Product Relaunch Excellence: Transforming Lackluster Pharmaceutical Products into Market Success Stories

Product Re-launch! It is the hobgoblin of the pharmaceutical and biotech sector. Few brand leaders ever aspire to this marketing challenge. Yet many find they and their companies must confront re-launch scenarios - or sacrifice hundreds of millions of dollars invested in underperforming products.

A hallmark of great brand and lifecycle management excellence is the ability to successfully re-launch a product that has not achieved its potential upon market entry. This business situation occurs notably at two critical moments in a product's lifecycle:

• The first appearance is product re-launch due to a miscalculation in the product launch plan. Pfizer's Zithromax is a notable example of a product that misjudged the market, corrected pricing, packaging, sales force support and positioning - and then re-launched. Zithromax is now a multi-billion dollar annual brand - and a hall of fame candidate for re-launch excellence.
• Another venue for re-launch is during market entry of a product combination or major line extension. In this instance, two existing products are combined and must launch a new or complementary positioning in the market. Advair and Prevacid NapraPac are examples of smart combinations.

This Best Practices, LLC benchmarking study probed best practices and lessons learned in successful product re-launches. This study also includes two highly successful re-launch case studies: the history and lessons learned from Zithromax and Wellbutrin - two blockbuster products that nearly failed in the marketplace during their initial launches. With interviews and extensive survey data drawn from executives at leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies, this report serves as a guide to achieve an excellent product re-launch.

Following, are some of the higher-level key findings from the study. Insights include:

1. Setting Re-launch Strategy: The pathway to re-launch success is paved by careful analysis of what went wrong during initial launch.
2. Selecting Your Pathway To Success: Assess each re-launch as a unique market situation that requires customized strategy fitting and tactical alignment.
3. Redefining Product Character & Position: Shape a new core message that serves as the catalyst for the revised product positioning.
4. Winning The Hearts & Minds of The Sales Organization: Sales force strategy needs to fit the re-launch approach and scope to place resources where they will make a difference.
5. Winning The Marketing Investment Resources To Succeed: Product re-launch success requires the coordination of multiple factors - first of which is determining the marketing resources required to carry out the re-launch strategy.