Market Landscape Research:
Plan strategically with current information about your market

This is the first of a two-part series on market landscape research. It highlights common objectives and general considerations related to this type of study. The October issue will explore several appropriate times for bio-pharmaceutical companies to conduct market landscape research.

A market landscape research study provides current and comprehensive information about an existing or potential brand's marketplace. These studies are designed to objectively explore a market situation and identify needs rather than address business issues specific to your brand. Market landscape research generates information ranging from market size and consumer perceptions to the competitive environment and opportunities for growth. They are practical forerunners to segmentation, forecasting, and brand equity market research.

Objectives

Bio-pharmaceutical market landscape studies are conducted to help market researchers and brand teams better understand a therapeutic environment. They can provide valuable insight to one or more of the following market dynamics:

• Perceptions of a Class of Drugs
• Treatment Flow
• Distribution of Market Share
• Drivers of Use
• Barriers to Adoption
• Reasons for Therapy Discontinuation

Again, market landscape studies provide a bird's eye view of a market. They offer directional cues for developing effective market strategy or adjusting outdated plans. Other types of research—more ground-level studies, such as segmentation or tracking research—are better suited for looking at a market from your brand's unique perspective.

Methodology and Design

Landscape market research usually requires primary data collection and analysis, but can also include secondary (or previously collected) research to achieve your objectives. For example, if your product is new to a market, competitive prescribing data may be available through secondary data. This information will help identify patterns of general use for a class of drugs. Subsequent primary research that includes an appropriate combination of qualitative and quantitative research¹ will provide additional insight to the “whys” behind the data.

In contrast, if your brand has been performing in a particular market for many years, then it’s likely that you’re familiar with key market performance measures and analyze them routinely in-house. In this case, it may be unnecessary for your research partner to review secondary prescription data as part of your market landscape study. Primary data alone may yield the results you need to understand the impact of a significant market event, such as a competitor launch or withdrawal from the market.

As with any market research project, scope of data collection and other considerations related to methodology and outcomes of your market landscape study should be designed to address your current situation. A valuable study will focus tightly on your specific set of business and research objectives. Avoid the temptation to include brand-specific or market segmentation issues in landscape research; exploration of these topics is best conducted separately.

Deliverables

The quality of research reporting is often the difference between a project that yields useful results and one that delivers a data dump. Reporting is key to all market research²; but it is especially important for a market landscape study.

By definition, these projects are thorough, and a great deal of information is gathered. To be useful, the data must be filtered appropriately and summarized effectively to help guide you