Change your definition of success

Direct marketers are patient. They understand that testing is essential to capture sales. But they also have a realistic idea of

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

success. Depending on the size of the campaign, the type of product and the break-even cost, some direct marketers consider a response of 1 – 5 percent to be very successful. They know that large percentages aren’t realistic

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

.

A campaign’s success also depends on its purpose. Some offers are made just to generate leads in order to build a better mailing list for the next offer. Those campaigns are focused on screening out non-buyers, not necess

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

rily on selling product. Getting 1,000 names of people who are interested out of a mailing of 10,000 people on a list might be very successful under those conditions.

Make sure you have defined success in a way that is reali

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

stic and based on solid criteria.

Tailor your offer

Direct marketers know that the magic is in the way the product is offered. Are you selling closet shelving—or an organization system? Is your product an air cleane

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

—or a way to reduce indoor air pollution?

Even the way the price is stated makes a difference. If you’re having a sale, is the price half off, fifty-percent reduced or two for one? Direct marketers know that different ways

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

to say the same thing get different responses. Make sure that your offers are tailored to what encourages your customers to take action.

Know your customer

The most important lesson is to understand your customer. F

.

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

nd out what the customer is really purchasing when he buys your product. Direct marketing success happens when in-depth customer knowledge is used to tailor an offer, create a targeted, customer-oriented message that is tweak

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ed and perfected through testing, and that produces profitable results.

Even if your business doesn’t currently use direct marketing, you can apply its wisdom to your public relations process to increase your business success

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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I use a credit card for many business purchases. Since I travel a lot, this means quite a bit of money is charged throughout the year. Therefore, I was pleased when my bank had a local hotel deliver a 'basket of goodies' to our home during the holidays. The card attached thanked us for our support, and looked forward to another year of providing beneficial service.

Have you ever wondered whether you're cut out to be an entrepreneur? Nurses sometimes tell me they aren't sure if their nursing career has prepared them to start and succeed in their own legal nurse consultant practice. Yet even the most routine nursing job is full of life lessons.

One of the most important components of buying and smoothly running a business -- big or small -- is something most people (for some reason) tend to shy away from, get cheap about, and thus practically invite trouble and chaos into their lives.

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