2. Change Project Description

 The change project managed was about the adaptation and standardization of all marketing materials, product support materials, labels, and products sold and offered for sale in over 30 markets of the subject company. Many materials were outdated, translated into inapplicable languages, and contained statements and claims that were illegal in various markets.  For instance, one market required Traditional Chinese while the material was in English or in Modern Chinese. Some countries’ regulatory affairs departments requested few adaptations and the removal of claims. Others demanded the discontinuance of selling a product in a market. And other importing regulators refused letting product into a market.

 The change project included the incorporation of the legal department of the subject company and all other organizational departments that were affected by the redevelopment. The project manager wanted to identify all stakeholders into the project to promote participation and hopefully prevent redoing the marketing materials again after the redevelopment phase in this project. The departments to be included were the international development department, the local market managers, the customer care call center, information technology department, the customers, the finance department, commissions, external legal firms with expertise in regulator requirements, the design department, external translation agency, printing business in various markets, and purchasing.

 

2.1. Legal department

The legal department was in charge to write and review the contracts that were used to sign up as a purchasing member or customer together with the order placement forms and what form of payments were to be used based on local requirements. Then they also authored polices and procedures and the terms and conditions that represented the business strategies, terms of purchase, and legal liability disclaimers for each market.

The legal department had to also review and make requests for corrections of marketing materials such as the product brochures, the product labels and the claims on the labels and in the marketing materials. Other supporting marketing materials that represented logistical challenges in localization efforts were films on DVD’s and audio presentations on CD’s.

The policies and procedures were already place and in printed form in the markets as well as online. But the document content differed from hard copy to soft copy in at least 50% of the markets. This required the rewriting and re-translating of these documents and then distributing new prints to the markets and soft copies through the IT department to be placed online.

 

2.2. International development

The international development department (ID) was in charge to research new market potential and then to investigate requirements that led to open that market for business according to budget and on time. The information retrieved through this department and its associated work helped all other affiliated stakeholder departments understand their job and required activities. The ID determined and set the opening date of the market and made office location acquisitions as well.

In respect to the marketing materials redevelopment project, the largest amount of markets and their pertinent materials were already open and already had at least to some degree materials and/or the materials from other markets. It was necessary to determine what materials were in stock, when they had to be reprinted to ideally restock before the next time they would run out. This would help the business center in that market spend optimally as little money as possible to become compliant with the regulatory affairs of that market.

 

2.3. Local market managers

Local market managers were in charge of sales presentations to the consumers and business entities who distributed the products. When marketing materials were changed, they were the first ones that had to learn about it. They also made marketing material change requests based on feedback from their customer. But these managers did not have sufficient regulatory compliance knowledge as to point out errors.

And the problem so often occurred, when they found an error change was requested, but it was not necessarily compliant with the local regulatory laws. These managers were positioned in the diverse global market areas. They would travel just about 50% of the time. Communication with them was key of what changes were to be made and when new and compliant marketing materials would be in market. These market managers were also the front-liners in marketability of the marketing materials. They made price retail price recommendations, which were taken into consideration when calculating the final price.

 

2.4. Customer care call center

Customer care call center were the individuals that were on the phone as the front liners in the organization. Customers relied on marketing materials in market as a sales aid. When materials were out for inventory reasons or non-compliance reasons, the call center had to be informed.

And as so often the legal department made changes to marketing materials, the customer call center needed to know what statements and product claims were not permitted any longer. They also needed to know what changes were to be made in the materials and when the materials would be available.

 

2.5. Information technology

The Information technology (IT) department was in charge to take the literature content and present electronic literature available as PDF files. They also posted forms for purchasing and sign-up contracts online for consumers and distributors to access. The website had also online-enables sign-up and purchasing-shopping cart functions.

Every time a content change was driven by any one of the departments, it had to be collectively communicated to the IT department so they could make corresponding changes. At times, one form was posted in multiple media incorrectly. Locating the latest edition of forms and agreements was a big task for the IT department.

 

2.6. External legal firms

The external law firms were those used by the in-house legal department that would help to modify content subject to local regulations and laws. They were also those that made product functionality claim statement changes either during market approval processes or afterwards to maintain compliance.

Including the external experts as a final step prior to translation and after translation was expensive, but proofed to be vital to avoid mistranslations. Mistranslations occurred in about every literature content change project. When marketing materials came out of print and arrived in the market and were found non-compliant, this proofed to be very expensive. And usually the legal department was the greatest owner of any of the review and editing projects.

 

2.7. Commissions department

The commission department was in charge of paying out commissions to the distributors. When signing up as a distributor, legal forms had to be filled out and submitted. Distributors in this global organization were subject to local taxation of income and sales. All markets required their localized-specific forms. The commissions department was in charge to research these requirements and pass them on to the teams so they could incorporate any of the local changes into the literature and the forms or legal documents for every market.