Six mistakes to avoid during a brand launch

Follow these useful tips at the beginning of your launch to help your brand achieve long-term success.

Last week while reading the monthly newsletter Eye for Pharma, I came upon some helpful suggestions from Andree Bates, president of Eularis, on how you can avoid costly mistakes during launch and help your brand achieve long-term success. Here’s my take on Bates’s main ideas.

1. Avoid focusing on the product at the expense of everything else

It’s easy to become enamored with your new product.  But by focusing too much on matters such as product development and approval, you can overlook what’s equally important: understanding the disease being treated and the needs of patients and physicians.  Keep aware also of how your product stacks up against the competition—what distinguishes it in customers’minds from competitive products.

2. Select the right team

When assembling your launch team, take pains to choose the right combination of people—a team from various disciplines and with different levels of experience who can bring the right blend of knowledge, experience, and skill.

3. Work collaboratively

To have a well-rounded perspective during prelaunch planning—and to ensure that teams are not operating in a vacuum—make sure that all departments are adequately represented.  For instance:

∙ Include R&D and medical, legal, and regulatory

∙ Provide clear objectives and assign responsibilities

∙ Review all findings (such as market research) together

∙ Determine the needs of customers (eg, physicians, patients, payors) in the target area

∙ Develop options for creating customer value, anticipating regulatory requirements and marketing potential

4. Resist Rushing Launch

Avoid bringing your product to market before it is ready.  Doing so may jeopardize long-term success for the brand.  Be thorough in areas such as research, marketing and sales tactics, and branding.

5. Learn from your mistakes

Devise measurable ways to rate success, track activities, and learn from mistakes.  Review your processes after launch to help you with your next launch.

6. Avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach

Resist the urge to fit every new product into the same mold.  Seize on each product’s uniqueness and explore new avenues for creativity.  Keep the following in mind:

∙ Be proactive—start early, plan ahead

∙ Organize—establish cross-functional teams

∙ Franchise—explore possibilities for further expansion into the therapeutic area

∙ Expand—keep future uses of the product in mind

∙ Reformulate—choose the best form of delivery for the current environment, but set groundwork for innovations

∙ Protect—study regulatory trends to maintain patent protection

∙ Switch—plan well ahead for the possible switch to OTC

∙ Shut down—plan exit strategies for when a product no longer provides sufficient value

By conducting a thorough analysis of a product’s potential throughout the launch process, you can make sure your product is poised for long-term growth and success.