Main Subject - Internet and Businesses Online

Introduction

Online product launches have lots of moving parts. Many different departments have a hand in getting to the finish line with a winning product. If you are managing this type of launch, there are a variety of ways to plan strategy and set goals. One way is

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

to target your four main audience types. Using this method, you won’t risk missing the big target—making it easy for your customers to buy your products.

Making your plan “customer-centric” allows you to focus on what matters and makes it easier to revise as you progres

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

Examples of combination products may in

. You can determine which groups need more attention and which groups are performing well.

Audience Type One —“Self-directed”

This is the easiest type to satisfy. This person is an “early adopter” or someone with a defined need. For example, they have determined they

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

need a “defragmentation” software utility. They have read some online articles, made a decision and want to go directly to the website to buy. To satisfy this type’s needs you must have a clearly defined buying process with quick check out.

Areas to target:

Online Stor

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

—Make sure you have a clear, well-run shopping cart in place. Make it easy for him to buy his product and leave satisfied. Customer Service—Have an e-mail confirmation process in place that makes it clear that a product was purchased and a credit card (or other mechanis

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

Combination pro

) was charged.

Offer testing—Begin with a special offer that can be tracked online. Make sure to tweak it during the launch period as you see results come in.

Audience Type Two— “Tester”

Satisfying this type is very straightforward. This is a person who wants to get h

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

s hands on the “trial version” for a test drive. If you are a software vendor this is easy. If you are a consumer electronics vendor or sell a service, you must determine a way to give your “tester” a chance to try it.

With services you can offer a free “one-time” offer

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

As an electronics vendor you must be more careful. You might have a “tester” masquerading as a buyer who will quickly buy the product to test it and just as quickly return it. Be fair with your return policies, but be clear that a sub-set of this group is going to retu

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

n products no matter what you do.

Areas to target:

Downloadable software —this area needs to be operable from the day of product launch. I have seen companies postpone providing a trial until other areas are in place. You miss a big opportunity if you allow that. Some

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

testers will show up on day one never to return. Free limited offer—if you are a service provider, have this in place and expect people to try it. If you need to assign resources to it, do so. Nothing is worse than having an online message say “check back with us later…

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

They won’t.

Audience Type Three —“Fact-Checker”

You may notice we are moving to the harder audience types. You knew they were coming. The “fact checker” is a cautious person who weighs information very carefully and doesn’t buy until every question is answered. This

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

Following aspects would a

is the person that websites were made for. If you provide a variety of different information formats, e.g. audio, video, PDFs, etc. it makes it more likely that this type will find what he’s looking for and make a purchase.

Areas to target:

Multimedia Product Movies—I c

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

ll these “Digimovies (sm).”They are generally done in Flash, are no more that three minutes in length and they provide the most “bang for your buck.” Feature these prominently as little infomercials wherever you want to alert your audience to top features and benefits of

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

he product.

Written Information—these are the most common type of information available on new products. Provide free articles, links to online reviews, White papers, online brochures, anything the fact-checker can study at his leisure.

Webinars and Tele-seminars—these

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

re relatively new formats, ideal for the fact checker. A Webinars allows you to invite website visitors to an online presentation about your new product. She can view your presentation and ask questions via a messaging facility. If you can’t afford a Webinars, consider

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

tele-seminar that allows your audience to join a phone-conference setup to discuss the merits of your product.

Audience Type Four—“Mr./Ms. Remorseful”

We all know and dread this audience type. This is the person who buys on impulse, repents at leisure and obsesses about

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

returning the product as soon as he gets it. Obviously, the goal here is to overcome his feeling of being “duped” and make him feel that buying the product or service was a good idea after all. Believe it or not, you have more control over this than you realize. You nee

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

to quickly contact him and reinforce his reasons for buying.

Areas to Target:

Monthly newsletter—you should have a product newsletter (that is track able) ready as an auto-responder after product purchase and/or registration. In this newsletter you should have links to

.

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

1. Step by step tutorials that are easy to follow and get her started using the product. Don’t count on her finding the area herself; she’s too busy regretting her purchase.

2. Community—Provide an area that brings users together to discuss the product and share inform

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

tion. This idea is as old as the Internet and is often overlooked.

3. Online help—make it clear that help exists and can be found online. This can be in the form of FAQs, a knowledge database and links to other helpful resources.

Copyright 2005 Digital Media Works, Inc

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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