Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug
When students have the English-language PDF of this Brief Case in a coursepack, they will also have the option to purchase an audio version.Metabical is a new weight loss drug from Cambridge Sciences Pharmaceuticals intended for moderately overweight individuals. In anticipation of final FDA approval, the senior director of marketing, Barbara Printup, prepares for the product launch and must make several critical decisions. First, she must select the optimal packaging size for the drug which typically requires a 12-week course of treatment. Next, she must determine the appropriate pricing. Since most insurance companies do not cover weight-loss medications, price has a direct impact on the sales forecast. To establish the initial demand forecast, Printup considers three approaches based on different assumptions. Her final recommendations must consider long term profitability and meet the company's desired return on investment.The case includes a quantitative assignment for students.
Swot Analysis of "Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug" written by John A. Quelch, Heather Beckham includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Weight Printup facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Forecasting, Pricing, Supply chain and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Weight Printup, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Weight Printup operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Weight Printup
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Weight Printup
Strengths Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Weight Printup in Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Weight Printup to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Weight Printup to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Weight Printup in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Weight Printup are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Weight Printup is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Weight Printup has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Weight Printup in the sector have low bargaining power. Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Weight Printup to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Weight Printup has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Weight Printup has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Weight Printup is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Weight Printup is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Weight Printup digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Weight Printup has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Weaknesses Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug are -
Need for greater diversity
– Weight Printup has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Weight Printup is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Weight Printup has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John A. Quelch, Heather Beckham suggests that, Weight Printup is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Weight Printup has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Weight Printup, firm in the HBR case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Weight Printup has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Weight Printup is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Weight Printup needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Weight Printup to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, it seems that the employees of Weight Printup don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Weight Printup needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Opportunities Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Weight Printup in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Weight Printup to increase its market reach. Weight Printup will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Weight Printup can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Weight Printup has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Weight Printup to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Weight Printup to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Weight Printup to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Weight Printup has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Weight Printup to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug case study. Weight Printup can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Weight Printup can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Weight Printup can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Weight Printup to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Weight Printup can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Weight Printup can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Weight Printup can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Weight Printup can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Weight Printup in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Weight Printup.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Weight Printup can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Weight Printup has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Weight Printup needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Weight Printup business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Weight Printup can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Weight Printup can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing wage structure of Weight Printup
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Weight Printup.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Weight Printup in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Weight Printup demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Weight Printup high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Environmental challenges
– Weight Printup needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Weight Printup can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Weight Printup needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
