Market Strategy & Marketing Capability Building

The role of marketers is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic. Customers have been placed in the drivers seat, expect to be catered to, and their loyalty and attention is constantly under threat from competition. On the other hand, customers can be (and want to be) reached in more ways, and are simultaneously leaving behind more data clues of how to do so.

THRIVE helps clients formulate strategies that allow companies to resonate with the right customers on a deeper level while meeting corporate objectives. THRIVE also works to help strengthen organizations capabilities internally and scale this expertise throughout client businesses.

Situation Overview

The new CMO of a fast growing pharma company with presence in 12 countries in Asia. The company’s commercial organization was traditionally highly sales and promotion focused with limited systematic Marketing and large variance of skills and methodologies applied in different countries.

The Challenge

Build a state-of-the-art Marketing system (tools and processes) and train all marketers throughout the organization in the Marketing philosophy and toolkit (buying process, segmentation, positioning, messaging, etc.)

What we did

Create C-Suite Buy-In & Marketing Philosophy

» Case for Action

Developed a “business case” for investment into Marketing capabilities to secure support from EXCOM

» Marketing Philosophy

Established principles to guide all Marketing strategy development and execution activities in the organization
Defined desired Marketing core competencies

Build Marketing System & Train the Organization

» Marketing System

Developed a brand planning process and supporting tools (e.g. buying process, segmentation, etc.) – building on industry best practices and customized for client situation

» Training

Designed training and prepared CMO to deliver training; participated in trainings as content expert

Upgrade and Enhance Content & Capabilities

One year after launch of Marketing system and brand planning process:

» Refined Marketing toolkit; added new and enhanced tools to further increase level of insight and user friendliness

» Developed & delivered “master-class” training to company’s 100+ marketers and country heads (e.g. expert training on advanced segmentation questions)

The Results

 Senior management became strong advocates of Marketing’s critical importance for corporate success

 Entire Marketing organization (100+ across 12 countries) trained in state-of-the-art pharma Marketing

 Meaningful commercial impact attributed to Marketing program

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“We have accomplished a lot in the last 2 years with the support of THRIVE! In the year following the launch of our new Marketing Excellence system and training of the organization we achieved sales of 11% over budget, profit 46% over budget and Marketing spend 15% under budget. I attribute much of this to the Marketing transformation that THRIVE helped me design and execute - we now know how to do much more with less."
Client CMO

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