Steps for Increasing Drug Brand Awareness During Launch

As pharma companies increase their focus on developing new drugs while facing increased competition, building drug awareness is more critical than ever. When you’ve created a drug with the potential to change lives, awareness is key to getting HCPs to prescribe it and patients to purchase it after your launch.

Launching a drug is critical to overall success of the brand. Deloitte found that approximately 70% of medications that missed expectations at launch continued to underperform in the following years.

On the other hand, about 80% of drugs that met or beat their projected expectations continued to do so. A strategic launch will contribute to the continued success, but a poorly executed one will hurt in the years to come.

So, how do you increase brand awareness and exceed your launch expectations? Here are some steps to improve awareness and start reaching physicians and their patients.

Perform Advanced Market Research

To reach critical patient and HCP demographics, it's vital to know their expectations through thorough market research. This research should include collecting information on the problems that your product solves.

The best way to increase drug awareness is by providing patient-centric marketing. This means raising awareness of the conditions that your drug treats in addition to your medication. It also requires training professionals and improving drug accessibility for all patients.

In addition to patients, market research also needs to get insights about prescribers. You can use big data to get prescriber profiles and tailor messages to the individual. For example, many physicians limit the number of pharma reps they will meet. As a result, marketers need to improve their reach on digital platforms and target the prescribers that will be effective advocates.

Some marketers are finding these insights in surprising places. For example, some companies accurately predicted HCP's willingness to meet with reps based on credit card spending and foot traffic in their zip code.

Personalize Content

Patient and provider preferences vary. It’s important that pharma companies continue to create content that connects messaging to their needs.

One trick is to stay current on the challenges that HCPs and patients are facing. For example, what are some effective practices in telemedicine? Or what do key leaders say about potential interactions when combined with the COVID-19 vaccine?

Marketers can create up-to-date content by meeting with patients and providers, getting feedback, and capturing it immediately in content development. A streamlined and simplified content creation and review process ensures that key demographics get timely and relevant information.

Identify Innovative Patient Channels

Not only should the content be geared towards provider and patient needs, but it needs to be placed where they can easily access them. Innovative patient channels are critical to reaching competitive markets and rediscovering consumers that were once easy to access.

Telehealth, for example, exploded during COVID. It continues to be popular even as in-person appointments are returning. Marketers that can connect via telehealth with helpful content will be able to reach a set of patients that other pharma companies may miss.

Create An Effective Drug Launch

Launching a drug is a mixed bag for pharma companies. With over one-third of drugs underperforming in their first year, you must learn more about your target audience and strive to personalize their experiences to create brand awareness successfully.

As more patients choose to meet with HCPs virtually, opportunities will exist to make that launch successful. And a strong focus on your audience will help lead to more success.

Want to enhance your pharma marketing strategy? Explore Elsevier’s print and digital advertising options to expand your brand’s reach.

Article Written by: Alex Brown