B2B Marketing Ring Medicals

1. Analyze the positioning options and recommend a positioning strategy

for HCS-100?
The positioning options that can be adopted for HCS-100 would be
either a source efficiency (cost reduction) model or a source
effectiveness (quality enhancement) model. It makes sense for the
company to choose the former as its positioning strategy as by
reducing costs, they would be able to capture the market and in the
long run, they would be able to sell their add-ons convincingly. As seen
in the past (from the case), the add-on sales account for very high
gross margins.

2. Should the HCS-100 be sold through a direct sales force,

manufacturer’s representatives or telecommunication distributors?
HCS-100 should be best sold through a direct sales force. This way the
company can train them well on their high value offering and can
continuously motivate them to sell the product by introducing
attractive incentives. Periodic trainings if given to sales personnel will
help improve the sales figures. Also the control the company would
have on its human resources will also be more in comparison with the
representatives of manufacturers (who are not very motivated to
achieve numbers owing to their commission based pay). Sales through
telecommunication distributors, on the other hand is a new channel for
the company to explore. There are many aspects of this the company
should first understand before they choose the channel as their major
sales partner.

3. What are the organizational issues at Ring Medicals / Scanvest Ring

which may affect the implementation of the proposed marketing plan?
B2B Marketing Ring Medicals

The Head of Ring Medicals, Mr. Owen, wanted sales team to be

reporting to the office in Billerica as the office had strong design and
service teams. He did not want to dilute the entrepreneurial culture of
the office by centralizing operations with the HO. The Head of Ring
Group, Mr. Ruggieri, however had a different vision. He felt that the
product launch of HCS-100 would be much smoother if administered
from New York. He also wanted to set up a full-fledged service center,
ware-house etc there and felt that costs would be enormously reduced
if centralized. He also felt that the present target market of hospitals
should be broadened to bring in more avenues where they can pitch
their product and gain closures. Hence it was clear that the Heads of
Ring group and Ring Medicals believed in two different ways of
establishing a sales & distribution strategy for their flagship product,
HCS-100