Measuring market orientation of Muscle Pharm Corp. (MSLP:US) May 2014 | Page 9

Equity Research - Company Valuation: Diamondcorp PLC

2.2 SALES VS MARKET ORIENTATION
Dunnet (2013) differentiates the two philosophies sales orientation and market orientation
how they are aligned and organised within a business. While the market orientation looks
outward to direction of customer, considering all aspects of a business and the needs of
clients, the sales orientation sets the focus on selling of the products rather than
concentrating to satisfy the needs and wants of the customers. The sales orientation
requires an aggressive sales method which includes intensive promotion such as advertising
to increase the willingness of customers to buy the product. This approach is dependent on a
strong sales team that can push the sales of the products.
The marketing and growth strategy of MSLP is to increase the product distribution and sales
through expanded market penetration and secondly to increase the awareness of the
offered products and boosting sales through endorsements, sponsorships and brand
expansion (Pyatt, 2013). The sales team of MSLP took huge efforts into expanding its
distribution and added more than 35’000 points of sales to the portfolio within four years
and was able to increase net sales from $1.0mn in the year 2009 to $112mn in the year 2013
which is a total increase of sales of around 11,100%. Lust but not least, the executive board
is represented not only a Chief Marketing Officer, but together with a President of Sales and
Marketing illustrating the importance of Sales (MSLP, 2014). Due to those facts, it can be
assumed that MSLP is an extremely sales orientated company.
MSLP believes that the key areas for growth are demographic, healthcare and lifestyle
trends which comprise the increasing awareness of the benefits of nutritional supplements.
MSLP partly outsourced its market research to BBC Research which identified the global
market size for nutritional sports products ($31bn in 2008) and estimates its growth rates
(24% annually) to $91.8 billion by the year 2013. While MSLP is screening the environment
and forecasting trends which includes responding to needs for a healthier lifestyle, MSLP
lacks considering all aspects of a business and the needs of clients (MSLP, 2013). However,
over the past few years MSLP not only came up with new innovative products, they also
focused on providing a one-of-a-kind customer experience. MSLP believes that customer
satisfaction drives the victory of the company and due to this, MSLP built a very strong social
community in the industry recognized under the name MPNation (Social Media & Customer
Command Center in Columbus, Ohio) where the staff offers high-level brand experience for
customers and contributions with daily workouts and the commitment of providing real-time
feedback to the customers (Sheldon, 2014). MSLP illustrates several serious efforts to satisfy
the needs and the wants of the customers and therefore enjoys a medium level of market
orientation.

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