Your Guide to Pharma Marketing Success Throughout the Brand Lifecycle

Pharma Marketing Evolves Over the Commercial Lifecycle – Are You Asking the Right Questions?

Pharma marketers know that brand needs and opportunities shift as a drug progresses through the four main stages of the commercial lifecycle.  

• Stage 1: Late-Stage Clinical Development & Pre-Launch Planning  
• Stage 2: Brand Launch and Post-Launch Optimization  
• Stage 3: Established Brand and Competition Management  
• Stage 4: Product Maturity and Loss-of-Exclusivity  

However, identifying the right steps to help your brand maximize cost-efficiency and marketing performance throughout the journey can be a challenge – especially when working with limited budgets or resources. 

To help your brand marketing evolve and adapt, we’ve highlighted three critical questions you should be asking at each stage – from understanding market dynamics, to assessing competitive landscapes, to refining messaging strategies to resonate with target audiences effectively. By addressing these questions comprehensively and considering the factors at play in each stage, your team can navigate the complexities of each stage with clarity and purpose, driving your brand toward its desired outcomes.

The strongest launches start by focusing resources on the patients and HCPs with greatest need and fewest current options, then expand by dynamically adjusting tactics and spend based on quantified script impact.

Stage 1: Late-Stage Clinical Development & Pre-Launch Planning 

1. What commercial objectives have been set for your brand?   
2. How hard is your audience to find and reach?  
3. Do you have the right team and resources in place?  

Every brand has different commercial goals – from serving niche populations to competing with blockbuster competitors. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to translate brand objectives into strategic marketing plans. But thinking critically about the relative difficulty of your audience and assessing your internal and external resources is key to ensuring alignment with overarching goals – or flagging where there may be a mismatch.  

Quantifying the accessibility of your target audience is not only about clinical eligibility – it’s important to also consider factors like KOL feedback, drug price and payer restrictions, or FDA label implications which may also limit or expand your audience. When it comes to determining the expertise and resources needed, it’s important to balance internal capacity with the time and effort needed to manage those resources. 

Stage 2: Brand Launch and Post-Launch Optimization  

1. Does your targeting strategy reach clinically specific audiences with accuracy?  
2. How nimble and responsive are your tactics and channels?  
3. Are you seeing expected script volumes and brand uptake? 

During a brand's drug launch, there are a multitude of stakeholders closely monitoring its progress. From marketing teams, to executives, to investors – everyone is focused on swift uptake and adoption. 

The strongest launches start by focusing resources on the patients and HCPs with greatest need and fewest current options, then expand by dynamically adjusting tactics and spend based on quantified script impact. That’s why it’s so important to quickly understand whether your targeting strategy is reaching audiences with clinical specificity and precision, and if your marketing tactics are responsive based on real-time audience engagement. 

Perhaps most importantly, you should be measuring the impact of marketing on script volumes and brand uptake – not just looking at impressions, share-of-voice, or other indirect metrics.

Stage 3: Established Brand and Competition Management  

1. Are you remaining the brand of choice for providers and patients?  
2. Where are your competitors in their commercial lifecycle?  
3. Is the audience for your brand growing or decreasing?

Once your brand is established on the market, complacency is not an option. The pharma industry is perpetually evolving, with a constant influx of new products and drug indication updates. It’s important to understand when you are – or should be – the brand of choice for providers and patients. This gives your team the insight to prioritize visibility with those audiences, rather than wasting dollars competing for a broad share of voice. It also allows you to proactively communicate brand updates to solidify loyalty and sustain relevance. 

As a brand matures, the trajectory of your brand's audience is likely to grow or decline, based on new indications, formulary changes, or competitive threats. Choosing where to compete – and how you can win in that space – is key to making informed decisions about how to allocate marketing resources.

Stage 4: Product Maturity and Loss-of-Exclusivity

1. What patients are best served by remaining on branded therapy?  
2. How can we keep their medication accessible and affordable?  
3. What therapy do we want HCPs and patients to consider next?

In this final stage, your brand must confront and actively strategize for the future of the drug or loss-of-exclusivity, while still prioritizing patient-centric care and market longevity. It’s important to discern which patients prefer or need to remain on branded therapy, then determine how to maintain accessibility and affordability. 

If you are planning a next-gen or follow-up therapy, this is also a key time to lay the foundation through brand loyalty and targeting communications, helping HCPs and patients determine the next step in their treatment journey. 

Get the Full Guide to Pharma Marketing Throughout the Commercial Lifecycle 

It’s not easy to maintain the flexibility needed to seamlessly optimize brand marketing throughout the drug commercial lifecycle. To help you analyze and respond to the questions above, we’ve published a full guide to the factors in play at each stage of the brand journey. Download your copy today!