Supporting a medical manufacturing company to realise growth potential in new markets

The Challenge

Medasil is at a key turning point in its history and realises that its potential for growth in new markets requires better strategic marketing decision-making capabilities within the business.

Creating a more resilient infrastructure within Medasil with the right skills and capabilities to sustainably grow was a key objective of the KTP project.

The approach

The project objective was to understand Medasil's value proposition and to define a marketing strategy and plan with business and sales objectives. This work would be underpinned by cultural realignment to support the company ambitions.

The project undertook a comprehensive marketing audit, interrogating both the internal and external landscape. Introducing, developing and embedding strategic marketing methodologies and frameworks allowed Medasil to gain confidence and knowledge. This included competitor analysis, supplier and buyer behaviour interrogation, sales channel evaluation and social media presence - which were all captured using a marketing planning model (SOSTAC). As part of this audit, the KTP considered how Medasil could leverage sales opportunities with limited resource. It was agreed that the website, Medasil's primary sales channel, should be considered in more depth and an opportunity arose to include an assignment in the Leeds Beckett University undergraduate Entrepreneurial Marketing module, where students analysed the website and made recommendations for improving it.

The success of this student assignment facilitated a student intern project to draw up a proposal for redesigning the website, further leveraging dynamic knowledge transfer between Leeds Beckett and Medasil. This included making recommendations for social media marketing to improve customer awareness and drive customer engagement.

Finally, the KTP focussed on the Medasil culture, with recommendations for realignment to deliver the ambitions of the company. This work included extensive work on succession planning, identifying skill and capability training requirements, defining internal communication protocols and creating a more transparent culture with a free flow of information across departments and teams.

The KTP associate, with support from Academic Supervisor, Dave Chesley, embedded this capability through the provision of four supervisory workshops. These workshops explored how 'competences' impact cultural development, and worked with the Medasil management and leadership team to identify what they needed to consider culturally. This has given Medasil the knowledge and confidence to explore emerging cultural opportunities to support the business for the future.

The impact

Bringing the cultural and marketing aspects of the project together has given not only the leadership team, but everyone at Medasil, a clear direction of travel with a basis for the marketing development in the company. With the vision and values agreed, the KTP project has led a review of all job descriptions and staff performance processes encouraging individuals to see how they contribute to the overall success of Medasil.

Facilitating knowledge transfer to empower Medasil with in-house strategic marketing expertise has been transformative in informing the senior management team of that impact on business growth and sales. Embedding the SOSTAC marketing planning framework and seeing its effectiveness within the Medasil context has resulted in enhanced clarity and understanding of Medasil’s value proposition across the leadership team. They now have a clear roadmap which includes allocation of responsibility and frequency to intelligently filter knowledge and strategically understand its relevance to their business.

The SOSTAC work has also provided Medasil with skills, knowledge and confidence to improve and redesign their website, now their primary sales channel.

Fundamental changes as to how Medasil promote their products are expected to give Medasil a competitive advantage and an improved efficiency in sales fulfilment.

The website redesign project also considered awareness of the Medasil brand and the opportunities of an integrated social media campaign. Medasil have subsequently increased their social media activity to raise brand awareness and to increase engagement.

A programme to develop and optimise internal communications has encouraged more structured information gathering and sharing. Medasil now have a monthly staff suggestion scheme, regular whole company briefings and open Q&A sessions, all of which have encouraged a positive, open and productive culture.

The KTP has secured positive impact and a lasting legacy at Medasil.