Pharmaceutical leaders must move away from the idea that in brand planning, positioning is the creative flourish at the end of the process. It is, or at least should be, the strategic thread that runs through every decision, from early clinical development to commercial execution. It defines the role a brand will play in the market and why that role matters to the people whose decisions will shape its success.
At Prescient, we see positioning as one of the highest-leverage tools in the brand planning toolkit. It determines how a product is understood, where it fits, how it is remembered, and why it matters. It goes so much further than a statement of intent, and can be an incredibly useful lens for focus, prioritisation and alignment across a brand’s lifecycle.
To create positioning that works in practice, not just on paper, we use a structured approach grounded in real-world insight and strategic rigour.
The Prescient Framework for Strategic Positioning
On the surface, our positioning framework is incredibly simple. Based around curiosity, it contains five critical questions, designed to get brand teams thinking with clarity and confidence – connecting patient, HCP and payer insights to the decisions that drive behaviour. It defines a meaningful role for the brand within the competitive context and provides the foundation for a focused and compelling strategy.
- Who is it for?
Positioning starts with understanding the people who will make, influence or experience treatment decisions. This includes patients, but also physicians, nurses, payers, pharmacists and carers. We identify the specific segments that matter most and explore what shapes their behaviour. That means uncovering the emotional, psychological and situational drivers behind prescribing patterns, treatment choices, and access decisions.
- What is it?
We define the role of the brand in the context of current practice, which goes beyond describing the MoA or clinical data. It means identifying the unmet needs that persist in daily clinical care and how the brand might address them. We look at patient journeys, system barriers, treatment inflection points and real-world challenges to find where the brand can create meaningful value.
- Where should it be used?
The brand’s place in the treatment pathway must be clear and credible. This includes decisions about line of therapy, biomarker eligibility, setting of care and patient profile. We consider how different stakeholders interpret the same data and what needs to be true for the brand to earn its intended position in clinical practice.
- What makes it different?
Differentiation means being recognisably and meaningfully distinct. Here, we explore rational and emotional differentiators and how they align with stakeholder priorities. We map competitor claims, stakeholder expectations and clinical assumptions to find space the brand can occupy credibly and confidently.
Why should they believe?
The strongest positioning is built on truth, and the ‘reason to believe’ is where we get to the most important ‘human’ part of positioning. We identify the evidence, endorsements and experiences that support belief, which includes clinical trial data, real-world evidence, expert validation and narrative framing. The goal is to provide stakeholders with a reason to trust the brand and advocate for its use.
Bringing positioning to life through insight and co-creation
Great positioning is grounded in behavioural insight. Before we start writing statements, we invest time in understanding how stakeholders think and feel about the disease, the treatment landscape and the decisions they face. That means listening carefully to what is said and observing what is left unsaid.
Across our global client list, the Uptake team expertly deploys AI-augmented analysis of social listening, ethnographic interviews, behavioural mapping and facilitated co-creation to surface underlying motivations and barriers. These insights help us to move beyond rational value propositions and into the emotional territories that shape real-world decisions.
The process is collaborative by design, bringing together cross-functional teams in ‘practical agile’ workshops to test, challenge and refine thinking. This is proven to create shared ownership and ensures that the final positioning is practical, aligned and ready to implement.
Positioning as a core part of brand planning
We mentioned earlier that positioning should not be treated as a standalone exercise. This is because it really is central to every part of the brand planning process, and done well, should guide decisions on key aspects such as segmentation and targeting. It informs value proposition development, and shapes messaging, channel strategy, stakeholder engagement, and even measurement.
We embed positioning within the broader brand planning journey, ensuring that it informs not just what is said, but what is done. This also means integrating it into internal communications, field team training, omnichannel campaigns, evidence generation and payer value narratives.
Given the shifting sands of the pharma and external landscape, positioning must have flexibility baked in, to allow it to evolve in an agile way. As new data emerges, competitors move or markets shift, the brand’s strategic role may (and quite likely will) need to adapt, so positioning should be reviewed regularly – using the framework – to ensure it continues to support the brand’s ambition and market reality.
Characteristics of effective positioning
Our analysts have worked with our technology to interrogate the many positioning strategies we have seen and built, and those most successful have a consistent set of qualities.
These are the attributes we aim to build into every engagement:
| Characteristic | Description |
| Insight-led | Rooted in the real, ‘human’ motivations of stakeholders |
| Behaviour-focused | Designed to shape decisions and drive action |
| Competitive-aware | Defined with an understanding of what others claim |
| Clear and credible | Easy to understand and based on real evidence |
| Emotionally resonant | Meaningful to the people the brand serves, connecting with hearts and minds |
| Embedded and adaptable | Built into brand planning and able to flex with change |
Creating brands that stand for something
Positioning should be the way brands stand apart from the competition, and the goal is to devise such strong positioning that the brand is able to lead, not follow. This is especially important in therapy areas such as oncology, immunology and rare diseases, where treatment decisions are complex and stakeholder stakes are high. The brands that can earn attention, belief and advocacy through their positioning are those that succeed.
We know from our work across therapeutic areas that ‘positioning with purpose’ is incredibly helpful in creating alignment across functions, confidence in decision-making and differentiation in-market. Most importantly, as ever, it helps brands make a difference for the people they are here to serve.
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