Main Subject - Business

If you are thinking about initiating a public relations/media communications effort it makes sense to understand the media markets to help formulate a communications strategy. In this article we will discuss the major media markets and practical considerations associated with a low budget communications plan.

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

>THE TOP-30 MEDIA MARKETS

As mentioned in (Part 1) of this series, there are 30 major cities in America known as the TOP-30 media markets. They are called major media markets because the population levels exceed over one million people across a wide demographic audience and they are:

Atlanta, GA <

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

Examples of combination products may in

r> Milwaukee, WI
Baltimore, MD
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN Boston, MA
New Orleans, LA Chicago, IL
New York, NY Cincinnati, OH
Philadelphia, PA Cleveland, OH
Phoenix, AZ Columbus, OH

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

Pittsburgh, PA Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Portland, OR Denver, CO
Sacramento, CA
Detroit, MI
St. Louis, MO Houston/Galveston, TX
San Diego, CA Indianapolis, IN
San Francisco, CA Kansas City, NE
Seattle/Tac

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

ma, WA Los Angeles, CA
Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL Miami, FL
Washington, DC

These media markets represent the biggest bang for the buck if you get booked for newspaper, radio or TV interviews because of the sheer volume of readers and radio and TV audiences. Each of these cities hav

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

Combination pro

at least one anchor newspaper organization located in them (The Boston Globe, The Columbus Dispatch and the Chicago Tribune, etc), for example, and even smaller newspapers can reap a substantial amount of response from a simple mention of your project. Do not underestimate any media in these cities or the surroundin

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

areas within a 100-mile radius. If you are looking for big time coverage and major public awareness, these cities are they place to focus your time and resources.

SMALL CITIES

Smaller cities, those that do not appear in the list above, can still generate significant results in areas with populations

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

ranging from about 250,000-750,000 people. While not considered a major media market, coverage by TV, radio and newspapers concurrently can create quite an impact on public awareness. Again, these cities should not be overlooked in the communications planning.

SMALL TOWNS

Small towns include popu

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

ation centers from about 25,000-100,000 people and many times only have a local newspaper organization, some local magazines and a few local radio stations. TV broadcasts are often received from neighboring cities and through cable.

TALKING TO THE MEDIA

Every city, no matter how small or how large,

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

as a natural order within the media; Newspapers organizations are headed up by editors and specialty column writers and the electronic media (radio and TV) all have producers and hosts. When dealing with newspaper organizations you want to target your calls to the appropriate reporters covering your story idea. For e

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

ample, if you were trying to promote a book on cars, then you would want to talk to the reporter covering the auto motive section, if your story deals with real estate, the real estate reporter, and so forth. In the electronic media (radio or TV), you can either do research at the library, or order a Bacon’s media dire

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

Following aspects would a

tory or call the target stations directly with your story idea. Many times the receptionist can guide you to the appropriate producers of the shows most inclined to cover your story idea. A key is to make friends with the receptionist, who is your eyes and ears into the organization. One way to establish a dialog wi

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

h the receptionist is to simply ask “can you help me” and then briefly describe your story idea and ask to speak to the best producer according to the receptionists opinion. The receptionists know who’s who in these organizations and can save you a TON of time.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

1. If a newspaper h

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

s never interviewed you, relax, it’s a breeze. Radio and TV is different though. Many times these are live and you will be exposing your self to a considerable audience. If the media event takes live calls this can be especially nerve racking if you have no experience. In order to be professional, you must know you

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

r topic. You must be an expert in your field. When you are on live radio or TV and they plan on taking live calls, it is comparable to sitting in the middle of a packed super bowl football field and having to answer questions from anybody in the bleachers and everybody will hear your answers. Not to much of a 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

if you REALLY know your topic. If you don’t know an answer to a caller’s question, be honest and say you don’t know—tell them to leave their name and number with the station and you will call back with an answer. It provides a professional way to maintain your dignity.

2. For this reason, it makes sense to target yo

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

r first phase of communications towards smaller towns and focus on small newspapers and small radio stations. This way, you will gain experience in smaller venues and, if you make a mistake, you will not destroy your credibility in a large media market.

3. Concentrate your efforts into one city at a time unless you t

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

ink you can handle a national PR rollout. I suggest focusing your efforts and money into a city because you want to “spin” the media all at the same time. I mean, you want all your media events to happen in a concentrated manner so that newspapers, radio stations and maybe TV cover you all within a week or so. This w

.

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

y you get in and get out of a city and analyze what happened, both good and bad including results.

Getting media coverage is most often a matter of being honest with everybody you deal with. You will need a professional release (the next lesson in this series) to get people’s attention but beyond that, being friendly

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

and honest is the key to success with media. As long as your topic is informative, controversial or sensational, getting media coverage is relatively easy to do. Stay tuned to these articles, they will be updated daily over the next five (5) days.

To your success! Copyright © 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserve

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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Main Subject - Smart Media Communications; Part 2 - Understanding The Media Markets And The Media

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