Book excerpt: Written by John Lidstone and Janice MacLennan, the second edition of Marketing Planning for the Pharmaceutical Industry became accepted as the bible for the industry. In this new companion book Janice MacLennan picks up two of the themes touched on in Marketing Planning - market segmentation and branding, and the inter-relationship between these two - and with this book makes them key topics for discussion. Brand Planning for the Pharmaceutical Industry begins by exploring what branding is and why it is of importance, particularly to the pharmaceutical sector. The book then goes on to show how branding can be integrated into the early stages of the commercialization process for new products, both in theory and in the 'real' world. The book provides a step-by-step guide to brand planning, using market segmentation as the starting point. The book is split into two parts, the first dealing comprehensively with brand planning for products yet to get to the market, with the second part applying the same process to products that are already on the market. Both parts are extremely pragmatic, full of pertinent examples and insights from the pharmaceutical industry, and are directly applicable to your own brand planning. Brand Planning for the Pharmaceutical Industry concludes by confronting the problems that organizations are likely to have in actually making brand planning an integral part of their work and presents strategies for dealing with them.