2026 market signals – part one: Aligning teams, strategy & brand

Life science marketing is entering 2026 under sustained pressure. Investment remains cautious, growth expectations haven’t softened, and marketing teams are being asked to deliver more commercial impact with less room for error.

What we’re seeing in market conversations isn’t a set of disconnected challenges – it’s a pattern.

Our Chief Commercial Officer, Yasmin Davoodi, and our Head of Strategy, Lara Lovenbury, sit down to unpack the most critical themes shaping 2026 and share their perspectives on what companies should prioritize as they prepare for the year ahead.

We’ve split this year’s trends piece into two parts:

• Part one – what’s happening inside your business
• Part two – what’s shifting out in the market

So let’s start inward with the internal trends shaping strategy, brand and behavior behind the scenes.

1. The sea of sameness isn’t receding

Yasmin Davoodi
Despite years of talk about differentiation, most life science brands still sound alarmingly similar. Under pressure, businesses retreat to hygiene messaging: time to market, scalability, global footprint, technical excellence. These are table stakes, not reasons to choose you.

What’s driving this is fear. When budgets are tight and confidence is low, brand investment is often the first thing cut. Insight feels discretionary. The result is a market full of competent businesses failing to articulate why they matter.

This sameness is no longer just a marketing issue, but a commercial risk. Buyers can’t differentiate, so decisions slow down. Sales cycles lengthen. Price becomes a deciding factor.

Lara Lovenbury
Sameness is rarely caused by a lack of capability. It’s caused by a lack of focus, and often that comes from the wrong balance of insight used in decision-making.

Many companies over-index on internal perspectives: what they believe makes them great. Others fixate on competitors, shaping positioning through comparison rather than relevance. Neither approach reveals what actually drives buyer choice.

True differentiation comes from being deeply audience-led. When you understand what buyers care about at critical decision points – their pain, their risk tolerance, their emotional drivers – you gain permission to narrow your positioning. That focus is what most brands are missing.

The brands standing out today aren’t the loudest. They’re the ones listening hardest.

2. Internal alignment is not external truth

YD
We’re seeing more businesses making strategic marketing decisions based on internal consensus rather than external validation. Teams align in boardrooms and meeting rooms, but that alignment isn’t always grounded in market reality.

The danger is subtle. Everything feels agreed. Everyone feels confident. But confidence without validation is fragile. When results don’t follow, marketing is questioned – not the assumptions behind it.

This is especially risky in a cautious buying environment, where trust, track record and relevance matter more than ever.

LL
Insight isn’t just about finding answers – it’s about building confidence in the decisions you make.

Regular, structured insight acts as a stabiliser. It protects teams from reacting to isolated comments or one-off conversations. It helps you distinguish between noise and signals. Without it, strategies drift – pulled in different directions by events, anecdotes, or the loudest internal voice.

Consistent insight loops allow businesses to move forward with conviction. They know what to listen to, what to ignore, and when a shift is genuinely required. That’s what turns insight into a competitive advantage, not just a research exercise.

3. Marketing is no longer just an external discipline

YD
One of the most significant shifts we’re seeing is where clients are directing their attention. It’s not just outward-facing campaigns anymore, but internal clarity.

M&A activity, margin pressure, leadership changes and flat growth have all exposed a gap: teams don’t always understand what success looks like or how their actions connect to business goals. When that happens, execution slows and confidence drops.

Marketing can’t compensate for misalignment. If people don’t understand the direction, they can’t reinforce it — no matter how strong the external brand looks.

LL
Change only happens when people truly understand what’s being asked of them and why. A strong communication strategy translates high-level business objectives into intentional, everyday action. In high-pressure environments, this clarity is powerful.

In people-led, relationship-driven industries like life sciences, employees are one of the most powerful brand touchpoints. If internal understanding doesn’t match external positioning, the brand fractures at the point of engagement. Consistency isn’t created through control; it’s created through shared understanding.

From sameness to shaky insight loops and internal disconnect, these inside forces can quietly erode even the strongest strategies. Fixing them isn’t glamorous, but it’s what clears the path for true commercial impact.

In part two, we shift the spotlight to external change: events, AI and marketing’s growing accountability for revenue.

👉 Coming soon