Business Administration MBA

Marketing Research Project

Medizen Company

Presented by:
Heba Adel Rehab abdelhady
Mostafa hosny Moharam Taha

Supervised By:
Dr. Omnia Moharam

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Chapter Table of content
1 Overview of the company.
2. introduction
 Background to the problem.
 Research problem.
 Statement of the problem.
 Research questions.
 Research objectives.
Scope of this research.
Literature review
3. Approach to the problem
 Variables.
 Research hypothesis.
6. Research design
 Exploratory or conclusive or both.
 Measurement and scaling procedures.
 Data collection.
 Research sample.
 method and plan of data collection including the duration

7. Results
8. Limitations
9. Conclusions and recommendations
10. Exhibits
 Questionnaires and forms.
 Statistical output.
 Lists
11. Executive summary
12. References.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the entire team who worked on this project. The
unwavering commitment to excellence and willingness to go above and beyond to ensure the success of
this endeavor have been truly inspiring.

We would also like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Omnia Moharam, our esteemed professor,
for his invaluable guidance, support, and encouragement throughout the MBA course. Her insightful
lectures, helpful materials, and expert advice have been instrumental in shaping our understanding of the
subject matter and our approach to the project. his unwavering dedication to our education has been truly
inspiring, and we are grateful for the opportunity to have learned from such a knowledgeable and
inspiring mentor.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has contributed to this project and throughout this course. Your
support and collaboration have been invaluable.

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 Chapter 1
Overview of the company:
Medizen is one of the Fast Growing Pharmaceutical Companies in Egypt
Medizen’s machinery and Professional teamwork allows the production of more than 20 million
units per year, Medizen manufactures more than 100 products for more than 40 TOLL companies
(For example: Noveco Corp. (USA), Utopia, Liptis, Alpha Group, Al Andalous, Mepaco, AL
Esraa, Magic Pharma, Trend Pharma, Egygel, RoyalGroup, Napha, PharmaStar, & …)
Medizen Pharmaceutical Industries is a fast-growing branded generic pharmaceutical
company that started its production in 2007. The company manufacturing facility was laid down
in the year 2004 in Borg Alarab industrial zone Alexandria about 200 kilometers from Cairo. The
manufacturing facility is constructed as per the cGMP guidelines so as to fulfill all the local and
international regulatory standards including requirements.

The facility is equipped with latest machines and equipment with adequate automation, well-
established procedures and document system and qualified personnel to cater pharmaceutical
products of highest quality standards. The production unit has the facility to manufacture Oral
Solids (Tablets, Sachets, Powders, and Hard gelatin capsules), Oral Liquids, Semisolid
preparations, and Soft gelatin capsules.

Medizen has the ability to manufacture for the other companies, about 40 companies, some
of them have their own facilities while the others are toll companies.

The products manufactured at Medizen Pharmaceutical Industries are intended for hospital
supplies, tenders, local market, and export. Medizen exports to Yemen, South Sudan, Azerbaijan,
Lebanon and Palestine. The firm is authorized by the Egyptian MOH for manufacturing and
marketing of Pharmaceutical formulations intended for human use.

Medizen today is an active contributor to the on-going drug industry in Egypt with effective
market participation. Medizen is made a real breakthrough in the formulation development
research of several pharmaceutical products.

Mission:
We took the mission of leading niche therapy area like neuropsychiatry, cardiology, vascular
surgery, orthopedics, diabetology, dermatology, pediatrics & pulmonology by offering value
added products portfolio at optimum price and providing information and services that maximize
the customer-defined value.

Vission:

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 Medizen Pharmaceutical Industries is committed to produce a safe and effective
pharmaceutical products with high quality and suitable price in compliance with ISO 9001:2008
& GMP requirements in order to satisfy customer requirements.

Medizen will continually improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its business processes
and employee performance by using the latest technological techniques and improving the level
of personnel skills & motivation via creating teamwork spirit and providing continuous training in
all levels of the organization.

Introduction:
Background to the problem:
Sales reduction is where the company's sales are being decreased comparing with the usual
sales due to factors where the company could have missed to implement. So by this, the company
can even go on a loss when time goes and if the sales reduction continues. All businesses globally
exist to sell something and without sales, all businesses would certainly go on bankruptcy. That's
why it's always important to find out the actual reasons why customers are not buying your
products or services. It can be anything you're selling; the whole idea of succeeding in the business
is to find customers who will happily give you their money as well as their trust on you in exchange
for that particular thing you're selling.

Every year, many hundreds of businesses shut down globally because they couldn't make
enough sales to keep the business going on. There are a number of reasons for the reduction of
sales that can easily be avoided, potentially saving you and your company from suffering huge
losses. In order to repair the damage as efficiently and effectively as possible, you will need to be
aware of what could be causing for this drop in sales and have the knowledge to identify its source
right away. Even though there are many reasons why businesses fail.

Research problem:
A sales reduction is which brings the company's standard lower and also which decreases
the company's life time period. This problem can cause even bankruptcy to the company. So it is
considered as a very threat full issue to the company which should be solved as soon as possible
or else the company will have no guaranty in what will happen.

this research have been done because Medizen came up with a problem saying that they are
facing a terrible issues in sales reduction for healioreptic product and they badly wanted to find
out the reason and factors which affects the sales reduction, so they can improve on their weakness
and overcome the issue as well. The data given below was collected from Medzien.

Statement of the problem:

What is the reasons and factors behind decreasing sales for healioreptic product?

Research questions:

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 There are three sub areas which have been covered in this research. Which are the:

1. What are the organizational factors which are affecting the sales reduction in
healioreptic product?
2. What are the market factors which are affecting the sales reduction?
3. What could be the suitable solution to overcome this issue?

The above following areas have being covered in the research, as not only the market factors,
even the organization can have some weaknesses which are leading to their present problem sales
reduction. So to be thorough enough, the organizational factors also have being researched.

Research objectives:
1. To identify the factors affecting the sales reduction in healioreptic product.
2. To provide recommendation for the improvement/to overcome the issue in the
company.
3. playing on increasing sales that will reflect on revenues and get a higher market
share of Our competitors

Scope of this research:

This research will be benefited for those are already in the pharmaceutical industry and
facing sales reduction in specific products. Moreover, they can revise this research and then
implement the recommendations which are in this research to overcome sales reduction. Another
group who will get benefited by this research is those who are trying to start a business in the
pharmaceutical industry, they can be aware and do the needful in preventing sales reduction in
occurring in their company. Furthermore, another group who can be benefitted in this research are
the academic students, obviously when it comes for their assignments/projects/researches, with
proper references they can revise and get help/what they need from this research.

Chapter 2
Literature review:
This chapter plays a core role in this entire research study as it is entirely based on the
existing body of knowledge of the different great authors and researchers. The whole literature
review is based on the theory, definition and terms related with sales drop and how its impacts to
companies. Hence, it is conducted to get an insight, knowledge and understanding of the particular
topic.

Overview of sales and its importance to business:

A sale is an exchange between an organization and a client. The organization usually sells
their inventories more than the amount that is paid for it, just to recognize the profit for the
company. However, the terminology 'sales' has slightly different meaning. In the book of
accounting, the term' sales' referred to a sum of the total company's revenue rather than an

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individual sale (Corporate Finance Institute, (n.d.). It is an equity account of the company that gets
amplified when sales occurs. Sales always remain at the peak of any financial document acting as
an indicator to the health of the business.

According to Melfi (2017) the foundation of all exercises in business is income gathering or
revenue collection, which actually comes from the sales of tangible or intangible products. Sales
are the life blood of any organization without which there is no business in this competitive market.
He further added, high sales does not determine the good health of the business, if there is no
proper manipulation in the cash flow, which can be considered as a significant survival factor to
be taken care of, otherwise it may lead to bankruptcy.
According to Hogan (2014) had identified 25 factors which affects the sales reduction in a
survey which was done for „slow sales‟ in an organization. The factors were, unclear insight into
wins & loses, senior management shifts, compensation confusion, marketing dropped the ball, no
sales flow up, unrealistic forecasting, hiring the wrong people, ignoring the competition, confusing
quotas, minimal sales training, no differentiation between in and out sales, ineffective sales
pipeline management, not enough sales couching, relying on hockey stick sales, bad time
management by sales rep, new product confusion, clashes with marketing, bad performance is
tolerated, product is devalued, CRM is underutilized, relying on spread sheets for analysis,
working unqualified leads, generating inconsistent leads, low visibility and complacency.

So according to Hogan's research, these factors have being affecting the sales reduction in
an organization. So from Hogan's research 3 factors have been chosen for this research which is
marketing strategy, bad time management by sales rep, ignoring the competition. Because these
are some common issues where most of the company goes wrong in track or I would say most of
the companies fail to succeed in.

Furthermore, in another research which was done by 3 of the authors who were, Nan, Liu &
Zhang (2008) had stated that sales reduction can be caused even by online reviewing from the
consumers who consume the products and also all these 3 authors have held a test on various
factors such as the reviewer exposure, reviewer quality, temporal effects and product coverage. So
these 3 authors have identified that these above factors have being a cause for the reduction in
sales.

Market competition:
Competition is one of the center ideas about financial matters since its start as a Science. The
pioneers of the classical period up to 1870 such as Ricardo, Smith and mill gave a critical definition
stating, 'competition as the procedure that adjusts the market cost with the "characteristic" cost of
an item'. This definition remained unchanged even in the period neoclassical 1870 until 1920.
Michael Potters defined competition as a rather a kind of firm "behavior". He just came up with
rivalry and strategy, but excluding market structure in his competitive analysis (Hernant, (2009).

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Approach to the problem:
This research was mostly conducted as Medizen is facing a problem in sales reduction, a
focus group was conducted and with the Doctors in the company. So a number of questions was
prepared, after collecting the data and doing a lot of researches, the common problems were found
as well as the solution for these problems have being given in this research. So this has helped the
company to find exactly what is wrong where, so the company is now able to rectify their mistakes
and improve themselves before they are too late. Thus, the company can minimize the problem in
sales reduction as well.

Conceptual framework: According to Jabren (2009) conceptual framework is defined as a

network of linked concepts. Moreover, it also offers a procedure of theorization for building
conceptual frameworks based on grounded theory method.

Independent variable Dependent variable

Marketing strategy

Sales reduction
Bad time management
by sales rep

Ignoring the
competition

Definitions:
Sales reduction:
Sales reducing activities (SRAs) are basically any events that cause a decrease in sales. In
this case, sales can mean a decreased number of sales, number of items per sale, the sales price of
a specific item, or any other sales volume metrics. For example, returns decrease sales by canceling
out a previous sale.
Marketing strategy:
A marketing strategy refers to a business’s overall game plan for reaching prospective
consumers and turning them into customers of their products or services.

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 A marketing strategy contains the company’s value proposition, key brand messaging,
data on target customer demographics, and other high-level elements.
Research Hypothesis:
Though after the literature review so many factors were found out, all factors can't be a
reason for the sales drop in Medizen Company. So I as the researcher did select some common
reasons by knowing the background about the company and I did include some factors in the
conceptual framework. As in this case as mentioned below the hypothesis was checked and the
factors which were in the conceptual framework is a reason now for the sales reduction in the
medizen company, so as per this situation the recommendations have being given to medizen to
overcome this issue.
H0: there is an affect through the Marketing strategy in decreasing sales for healioreptic
product.
H1: there is an affect through the bad time management by sales rep in decreasing sales for
healioreptic product.
H1: there is an affect by ignoring the competitors.

Chapter 3
Research design:
Overview Research Design:
Our research design is exploratory. The researchers wanted to gain more insights regarding
decreasing sales for healioreptic product. The research problem is exploratory in nature as it is
attempting to explore the factors for sales reduction in the company then the study was descriptive
in nature in order to describe the significance of factors that affect sales reduction within the
company.

The conducted research was a combination of Action Research and Exploratory Research.
“Action research” is used when the process consultant helps the sponsor to gain the skills of
diagnosis and fixing organizational problems so that she or he can develop autonomy in improving
the organization. (Saunders et al. 2006). “Exploratory Research” is used when one is seeking
insights into the general nature of a problem, the possible decision alternatives, and relevant
variables that need to be considered (Aaker, Kumar & Day, 1995). In agreement, Malhotra et al.
(2003) define exploratory research as a research design characterized by a flexible and evolving
approach to understand management phenomena. The research methods are highly flexible,
unstructured, and qualitative, for the researcher begins without firm preconceptions as to what will
be found (Aaker, Kumar & Day, 1995).

Research strategies:

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 A focus group was conducted with Doctors in the company by providing some questions in
a qualitative manner. So this was held as the strategy for this research. Because comparing with
the quantitative strategy, conducting a focus group within the doctors in the company which comes
under qualitative strategy seemed more preferable to me as to get genuine results. So as per the
strategy, genuine results were revealed and solutions have being given to the company as per the
issue and also now the organization can implement it and avoid the issue as soon as possible.

Time horizon:
As the focus group was conducted (6 discussions) with each individual and also while
expecting them to provide genuine answers, a proper time frame was given to them. Because
hurrying up the meeting will not motivate or either initiate the doctors in coming out with genuine
answers as they won't have time to think. So considering all these, the time frame was given for 3
complete weeks for the focus group meeting.

Data collection method:

The method of data collection is acquiring mainly from focus group and also a secondary
data. The data collection was done by providing only needful set of questions in the factors which
is provided in the conceptual framework. So from the focus group which was done, genuine data's
and answers was collected from the meeting which was conducted to each and every individual.
Sample size:
As Medizen Company has 5000 Doctors, according to the Mogen's sample size the focus
group have been conducted for 50 Doctors in Medizen Company to increase the confidence level
in the data collected.
Qualitative Data Collection Method is focus group:
As a qualitative method for gathering data, focus groups bring together several participants
to discuss a topic of mutual interest to themselves and the researcher. Researchers can use the
audio tapes and transcripts produced by focus groups either as a source of data in and of themselves
or as an adjunct to other forms of data collection. Although we argue for the utility of focus groups
as a unique and independent form of data collection, we are particularly impressed with what they
can add to other qualitative or quantitative data collection strategies.
This Research create creative interview Guide which is a list of question or fairly specific
topics to be cover (Alan Bryman,Social Research Methods Book) a focus group is an open
discussion, allowing new ideas to be brought up during the meeting as a result of what the
participants says. The moderator in a focus group generally has a framework of themes to be
explored.
The focus group meeting Questions:
The focus group qualitative research, is required to get insights and to obtain the primary data from
the doctors, the doctors in each focus group can deliver some primary non structured data regarding

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 their patience preferences and data, by which we can get the underlying reasons and area of
enhancements to the product marketing.
Focus group Number:
The focus group shall be 8 doctors for each group and 7 groups as total in order to maintain the
best practice in focus group surveys.
Focus group Questions:
The following set of questions are selected and designed in order to support in obtaining the
reasons why the decline in the sales of healioreptic and, what are the alternatives they use in
market, and if their opinions in the sales reps as a marketing way.

S/N Question Expected outcome from the question

Introduction
Q1 Please introduce yourself Break the ice and chance to let the focus group
know each other
Q2 Do you know our company Medizen? - To obtain the sample knowledge about
the company
- To be able to define the sales rep
coverage.
Q3 What products of Medizen you know? - To define the sales rep capability of
marketing the company products.
Q4 Have you met our sales rep before? - To get to know the company profile
knowledge.
Q5 How do you see Medizen? - To get to know the company profile
knowledge. And get to know any hidden
problem in the company image.
Q6 Do you prefer if the sales rep gave gifts or - To define the doctor needs in the
conferences? marketing
Q7 What do you think about the reason for - To know their ideas about the sales
sales reduction in the company? reduction
Q8 Do you know that the marketing team - To know the marketing strategy the
make a well promotion for the product? company followed
Q9 What are the most common disease your - To get data regarding the illness exist in
patients have? the area
Q10 Do you prefer chemical or herbal - To define the way of thinking of the
medicines? doctors, this might help in the company
planning
Break
Q11 Do you know the Medizen product, - To define the product knowledge from
healioreptic? the doctors point of view.

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Q12 What do you know about it - To define the product knowledge from
(healioreptic)? the doctors point of view.
Q13 What are the alternatives of the - To define the rivals from the doctors
(healioreptic)? point of view?
Q14 What do you think about the product - Get to know the doctors opinion about
packing? the product packing.
Q15 Do you prefer tablets or slurp in the - Get the info regarding the product
healioreptic? preferences
Q16 Do you think the side effects of the - Get to know how the customer thinking
healioreptic is more than the XXX (rival about the side effects of the medicine.
product)?
Q17 From where you obtain the medicine side - Get to know the information channels of
effects and activation data? the doctors.
Break
Q18 Is our product available in the surrounding - To define the sales rep activeness.
pharmacies?
Q17 What do you think we need to enhance in - Get the user preferences data
the healioreptic
Q18 Would you reference our product to your - Obtain the recommendation scale
colleagues? between doctors
Q19 If we replaced healioreptic , what would - Get to know the missed feature and area
you think it will have? of enhancement of the product
Q20 Any comments? - Get any comments or info the sample
group would have.
Closing

Measurement & scaling:

In qualitative research, measurement takes on a different form compared to quantitative
research. Qualitative data are non-numeric and typically involve words, images, or narratives. The
goal of measurement in qualitative research is to systematically collect and analyze rich,
descriptive data to gain insights into complex phenomena.

Results:
1. Weak promotion and packaging compared to competitive product.
2. Weak distribution of product on pharmacies.
3. Weak engagement with doctors with limited activities and events.
4. Sales reduction very clear.
5. Sales team needs more training and direction.
6. Very low of customer engagement.
7. Awareness problem of healioreptic.

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Recommendation regarding the product:
 Marketing team must be focus on re-packaging of healioreptic product in an innovative
way attract attention of cusstomers
 Distribution channel focusing on push product on possible large numbers of pharmacies
 Mega events as a part of brand awareness of Healioreptic product
 Increase engagement with doctors with a variety of activities and events
 Healthy day on poly clinic must be recommended
 Investment in a medical representative sales team with frequent training every semester
with studies update of product
 Using social media as a way of advertising of re-launch healioreptic with a new
packaging
 Tools and fliers updated must be included as a way of promotion.

Recommendation regarding the overall research:

 Choose large sample size with a variety of doctor’s specialty users of the drug
 Quantitative method will more accurate and measurable
 Larger research team must be required with a higher qualification
 Availability of tools and resources are needed
 Need more time for research and data accessibility.

Limitations:
First we used random sampling technique based on Qualitative data from observations,
interviews, and focus groups of doctors (key opinion leader) have large numbers of followers
from doctors and it was subjective and open to interpretation can't be measured accurate and
difficult to generalize the research findings to a larger population and make valid conclusions
 Ineffective sampling strategy: self-selection bias based on key opinion leader’s
doctors only.
 Inadequate sample size: there are not enough participants in a study to accurately
represent the population, need a large sample to be able to detect small changes
in the population due to poor availability of time and resources.
 Lack of available or reliable data: A lack of data or trustworthy data will almost certainly
necessitate limiting the scope of research or the sample size ,Due to poor research team
number and qualifications.
 Lack of prior research on the subject: Due to Our focus on one speaciality
doctors which is GIT.
 The measure used to collect data: We used random technique based on
qualitative data subjective can't be measured mixed self biased

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  Issues with research samples and selection: that sample does not accurately
represent the overall population or the relevant group. As a result, study suffers
from “sampling bias” or “selection bias.
Limitations of the research:
Access: limited access to interviewees due too poor selection of specialties and few number of
doctors and limited resources too. But still some results are trusted because doctors are titles are
president of units and professor.
Time constraints: Time wasn’t enough for Our complete research because of miss time
management and a lot of delaying process and inappropriate time of launch our product affect
our research too.
Conclusion:
The objective of this research was to find the factors which are effecting the sales
reduction in Medizen company and to recommend solutions to the company for improvements or
to overcome the issue. Moreover, as it stated in the methodology the research took place. Though
the literature reviews were done and the factors was selected as the independent variables in the
conceptual frame work in this research, I as a researcher mentioned in the hypothesis in the
proposal of this research saying that all the independent factors 19 will have effect on the sales
reduction of what the company is facing. But after the data was collected. only 2 independent
factors had a significant value. Meaning, regarding the marketing management factor, Marketing
team must be focus on re-packaging of healioreptic product in an innovative way attract attention
of customers, also regarding the bad management by sales rep Sales team needs more training and
direction, At the same time when the forecasting which is done in the company becomes
unrealistic; the company’s sales will clash silently whereas they won’t know where they went
wrong just like the company is experiencing sales reduction presently. So when it comes to
forecasting medizen should be able to improve their forecasting skills to avoid sales reduction in
future.

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References:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328732068_Sales_Reduction_in_ABC_Company
https://www.ide.go.jp/library/English/Publish/Reports/Jrp/pdf/129_10.pdf
https://www.scribd.com/document/319630603/Decline-in-Sales-Memorandum
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:841434/FULLTEXT01.pdf
https://samples.jbpub.com/9780763783334/83334_ch02_5713.pdf
https://s3.studentvip.com.au/notes/5463-sample.pdf
https://is.muni.cz/th/grdmq/diplomova_prace_Jana_Ludikova_103092.pdf

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