Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version
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, Portuguese Version" 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, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing,
technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version
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, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version | 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, Portuguese Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Weight Printup is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Weight Printup in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Weight Printup is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by John A. Quelch, Heather Beckham can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Learning organization
- Weight Printup is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Weight Printup is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Weight Printup has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Weight Printup has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
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.
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.
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, Portuguese Version are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
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.
Training and development
– Weight Printup has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
High brand equity
– Weight Printup has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Weight Printup to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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, Portuguese Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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, Portuguese Version | 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, Portuguese Version 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.
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, Portuguese Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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, Portuguese Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Weight Printup has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Weight Printup has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Weight Printup even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Weight Printup is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version HBR case study mentions - Weight Printup takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Weight Printup has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Weight Printup supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Weight Printup vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Weight Printup 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version | 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, Portuguese Version are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Weight Printup in the consumer business. Now Weight Printup can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
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.
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, Portuguese Version case study. Weight Printup can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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.
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, Portuguese Version 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Weight Printup can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Weight Printup can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
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.
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, Portuguese Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Weight Printup can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Weight Printup has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
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.
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.
Threats Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version are -
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, Portuguese Version .
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Weight Printup will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
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.
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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Weight Printup with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Weight Printup needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Weight Printup is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version 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, Portuguese Version 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.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug, Portuguese Version