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During this presentation, we will cover the organizational background of the company I
am presenting, my overall role, the project realised, methodology, findings, analysis, and
finally conclusion and recommendations.

The first chapter of this presentation will herald the scope and aims that were
set, as logical and pondered results of the organisation background and therefore
of the key identified problems
Industry sector
HYGITECH is a French manufacturer of products dedicated to the implantology
sector, a niche of the dentistry area. Implants consist in replacing a natural teeth with
an industrial one (ADI, 2014): they are long procedures that can take multiple
appointments over a 2-3 months period of time.

The mission, as stated on their main website is to to help implantologists

successfully fight cross contamination by providing them with functional
solutions for their practice (Hygitech.com, 2014). Very keen on being always
innovative and international, Hygitech possess an in-house R&D team that is
constantly expanding the product choice along with a general progressive
improvement on the older products. Despite placing themselves in the lower-end
of the market, battling the competition mostly with their less expensive prices,
quality is still a main core value that the company never leaves behind.
Forty countries are served, with dedicated staff for the markets in UK, Italy and
Germany, and also the position of Marketing Director was established to help in

the growth, but these areas represent their heel of Achilles.

Hygitech is a small company of 11 employees, but it is part of a bigger dentistry

company called GACD, leader in the dentistry sector in France and with other
sub-brands in whole Europe, from Spain to Germany. The company itself is present
is 40 countries with dedicated staff for UK, Italy, France and the biggest market,
Germany.

There are 1 CEO, 6 employees and 4 interns, 11 in total as stated before. Breaking
down the hierarchy, we can describe the employees responsibilities dividing
them in 5 groups. The interns manage the three main markets (UK, Italy and
Germany), all controlled by the sales director. The R&D team is composed by the
head and an intern, the Export is managed by one person and finally the
marketing department is managed by one person, with the help of the interns.

Given a standard business lifecycle composed by 7 stages, Hygitech ranks in the

growth area. The company is 5 years old, so eventually moved from being a startup of barely 3 people to an actual more complicated structure, even though the
number of employees still stays as low as 11.
Although the companys profit are increasing, there has yet to be an
establishment, especially with all the issues that will be covered in the following
slides, which puts the company in the Growth stage: the company is expanding
the products lines and is trying to gain a higher number of customers.

I arrived to Hygitech 1st July 2013 as a sales manager for the whole UK region. Despite
the department was small, including in fact just me at the start, I had to take care of all
the responsabilities, from being a proper salesperson to customer care, accounting,
market research, and marketing. In January 2014 I got assigned the Italian market too
and the company supplied an assistant to help me with the two markets. At the end of
the placement, I was called back to train what used to be my two assistants and the new
sales manager for the Italian market.
The placement was a perfect opportunity for my bachelor, not only for marketing, which
is just my minor, but mostly for what I would like to achieve: a manager position.
The projects objectives came out naturally as I was deep in the market, realizing day by
day its strengths but also the weaknesses, and thus, the opportunities and threats.

Hygitech is a company that aims to grow strong and gain market share, but the
tools used belongs more on a traditional approach, now seen as not only oldfashioned, put potentially inefficient.
Weak Points
Calling up clients gives very little to no return, since most of the times the
receptionists are trained to deny any commercial offers and not to disturb the
dentists work, or even email marketing, which still offers better ROI, from 1.1 to
1.4% according to the recent statistics (Yoon and Eckels, 2013) proves to be
useless if done in the wrong way. Regarding the other marketing tools, either
there is simply no budget allowed or the means are not believed to be effective,
as in the case of Social Media, making it impossible to create a strong brand
image and identity.
In addition, the main three markets are managed by interns, which makes it
harder for the clients to create a bond with the seller: it is essential for the seller
to get to know their clients as much as possible, in order to make them feel at
ease, respected, valued and mostly, understood since barely 13% of clients
believe the seller is able to understand their needs (Josiane Feigon: Inside Sales

to Overtake Field Sales by 2015, 2013).

These internal statistics gain even more value when compared to the industry
standards. In general, marketing spending is increasing, for example more than
40% of US marketing professionals said they increased spending on data-driven
marketing in the first quarter of this year (DMA and Winterberry Group, 2014)
and to be more precise, the CMO survey of 2011 states that while the budget of
the traditional advertisement will be progressively cut, CMOs will increase the
spending allowance for CMR, brand building and new services introduction, which
shows both the tendency toward digital marketing and to a better customer
relationship building.
Hygitech does not miss a good overall profit, with 2014 being a year that is
currently seeing a steady 10.5% increase in the sales (Hygitech, 2014), but the lust
for the short-term benefits and a lack of a defined marketing strategy may
damage the company in the long run.

The three main questions that will lead the study are:
How will the company manage the brand in order to increase awareness and
create a bond with the customers?
How will the company effectively manage the clients, keeping them satisfied,
establishing a solid and trustworthy business relationship?
How can the digital marketing help the company maximizing the profit using the
modern channels?

Literature Review:
Enterprises like Hygitech start with a business model that would require a change
after the first years, and the reason is not just an irrational feeling in the
marketing department. Homburg, Klaramann and Smith, in the international
journal of research in Marketing (2010) describes B2B business as characterized
by substantial differences, which makes advertisement for the latter not as easy
as a normal consumer brand, with their flashy slogans and cheeky promotional
videos, but this does not mean that a B2B can focus solely on the sales, without
putting any effort in any marketing practices. They also managed to describe the
urge for a B2B business to create a strong brand awareness applying the
economics theories, the same ones that often push a CEO into cutting budget to
the marketing department and investing everything into short term decision and
a mare cash flow, which most of the times is not the answer to augment profits.
As the article states, the enterprise should focus time and money in creating a
strong brand identity which can, and will influence the consumer quality
perception and ultimately their buying habits.
Findings:
The findings show a coherence with the initial hypothesis, both in the brand and

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CRM issue, and both though initially to be weak and not exploited as they should
have. Despite Hygitech being a B2B, (described in the international journal of
research in Marketing Homburg, Klaramann and Smith, 2010) as characterized by
substantial differences, which makes advertisement for the latter not as easy as a
normal consumer brand, the same article was very clear on the importance of a
strong brand identity and therefore a wide awareness (Homburg, 2010) in order
to affect the customer perception and improve the sales.

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Literature Review:

Create a powerful brand is a task that also needs an internal effort from the
company itself, especially from the department that deals with the customers. In
the American Marketing Association Journal, Alexander Krasnikov, Satish
Jayachandran and V. Kumar (2009) study the impacts of the application of CRM
theories on both operational costs and general profit. The enterprises chosen are
a sample of US banks, whose costs and data are analysed before and after the
application of the customer relationships theories, and the results supports the
original thesis. The profit efficiency increases, and the cost efficiency is kept safe
thanks to the CRM commitment. Another interesting discoveries is the
relationship between the adoption time and the results, with the late adopters
actually experiencing a higher growth in the profit efficiency in respect to the
early adopters.
Mark E Hyman, from US, is one of the gurus in the CRM in dentistry. In one of his
interviews in the TV channel NDN, he explains how important a good relationship
with your customers is fundamental for a successful business. The doctor
describes how important is to give the customer something original and
authentic, since you are going to offer basically a very similar product to your
competitors. Dr Hyman states that is essential for the business to have the

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wow factor (Hyman, Youtube, 2012), in order to donate the customer an

experience so delightful that they will have to come back and possibly that will
spread a word of mouth, still one of the most successful marketing campaign out
there.
Find

CRM was a second practice that missed funds, both in means of money and time,
but once again the data showed how important is the customer approach,
probably the main concept that a business like Hygitech has to apply on the
everyday practice, boosting sales and cutting costs (Huang, Hua, Will, Wo, 2012),
even in the case of a late adoption (Alexander Krasnikov, Satish Jayachandran and
V. Kumar 2009). Mark E Hyman, from US, is one of the gurus in the CRM in
dentistry describes how important is to give the customer something original and
authentic stating that it is essential for the dentistry business to have the wow
factor.
ings:

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Literature review:

In the international Journal of electronic commerce, Wuang, Hua, Will and Wu

(2012), describes the potential of the electronic commerce for any business as a
strategy that would bring growth, differentiation for early adopters, and a rise in
profits, along with a cut to operational costs. Despite the extraordinary benefits,
the e-commerce could bring problems, even the most experienced business
because of the different nature of business transaction and customer
relationships that it has. For instance, the stock management may fail if the
company is not prepared sufficiently, along the after-sales practices with the
customers, which is fairly different from a direct transaction in person or over the
phone. Blanca Hernandez, Julio Jimenez, M. Jos Martn, in the European journal
of marketing (2009), tested the influence of the online shopping experience on
the purchase decision, and shows how self-efficacy is a key for a repeated
purchase, and therefore the business must help the customer donating the best
and most user friendly shopping experience in order to increase their customers
self-usefulness and establish a web of returning e-clients. Finally, different level
of user experience brings different level of perception, which is another
important point to remember when building a shopping site, trying to give an
adequate perception to all different kind of user, depending on their experience.

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Findings:

A different perspective was instead given from the research into the third business
problem, regarding the weak e-commerce. There are in facts, ethical and legal
restraints, which can mainly affect a dentistry company (Parhanos, Benedicto,
Fernandes, Viotto, Junior 2011) both from an advertisement and a selling strategy
points of view: Hygitech, being a medical devices company must always give the
customers or the potential buyers the impression of dealing with high end
products, made respecting all the legal standards, using the finest materials,
which is not always the case, since with a lower price comes a lower quality.

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The findings show a coherence with the initial hypothesis, both in the brand and CRM
issue, and both though initially to be weak and not exploited as they should have.
Despite Hygitech being a B2B, (described in the international journal of research in
Marketing Homburg, Klaramann and Smith, 2010) as characterized by substantial
differences, which makes advertisement for the latter not as easy as a normal consumer
brand, the same article was very clear on the importance of a strong brand identity and
therefore a wide awareness (Homburg, 2010) in order to affect the customer perception
and improve the sales.
CRM was a second practice that missed funds, both in means of money and time, but
once again the data showed how important is the customer approach, probably the
main concept that a business like Hygitech has to apply on the everyday practice,
boosting sales and cutting costs (Huang, Hua, Will, Wo, 2012), even in the case of a late
adoption (Alexander Krasnikov, Satish Jayachandran and V. Kumar 2009). Mark E Hyman,
from US, is one of the gurus in the CRM in dentistry describes how important is to give
the customer something original and authentic stating that it is essential for the
dentistry business to have the wow factor.
A different perspective was instead given from the research into the third business
problem, regarding the weak e-commerce. There are in facts, ethical and legal restraints,
which can mainly affect a dentistry company (Parhanos, Benedicto, Fernandes, Viotto,
Junior 2011) both from an advertisement and a selling strategy points of view: Hygitech,

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being a medical devices company must always give the customers or the potential buyers
the impression of dealing with high end products, made respecting all the legal
standards, using the finest materials, which is not always the case, since with a lower
price comes a lower quality.

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The research approach chosen to best convey relevant information from different
point of views will be a hybrid mixture of a primary research and secondary. The
choice has been made since as Dr Smith from the University of Lancaster states,
the imbalance in the use of secondary data means that some data sets are being
under-used - or being used only for very specific purposes - and that many
researchers are missing opportunities to incorporate secondary data into their
research.
Regarding the primary research, it will consist of a focus group with the employee
and a telephone survey with the clients. The sample size of the focus group will
consist of 5 people, while a number of 30 telephone interviews will be conducted
with randomly chosen clients from the database.
The analytical method chosen will be a deductive one for the qualitative data,
and a frequency distribution one for the quantitative. The first is concerned with
developing a hypothesis (or hypotheses) based on existing theory, and then
designing a research strategy to test the hypothesis (Wilson, 2010). It has been
chosen because it is the most logical approach, as Beiske (2007) and Pelissier,
(2008) supports. It starts with a theory from which a hypothesis is drawn; later,
the data collected will confirm or reject this hypothesis (Snieder and Larner,
2009).

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The main limitations will be: Lack of time, low budget, small sample size,
researcher bias, social desirability effect

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The analysis of the information will eventually conclude that an action is to be

taken immediately, regarding those three vulnerable areas examined. The brand
awareness can be created after having built a proper brand and its equity, which
will lead to the improvements in the customer relationship management area
and finally to the embrace of the digital marketing as a powerful source of profit.

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