The Seven Deadly Sins of Product Launches (V): Sin #5 Not anticipating competitive counter-launches.

By Stan Bernard

Not anticipating competitive counter-launches. 


In elections, it is typical for opponents to attack their rivals preemptively, especially early in the campaign when voters are beginning to form their initial impressions of candidates. In fact, many candidates will seek to be the first to pre-position and create a negative impression of their opponent(s), often by negative campaigning and pulling proverbial skeletons out of their rival’s closet. 

Not surprisingly, the same occurs in new pharmaceutical product launch campaigns. Savvy, aggressive companies—most notably Bristol-Myers Squibb and Novo Nordisk—form teams and plans to “counter-launch” against potential new products that threaten their current or future product sales and market shares. Most commonly, rivals will try to form the early first perception of a competitive product by pre-positioning the product in a negative light. 

Counterlaunching companies may deploy many other strategies or actions to preempt new product launches, including legal, regulatory, or payer limitations on market access or specific stakeholder communications and activities. 

Many launch teams fail to anticipate these counter-attacks until it’s too late. In many cases, launch teams and their partners erroneously want to wait until they have completed most of their clinical trials or product positioning studies before establishing their communication campaign or product positioning. Unfortunately, competitors will not wait to pre-position their new rival. In fact, these counter-launch attacks may come as early as late Phase II or early Phase III of a new product launch. It is essential to prepare for and counter these assaults as early as possible.

Ver anterior:
 The Seven Deadly Sins of Product Launches (IV): Sin #4 Focusing on traditional customers.