Needs Assessment and Marketing Turnaround: Capellon Case

Background and Consulting Context

My work as a management consultant requires that I analyze and assess the marketing sector of a pharmaceutical company in a continuous and ongoing fashion. This means providing clarity to the company's top management regarding how the activity of this department is evolving — with reference to concrete strategies, unrealized goals, and key performance indicators that report lower values compared to the same period of the previous year. This paper examines the unique case of Capellon, a company currently experiencing a marked decrease in sales despite significant financial investment and staff expansion aimed at increasing revenue. The paper discusses the unique needs and stressors of this company, identifies the specific weaknesses leading to its dysfunction, and proposes a multi-faceted solution.

In order to discover whether a company's problems originate within the marketing department — and how best to address them — one must first pinpoint the objectives involved and the required level of achievement. Interviews were conducted with company leaders and all managers, and the following goals were revealed: bolstering sales by 20 percent, increasing the number of pharmacies carrying the product by 15 percent, and improving all relations with business associates.

Goals of the Marketing Department

It was also useful to engage in concerted sales analyses to demonstrate that these goals were not being realized. Feedback from sales managers indicated that competitors were thriving at the expense of Capellon's own products. Promotional activities were used as a means of pushing the product forward, but results continued to fall short of expectations. This analysis suggested that competitors had marketing managers more in touch with effective marketing techniques, and that Capellon's product manager needed to adopt tactics capable of genuinely moving the product forward.

One of the biggest problems revealed was within the marketing team itself: communication was generally strong and the budget had been increased, yet sales not only failed to improve — they declined compared to the previous year. These extra efforts had, paradoxically, been accompanied by a decrease in sales. One thing was certain: there was internal unrest and unproductive change within the department.

Situation Analysis and Problem Diagnosis

Interviews revealed that the long-standing manager of the marketing department had left for a competing company, which no doubt shook overall morale. The replacement manager — a group product manager — proved to be an unsuccessful fit and also departed for a competitor. A marketing manager was then hired from an outside agency. This new manager still needed time to acclimate, and her altogether different working style required the rest of the team to adjust during a transitional period. Many team members proved resistant to change, and a range of disagreements surfaced. Pressure mounted and became largely unmanageable: meetings became longer and more contentious, nerves were on edge, and communication grew increasingly conflict-ridden. This manifested as increased employee turnover within departments, particularly within the marketing department — a revolving-door pattern in which people were hired, treated poorly, and then left for positions elsewhere.

The most serious issues within the company occurred at a strategic, tactical, and operational level (Davila et al., 2012). Poor management was one of the most overwhelming problems, keeping productivity at an all-time low. A further manifestation of the problem was constant upper-level management interference with the marketing manager. While this was understandable given the department's struggles, it made the manager feel micromanaged and distrusted. The situation was aggravated further when surveillance cameras were installed in marketing offices — a blatant expression of distrust. More long meetings were scheduled, and employee satisfaction rates plummeted.

One of the first actions needed is improving the overall motivation of the marketing team before performance and sales can realistically improve. For instance, a friendly sales contest among product managers and sales representatives — where the winner receives a desirable prize such as an exotic vacation — can increase morale and involvement (Reh, 2014). Such activities help build the kind of team spirit that has a measurable impact on productivity.

An additional solution involves adjusting the human resources strategy within the pharmaceutical company. A more decentralized approach to management was determined to be most appropriate, given that the company's problems are generally derived from its centralized management structure. By decentralizing the decision-making process, top managers' authority becomes limited to a more strategic level, freeing the marketing department to operate with greater autonomy.

As part of this solution, the overall recruitment and selection process also needs significant improvement. Recruiting for positions such as marketing manager should originate from internal sources (Compton et al., 2009). The marketing team would most likely thrive if a single member were promoted to manager from within the department. Professionals recruited from external companies have simply not been up to speed with the very specific and unique way of conducting business that this company has — something that is of paramount importance to higher-level management. A decentralized leadership style means that external recruitment can be reserved for lower management levels.

Solutions and Needs Assessment

As Rossett and Sheldon (2001) have memorably stated, business needs are generally connected to results or influence, whereas job performance needs are almost always more concretely linked to behavior. This means that when seeking to better understand a client's unique needs, one can often begin by assessing a client's expectations. From a management standpoint, a client's needs are generally connected to finding marketing solutions that drive the client's specific business objectives forward.

Capellon Pharmaceuticals, however, is a company riddled with human resource management issues that have prevented it from functioning properly. The job performance of the company has suffered as a result. In order for the firm to connect with clients soundly, the clients' needs must be properly understood and a marketing plan must be drafted to reflect this understanding.

In this case, the issues were found to exist on two levels: those external to the company, such as in their connections with customers, and those internal. Externally, it became increasingly clear that there was a lack of communication and discussion regarding which solutions would be most appropriate for the marketing strategy as a whole. Internally, the marketing department lacks cohesion, and even once a marketing strategy is selected, implementing it with any degree of skill is next to impossible for the department in its current state. This is partly a result of the absence of stable leadership, much of which stems from the manner in which the original marketing manager left the company.

It is useful to examine Rouda and Kusy's (1995) definition of a needs assessment, which they view as a "systematic exploration of the way things are and the way they should be." This indicates that the client and the company have an obligation to meet and determine what their accomplishments must be, and what the client requires from the firm versus what the company can actually offer. However, before that step can occur, the demanding internal issues identified here must be resolved. Part of their resolution depends on assembling a marketing team capable of representing the company in a manner that best reflects its needs: in order for the marketing plan to succeed, the team must be cohesive.

An additional element of the solution is the necessity of engaging in a gap analysis. This will highlight the distinctions between what the client is requesting and what the company can actually deliver. Given the internal struggles the company faces, it will not be able to project a clear image of confidence to the client. The gap analysis will help to shed light on performance problems, giving people who are not conducting their jobs effectively the opportunity to address their shortcomings.

To pinpoint a solution, this research has found that so much depends on first comprehending the exact nature of the issues at stake. Team members need to be aware that if they fail to reach their original objectives, the problem lies not only in their execution but also in the objectives they selected in the first place. For instance, a 20 percent increase in sales would be a challenge for nearly any business to achieve — and it is easy to understand why it proved so difficult for a company whose marketing department was so fractured. One of the key elements of any solution, therefore, must revolve around setting realistic objectives. There also needs to be a more structured approach to orienting new managers and helping them learn the ropes: allowing a new manager to come on board and then leaving them to flounder without support for months is not a professional or sustainable response.