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It’s a phrase I hear over and over again from many entrepreneurs, small businesses owners and inventors: “I’d love to hire someone to launch our publicity campaign professionally, but we can’t afford it, so I’m just going to have to do it on my own.”

Over the past several months, I have been conducting an informal survey among entre

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

preneurs and business owners who have contacted me about my services. I have found that due to their lack of information or knowledge on the topic, many businesses typically over-estimate or over-budget the cost of a prospective public relations/publicity campaign. During my PR consultation with them, I asked: “How much do you think

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

Examples of combination products may in

it will cost to launch a solid, effective PR/publicity campaign for your product/business?” Of the 102 people I’ve queried:

11% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $10,000+ per month
32% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $5,000-$10,000 per month
39% - Thought a professional PR campaign w

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

ould cost $3,000-$5,000 per month

12% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $1,000-$3,000 per month

6% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost less than $1,000 per month

The truth is -- you can get a publicity/PR campaign in all of those price ranges. What you get for your money and how effective t

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

e campaign will be is the real question. It is true that the more you pay the more you get. But getting the most publicity/PR exposure doesn’t mean you have to get most expensive PR agency or specialist.

A good rule of thumb is to align yourself with a PR business that best reflects your business size. Most times their rates will be

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

Combination pro

in line with your prospective PR budget. If you are a small business owner with two employees, you need not hire a high-dollar PR agency with dozens of employees. Find a PR business whose office size and capabilities closely resemble your business.

Case in point -- there is a large PR agency in a fancy building downtown a few miles

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

from my office. Frankly, we are not even competition to each other – in fact we have even referred clients to each other. Why? They typically work with large corporations and implement campaigns of around $10,000 per month. My business works with smaller businesses/individuals -- a PR/publicity campaign with my company would be abou

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

t $10,000 for an entire year – not just a month. Mechanically, the downtown firm and my business do the same thing when it comes to PR campaigns: professional media release composition; extensive media market research; articulate personalized distribution to the media; months of media relations (article placements/interview schedulin

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

/media request fulfillment, clipping/tracking of media placements, etc.).

Signing up with the big firm doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily get an experienced associate working on your campaign. So are you getting what you are paying for? A friend of mine who works at a major PR firm gave me the following breakdown of billing fees in his

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

office:

Interns/Junior Executives – bill at $75 / hour (Very little, if any professional experience)
Account Executives – bill at $100 - $125 / hour (1-3 years of professional experience)
Senior Account Executives – bill at $125 - $200 / hour (Multiple years of professional experience. Agency decision makers.)

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

Compare those prices to many small PR shops or individual PR specialists. Many have started their own PR businesses after years of experience in the industry and typically charge $50 - $100 per hour to professionally launch and maintain your campaign. Many times, you can get a seasoned PR veteran who will work directly with yo

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

Following aspects would a

u and your staff for cheaper than the “Intern/Junior” executive rate at a downtown firm.

However, one word of advice -- when choosing a smaller firm or individual to do your PR, make sure they have the same tools that the bigger agencies do: updated media lists/contacts; personalized media distribution capabilities; professional cli

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

ping/tracking services to get copies of each of your media placements (articles, tapes from TV/radio shows) as well as the intangibles of expert communication/media relations skills and professional pitching prowess. If they are cheaper, but don’t have all the tools to help you in the best manner possible, you are probably better off

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

spending a little extra money to make sure your campaign is launched and maintained correctly.

The major benefits of hiring a professional (individual PR specialist or PR firm) to launch your campaign are:

Proper Campaign Implementation – Improperly composed or poorly pitched campaigns are the major downfall of many PR e

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

fforts. Poorly written, over-commercialized media releases; uncalculated, misdirected mass e-mailing of the release pitch; no follow-up media relations/media request fulfillment; etc.. Your first impression to the media is a lasting one – make sure it’s a good one.

Media Contacts – Most PR agencies have established multiple medi

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

a contacts over several years that can lead to much better and more numerous media placements for your campaign. Let their foot in the door benefit you.

Efficiency and Effectiveness – PR specialists/agencies generate publicity full time, 8-12 hours per day and know the ins and outs, shortcuts and secrets to getting the job done

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

etter and quicker. Sure you could hang your own drywall or do your own plumbing, but do you have the tools, the time and the expertise to make it cost effective. I always tell my clients, “You do what you do well, I’ll do what I do well and we’ll collectively move this business further up the ladder.”

One caveat when it comes

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

to choosing a professional PR agency or individual to work with – signing up for a higher priced campaign doesn’t necessarily mean you will get better results than a cheaper campaign. And the inverse is true as well. Over the past year or so, many “low-cost PR/publicity services” have begun to pop up all over the Internet. Ones that

.

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

promise to write and launch a press release for as low as $99. They are low in cost – because frankly many are low in quality. Bigger is not necessarily better, and cheap does not always mean a good bargain.

If you have the time, tools and talent to launch and maintain your own campaign, you should definitely do so. If not – there

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

are a number of public relations/publicity firms, specialists and services out there. Research to find the one whose services and fees match your business plan. Once business owners, entrepreneurs, and inventors learn more about their options when it comes to launching a PR campaign -- many find that they can’t afford NOT to have one

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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