--- title: Unlocking the Secrets of Pharmaceutical Marketing with Business Acumen description: Pharmaceutical Marketing has changed. To be successful in today’s transforming marketplace, marketers need strong business acumen skills and a clear understanding of the impact they have on a company’s success. image: https://www.advantexe.com/hubfs/pharmacuetical-marketing-business-acumen.jpg --- [![logo-advantexe-150.png](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-advantexe-150.png?width=150&height=123&name=logo-advantexe-150.png "logo-advantexe-150.png")](https://www.advantexe.com) ![blog-banner-2022](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog-banner-2022.png?width=973&name=blog-banner-2022.png "blog-banner-2022") ### The Advantexe Advisor Blog - providing a deep and applicable understanding of the system of business. # Unlocking the Secrets of Pharmaceutical Marketing with Business Acumen By Robert Brodo | Apr 26, 2018 7:43:10 AM | [![Share on Facebook](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/facebook-24x24.png)](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Funlocking-the-secrets-of-pharmaceutical-marketing-with-business-acumen%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook) [![Share on LinkedIn](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/linkedin-24x24.png)](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Funlocking-the-secrets-of-pharmaceutical-marketing-with-business-acumen%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dlinkedin) [![Share on Twitter](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/twitter-24x24.png)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Funlocking-the-secrets-of-pharmaceutical-marketing-with-business-acumen%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Funlocking-the-secrets-of-pharmaceutical-marketing-with-business-acumen%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&source=tweetbutton&text=Unlocking%20the%20Secrets%20of%20Pharmaceutical%20Marketing%20with%20Business%20Acumen) [![Share on Pinterest](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/pinterest-24x24.png)](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Funlocking-the-secrets-of-pharmaceutical-marketing-with-business-acumen%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dpinterest&media=) [![Share on Email](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/email-24x24.png)](mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Funlocking-the-secrets-of-pharmaceutical-marketing-with-business-acumen%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail%20&body=Check%20out%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Funlocking-the-secrets-of-pharmaceutical-marketing-with-business-acumen%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail) While every industry has undergone significant changes over the past decade, the pharmaceutical ![pharmacuetical-marketing-business-acumen](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/pharmacuetical-marketing-business-acumen.jpg?width=300&name=pharmacuetical-marketing-business-acumen.jpg)industry has experienced as much if not more disruptive change than any other.  Changes in geopolitical dynamics, clinical technologies, quantum physics, demographics, life style, sustainability, competition, and changes in the way patients receive and pay for their medications have impacted every pharmaceutical company on the planet. Within these pharmaceutical companies, every function – including Sales, R&D, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Finance have been forced to change and adapt to this new and evolving world.  But no function within a company has changed more than pharmaceutical marketing.  Today’s pharmaceutical industry Marketers are essentially “Mini-CEOs” who are setting and executing sophisticated and complex Brand Strategies that drive the performance of their companies. The job of the pharmaceutical Marketer in 2018 and beyond is an intensely challenging role that at times feels thankless, but the challenge is made even greater by a lack of [Business Acumen skills](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/business-acumen-skills-5-most-important-elements-of-a-learning-journey).  Unfortunately, too many pharmaceutical companies don’t even see the need to enhance the skills of their Marketers by providing them with the skills and tools they need to make the best decisions from a Business Acumen perspective. Over the past several weeks, I’ve had the opportunity of working with several global pharmaceutical companies on the design, development, and deliveries of customized [business simulation](https://www.advantexe.com/the-power-of-practice-business-simulations)-centric learning solutions that provide new and critical skills and tools to help Marketers be the best they can be.  During this time, I’ve taken note of several themes to share in terms of the most important Business Acumen skills needed: **Strategic Thinking** Running and supporting a pharmaceutical brand must start and stop with strategy.  Today, the “Brand Plan” is the primary vehicle for setting the Brand strategy and laying out all the tactics needed to execute it.  Based on my 25 years of experience, I am seeing a trend that most Marketers may be good at spending money on campaigns and programs, but they are not very strong at being strategic about it.  Developing a value proposition, understanding the segments, positioning the message, and measuring success are just a few of the things than must be done flawlessly but in my opinion, I see skills *decreasing* in this area and not getting better. **Marketing Budget Optimization** Too many Marketers today are requesting large budgets and spending their budgets in sub-optimal ways.  That’s a polite way of saying they buy a lot of fancy things with the term “digital” in it, throw these programs against the wall, and hope that the mish-mosh is successful.  There is limited focus on ROI and limited skills to link company strategy, brand strategy, and marketing tactics together into a cohesive plan that is well executed. One of the most interesting things that I’ve completed recently is building a model as part of one of our Brand simulations that teaches the Best Practices of Marketing Budget Optimization through strategy definition and tactic prioritization.  For example, if the Brand strategy is one of patient acquisition, are the Marketers building a strategy that identifies the right message to the right decision maker with the right channel tactics? **Knowledge of the P&L** Every day I am astounded to work with really smart and motivated Marketers who are responsible for budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars who don’t understand how to read a Profit & Loss Statement (P&L), or understand how to impact the P&L through their tactical marketing decisions.  They literally don’t understand the difference between **COGS** and Operating expenses and have almost no knowledge of the system of business and how their own company makes money. Fortunately, I’ve been lucky to work with a few organizations who recognize this critical need and have been focused on developing and delivering skill building programs to close the gaps. In summary, the role of pharmaceutical marketing has never been more volatile, uncertain, complex, or ambiguous.  One of the only ways of creating vision, understanding, clarity, and alignment is through the application of strong Business Acumen skills. [![Why Business Acumen Matters ](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/1153922/ef562d5a-acb6-45df-86ae-098c09e7fcc0.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/1153922/ef562d5a-acb6-45df-86ae-098c09e7fcc0) ![Robert Brodo](https://www.advantexe.com/hubfs/Blogs/rob-brodo-author.png) **About The Author** Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience. 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