Upon analysing 10 Pharma and MedTech brand plans, here are the pills and the strategic spills

Picture this: It's 8 AM, I'm surrounded by half empty coffee cups, reading the email that inaugurate the overwhelming, joyful, brain-wrestling, and sometimes the sleep-depriving annual Pharma or MedTech brand plan. I started to flip through the endless templates, guidance, timelines, do’s and don’ts, and stared at the last line of the email: good luck, please let me know if you have any question!

 I'm glancing at the Pharma or MedTech brand plan that looks more like a jigsaw puzzle than a coherent picture. Sound familiar? If you've ever been in Pharma brand planning world, I bet you're nodding right now.

Let me take you back to my early days as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed brand manager for a promising new drug. I thought I had it all figured out. Spoiler alert: I didn't.

If I’m to do it again now, knowing what I know today after thinking through 10 brand plans, I’d repeat humming these brand plan pills and strategic spills every day in my commute to work, I may even make a song of them so my team members keep listening and signing it every day until we sign off the brand plan for good, and the opening line would be: AVOID THESE WHILE BRAND PLANNING:

The Lone Wolf Syndrome

First mistake? Thinking brand plan could be done alone with the same-function mates? Locking yourselves in the office, determined to create the perfect plan? Don’t..

It’s one brand, one plan, so should be one team of commercial, medical, market access, regulatory, supply chain, comms, public affairs, and other enabling functions. All of us painting and looking at the same picture (brand objectives, strategies, and tactics).

Cross functional collaboration isn't just a buzzword, it's the lifeline of successful brand planning.

The "Fashionably Late" Fallacy

Whether it’s pre-launch or inline brand plan, do it as early as possible!

For a pre-launch asset, start 3 years prior to launch, engage payers, regulatory, medical bodies, and KOLs, list down the priority deliverables across all functions then ramp it up as you’re getting closer to launch. 

For inline assets, plan it as a 5-year plan but execute it as if it’s only one year plan! i.e. where I want the brand to be in 5 years? What do I need to do this year?

Pro tip: Start early. Your future self (and your sleep schedule) will thank you.

The Information/ data Tsunami

I used to think more data was always better. That is, until I discovered I have 10,000s slides to go through! (eyes rolled)

Stop wasting your energy and resources on un-relevant data, research, reports etc only because a brand manager in other BU told you so. Plan your data generation ahead based on your brand needs. Think of what data matters for my brand plan, what should I know to be able to position my brand competitively in my ideal customers eyes? Have a simple data generation plan around: Where to play (market landscape and segmentation), and how to win (value proposition), or... risk not playing, let alone winning!

The less is more. Take it from me: 2 clean pages are way better than dirty newspaper (old wisdom)

The Rigid Ranger

Markets change, customers’ needs do too, competitors surprise you, and sometimes, pandemics happen. My perfectly crafted, immovable 5-year plan? It lasted about 5 months. Flexibility isn't just nice to have; it's essential for brand plan survival.

 I used to think that once the plan was done, my job was over. Big mistake. The most successful brand plans are living documents, constantly evolving with new relevant data.

Keep watching the trends through periodic relevant research and customers engagement, and keep ask your brand KPIs: why? Keep your scenario plans alive in close by storage, you don’t know when you’ll pull out one.

The Digital Dinosaur

I'll admit it: I was slow to embrace digital internal and external engagement. I clung to my trusty paper handouts like a security blanket. But after seeing a competitor's virtual reality mechanism of action presentation, I knew it was time to evolve or become extinct.

Draw your Omnichannel (or rather ‘’Optichannel’’) princess along with its digital dwarfs. Seek brand plan digital platforms that automates and streamline the brand planning so you can focus more on your brand strategies and customers’ needs. Say hello to AI,  reasonably though.

Looking back, living and observing these mistakes happening before my eyes taught me more than any textbook ever could. They've shaped me into the brand planner I am today - still caffeinated, occasionally contemplating, and always laser-focused on creating Pharma and MedTech brand plans that truly make a difference for the customers, the patients, and the clients I serve.

Fouad Akkad

Principal Consultant- Brand Planning

WePhlan