Managing the Logistics of a Product Launch Nader Naeymi-Rad Senior VP, Brand Management Practice Product launches are extremely complex. The ins and outs of managing launch logistics cannot easily be distilled into a short list of dos and don’ts, but armed with a launch playbook, brand managers can build a framework that they can use to keep their next launch on track. For a brand manager, a product launch can be a rewarding, career-building experience. But product launches are intense and challenging. One could draw an analogy of a product launch to a symphony orchestra: it is complex; it has a large number of players; it is critically dependent on timing; it must be conducted expertly; and it can be a great success when everything goes right. Seldom, however, does everything go just right. In most cases, deadlines slip, deliverables are forgotten, and crises erupt. If things go badly enough, a product’s commercial viability can be compromised and its revenue “trajectory” can be negatively affected for years. Launch is a high-stakes endeavor, and brand teams must ensure that they have a solid strategy, a comprehensive launch plan, and the ability to execute both flawlessly. Often, brand teams are completely comfortable with their launch strategy, and their greatest challenge is making it all happen. Brand managers often ask themselves, “how do we avoid chaos, stay on schedule, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks?” To help answer that question, it is important to first focus on ways to characterize a launch and then employ a comprehensive approach to managing launch logistics. Characterizing the Launch A variety of factors determine the nature and requirements of a launch. Launches can differ depending on whether the team is launching a new entity or a line extension. Careful consideration also needs to be given to the geographic market where the product will be launched and to the therapeutic area in question. New Entity — Brand managers should carefully consider the differences in launching a biologic, small-molecule, medical-device, diagnostic, or combination product. For example, some product types are inherently more complex to launch in terms of distribution, reimbursement, and customer training and support. Line Extension — A product line extension can come in the form of a new device, delivery mechanism, dosage formulation, or indication. For some brands, a new indication could be a much larger opportunity than the one for which the new drug application (NDA) was originally filed. Similarly, a simple line extension can sometimes represent a significant “game changer” from what is already on the market. Because of numerous considerations, the importance of a line extension — and the investment it warrants — can only be determined on a case-by-case basis. Geographic Market — Brand managers should understand the distinct differences in the sales, marketing, and reimbursement landscapes when launching a product in the United States, Europe, Canada, Asia, or the rest of the world. Each market can have different requirements in terms of regulatory timelines, reimbursement requirements, promotional guidelines, and distribution issues. Therapeutic Area –There are drastic differences between the launch of a product in the primary-care arena versus specialty markets, such as oncology or neurology. While primary-care products frequently involve the selling efforts of hundreds of sales representatives to gain significant market share and uptake, specialty markets may require considerably more market conditioning and a different mix of commercial resources at launch. Four Steps to Operationalizing a Product Launch Regardless of how a launch is characterized, its success depends on how well it is executed. To successfully execute a launch (often under severe time pressures), a brand manager must use a structured approach to address critical questions, such as: • Which functional areas need to be involved in the launch? • Within each functional area, what subteams are necessary? • For what deliverables and activities must each subteam be responsible? • What is the best way to track the progress of individual launch deliverables and address issues before timelines slip? • What are the key interdependencies? • How should the team keep senior management informed about the progress toward launch? Keeping these questions in mind, it helps to consider a four-step approach to successfully managing the logistics of the launch. Step 1: Identify the Players — As a brand team maps out the path to launch, the first step is to identify the various functional areas and team members whose contributions will be critical. This often includes marketing, sales, medical affairs, manufacturing, trade, distribution, regulatory, and reimbursement. Given the large number of deliverables to be completed — and the high level of complexity — it often makes sense to split the larger functions into subteams. For example, within marketing, there could be promotional strategy, market research, competitive intelligence, and corporate communications subteams. This exercise is important for the brand team, which will coordinate the activities of each function and will act as a command center of sorts. It also serves as the foundation for what comes next. Step 2: Develop Work Plans — Each function or subteam will have distinct launch-related responsibilities and deliverables. The brand team must identify all required activities (for each deliverable) and provide a sufficient level of detail to monitor their progress. This allows the team to quickly identify and address any issues before problems develop. For each function or subteam, it is important to build a work plan that: • Defines and prioritizes the deliverables • Identifies the individual(s) responsible for each deliverable • Identifies the key tasks required to create those deliverables • Establishes start and stop dates for each task • Identifies key interdependencies within subteams and across functions • Estimates budget and headcount requirements for each deliverable After the work plans are created, it is important to bring all of the major stakeholders together to review and refine the work plans. This ensures transparency and facilitates communication among the subteams. Step 3: Create a “Launch Playbook” — As one can imagine, a disjointed list of key players and a pile of work plans would be useless without a system to organize them. All of that information must be combined into a centralized tool that a designated brand manager can use to oversee and track the activities of the various players. In practice, programs such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project have been used to build this tool. To allow the individual functions or subteams to track their own progress, separate worksheets can be created for each, outlining the deliverables and supporting activities, designating the start and end dates for each activity, identifying the people responsible, and displaying a given activity’s status (e.g., Not Initiated, Ongoing, Delayed, Completed). Such a tool can be extremely valuable to a brand manager who is responsible for coordinating the activities of dozens of people and can be used to hold individuals accountable for certain deliverables. Step 4: Keep Senior Management Informed — Launches often demand top management’s attention, and it usually pays to keep management up to date about a product’s progress toward launch. An effective means of doing this is to build report templates that distill key pieces of information from the launch playbook into short, easy-to-read flash reports. Such reports can reveal how each function or subteam is performing using color codes to show which tasks are on schedule, nearing a deadline, or behind schedule. Because all of the key players know the reports go to the senior-management team, the information can be quite effective at motivating everyone to stay on schedule and avoid being singled out as a cause of a delay. September 2006 VIEW on Marketing Campbell Alliance, Raleigh, N.C., is a specialized management consulting firm that serves the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, helping clients develop strategic and operational plans, as well as improve the efficiency of their internal operations. For more information, visit campbellalliance.com.

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