3. Strategic Marketing and segmentation for Health and Social Care Organisation

1. 3.Strategic Marketing and segmentation for Health and Social Care Organisation

2. Strategic Marketing • A strategy is a plan that integrates a health or social care organization’s major goals, policies, decisions and sequences of action into a cohesive whole. • It can apply at all levels in an organization and pertain to any of the functional areas of management. • Thus there may be production, financial, marketing, personnel and corporate strategies, just to name a few. If we look specifically at marketing then there may be pricing, product, promotion, distribution, marketing research, sales, advertising, merchandising, etc. strategies. • The strategy is concerned with effectiveness rather than efficiency and is the process of analysing the environment and designing the fit between the organization, its resources and objectives and the environment

3. The strategic process  • The strategic process refers to the manner in which strategy is formulated. There are several approaches. • First, the rational approach, making use of tools such as SWOT analysis and portfolio models. • Second, the flexible approach, which employs multiple scenario planning. The creative approach reflects the use of imagination in planning. The behavioural approach reflects the influence of power, politics and personalities. • And finally, the incremental approach is based on small adjustments or changes to previously successful strategies.

4. Types Of Markets • Consumer Markets - When we talk about consumer markets, we are including those individuals and households who buy and consume goods and services for their own personal use. They are not interested in reselling the product or setting themselves up as a manufacturer. Considering the thousands of new products, services, and ideas being introduced each day and the increased capability of consumers to afford these products, the size, complexity, and future growth potential of the consumer market is staggering

5. Industrial Markets - The industrial market consists of organizations and the people who work for them, those who buy products or services for use in their own businesses or to make other products. For example, a steel mill might purchase computer software, pencils, and flooring as part of the operation and maintenance of their business

6. Institutional Markets - Another important market sector is made up of various types of profit and non-profit institutions, such as hospitals, schools, churches, and government agencies. • Reseller Markets - All intermediaries that buy finished or semi-finished products and resell them for profit are part of the reseller market

7. Keys To Marketing Success • A prime guideline for marketing success is to realize that establishing customer satisfaction should be the company's number-one priority. The only people who really know what customers want are the customers themselves. A company that realizes this will develop a marketing mentality that facilitates information gathering and maintains effective communication with the primary reason for the company's existence: the customer.

8. Keys To Marketing Success • A second guideline is to establish a company image that clearly reflects the values and aspirations of the company to employees, customers, intermediaries, and the general public • Third, while marketing requires work that is clearly distinct from other business activities, it should be central to the entire organization. Marketing is the aspect of the business that customers see. If they see something they do not like, they look elsewhere • Fourth, the business should develop a unique strategy that is consistent with the circumstances that it faces. The marketer must adapt basic marketing principles to the unique product being sold.

9. Keys To Marketing Success • Finally, technological progress dictates how marketing will be performed in the future. Because of computer technology inventiveness, both consumers and businesses are better informed. Knowledge is the most important competitive advantage. The world is one market, and the information is changing at light-speed.

10. Approaching the market • For a particular product, marketing department/unit for health and social care organisation might follow • An undifferentiated,  segmentation, or combination approach toward their target market/customers.

11. The undifferentiated market (market aggregation) The undifferentiated approach occurs when the marketer ignores the apparent differences that exist within the market and uses a marketing strategy that is intended to appeal to as many people as possible. In essence, the market is viewed as a homogeneous aggregate. Admittedly, this assumption is risky, and there is always the chance that it will appeal to no one, or that the amount of waste in resources will be greater than the total gain in sales. • For certain types of widely consumed products and services in the health or social care, the undifferentiated market approach makes the most sense.

12. Product/Service differentiation • Most undifferentiated markets contain a high level of competition. • How does a company/organisation in the health or social care sector compete when all the products or services offerings are basically the same and many companies are in fierce competition? • The answer is to engage in a strategy referred to as product or Service differentiation. • Examples of tangible differences might be product features, performance, endurance, location, or support services, to name but a few.

13. The segmented market • While product or service differentiation is an effective strategy to distinguish your brand from competitors', it also differentiates your own products or services from one another. • Market segmentation is a twofold process that includes: • identifying and classifying people into homogeneous groupings, called segments, and • determining which of these segments are viable target markets

14. Segmentation, Targeting And Product Positioning • Dividing a total market into several submarkets or segments, each of which is homogeneous in all significant aspects, for the purpose of selecting one or more target markets on which to concentrate marketing effort. • Marketing executives employ the following steps:

15. Continue… • Segment the market - In order to segment a market, characteristics have to be identified which distinguish among customers according to their buying preferences. Profiles of market segments which reflect different combinations of these characteristics then have to be constructed. • Target the users - To target the users, the financial appeal of all segments should be assessed and segments which have the greatest appeal should be selected for targeting. The selection criteria should take account of the relative financial attractiveness of the segments and the organization’s capability to exploit them.

16. Continue… • Position the products -In positioning a product, one should aim to match it with that segment of the market where it is most likely to succeed. This involves identifying possible positions for products within each target segment and then producing, adapting and marketing them towards the target market. • Read Marketing Segmentation in health care • https://www.chausa.org/docs/default-source/health-progress/market-segmentation-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=0