Analysis of University of Michigan Hospital Strategic Plan – Sample Solution 1
Analysis of University of Michigan Hospital Strategic Plan
Create a marketing plan that includes the following five sections:
Section 1: Place of Service and Channels of Distribution
After the analysis of the market has been completed, and with your product or service in mind, the marketing plan must address who the services are being sold to, what the potential reimbursement levels are, and what organization will contract with the healthcare facility for the services.
For a product or service to reach its target market, it actually has to get to the market or the market has to get to it—to the place of service. “Place” is another of the 4 Ps. Determining workable places of service and/or effective distribution channels is an ongoing challenge in the healthcare market. Current trends, changes in policy, and technological advances have all contributed to altering the landscape of distribution.
For example, prescriptions that used to require face-to-face interaction can be ordered online and delivered by mail. How does that cost-saving fact impact the pharmacy services of a healthcare organization? What can the organization do to encourage its customers to take advantage of this alternative means of distribution? New and different channels of distribution are evident in all areas of healthcare.
In 3–4 pages of your marketing plan:
- Describe one way the product or service can be delivered or offered to its customers.
- Evaluate the benefits and constraints of this distribution.
- Describe trends that are impacting or might impact this distribution channel or place of service.
- Explain how technology is impacting delivery of this product or service. How might technology impact the concept of place?
- Describe how channels of distribution or place of service relate to the strategic plan.
Section 2: Pricing and/or Contracting Strategies
In today’s healthcare landscape, there are multiple payers with multiple price points of their own. Many managed care organizations, as well as CMS, are creating discounted bundle payment structures. In the marketing plan, the healthcare facilities must understand what their bottom price point is so the facility can decide in what contracting opportunities they want to participate.How is the product or service priced? Pricing in healthcare is not a matter of “sales, discounts, and specials.”
Many complex considerations come into play. Pricing in this industry involves various and sometime sophisticated contracting and managed care strategies. Increasingly, with high-deductible health plans, pricing is critical to the customer and becomes a strategic issue for the healthcare organization. Price is another of the 4 Ps.
In a 2–3-page section of your marketing Plan:
- Describe pricing and contracting strategies apparent in this healthcare organization.
- Explain how price might be a strategic issue for the organization. Provide rationale as to why price might align with strategic planning.
- Explain how current trends in healthcare are impacting pricing strategies for the product or service on which you are focused.
- Analyze how competition is impacting pricing of the product or service on which you are focused.
Section 3: Promotional Strategies and Techniques
Promotion is the fourth “P” addressed in this Assessment. Consider: Your healthcare organization has a product or service to offer. You are very familiar with the strategic plan of the organization. You know its mission, vision, and goals. Now, as a marketing advisor, how are you going to use promotional media to advance your cause? Promotional strategies have to be carefully and sensitively targeted in areas such as television and radio, print and web-based, and social media. They reflect the organization as well as the customer or, in most cases, many different customers.
In 3–4 pages of your marketing plan:
- Describe three promotional strategies other than social media that you would use to promote the product or service in order to attract consumers. Keep in mind that the market you are in has everything to do with determining appropriate marketing strategies. For each marketing technique you suggest, include a rationale for why it is appropriate for the intended market.
- Explain at least three advantages of each strategy and at least three possible disadvantages.
- Describe how social networking could be tapped to engage customers for this product or service. Provide examples of at least three different social media strategies.
Section 4: The Marketing Budget
Once promotional strategies have been determined, the costs of these initiatives must be moved into the budget. In some cases, a strategy will prove to be too costly and will need to be reconsidered.In 2–3 pages of your marketing plan:
- Hypothesize categories of costs/expenses that would have to be reflected in the budget for each of the three promotional strategies you suggested in Section 3 (for example, printing, mailing, consulting and advertising costs, market research, publicity, sales efforts, etc.) Include both in-house and external expenses. Note: You are not expected to attach dollar amounts.
- Analyze the impact of at least two current trends on marketing budgets of the business unit on which you are focused including the influence of these trends on marketing budgets.
Section 5: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Marketing Plan
Any marketing plan must include a plan for evaluating its effectiveness. In an authentic situation, the evaluation plan is developed up front, and the evaluation(s) take place at specified intervals once the plan is implemented. The evaluation is critical for ensuring that marketing dollars are well spent.
For example, if it is proven after an appropriate period of time, with decision-making parameters set, that monthly mailings are ineffective and do not warrant the cost, you will likely look at other promotional strategies and put the money to better marketing use. Every good marketing plan has to look at ROI, return on investment, to determine if dollars spent are benefiting the healthcare organization. How else would you know if a marketing plan is viable?
In 2–3 pages of your marketing plan, and with your product or service in mind:
- Describe at least three variables that must be taken into account when creating an approach for evaluating the effectiveness of a healthcare marketing plan.
- Develop two specific measurements that indicate marketing effectiveness for this product or service.
- Compare three data sources that can inform outcomes of marketing activities regarding this product or service.
Solution
FM003: Marketing Plan
Operating a successful healthcare organization demands ongoing assessment of how the firm’s resources are allocated to meet its goals. Part I of this paper demonstrates that strategic planning addresses how the organization’s resources are allocated about its financial and long-term goals. On the other hand, a marketing plan captures the organization’s marketing strategies in context targets to translate the financial goals into action steps that propel the demand for the specific organization’s products or services (Pucarea, 2019).
To track the progress of one’s organization, the marketing campaigns as outlined in the marketing plan can help the organization’s marketing executive identify what is working and what is not, thus enabling the executive team to make the necessary adjustments in real-time.
Remaining focused on the organization’s original marketing goals and objectives assists the stakeholders in ensuring that the campaign remains on track and realizes the most important aspects of the set goals and subsequent objectives. In effect, creating a healthcare marketing plan analysis or report is bound to support the marketing executive to stay organized and keep the marketing campaigns on the organization’s intended path.
Consequently, Part II of this paper focuses on Michigan Medicine’s strategic plan analysis outlines MM’s marketing plan for 2022. To achieve the goal, Part II is divided into five sections, with the first one focusing on the place of service and channels of distribution. Section 2 addresses pricing and contracting strategies, while the third section focuses on promotional strategies and techniques. The last two sections explore MM.s marketing budget, while section five evaluates the marketing plan’s effectiveness.
Part 1
Analysis of University of Michigan Hospital Strategic Plan (2019-2024)
The healthcare industry is one of the leading changes and progress as healthcare organizations seek to remain relevant in the twenty-first century. The advent of the digital age has accelerated the rate of changing and progressing, necessitating healthcare organizations executives to develop plans for the facility’s healthcare practice to be successful for many years to come.
Planning for the unknown makes healthcare firms be they hospitals, clinics, private practices, and other entities within the healthcare sector to be equipped in a better way for any eventuality that presents itself. Suffice it to say that hospital planning is a fundamental requirement, whether the financial side of running a hospital to structural decision-making (Alam &Alabudlaali, 2015).
As such, a hospital’s strategic plan (described as a blueprint that outlines the implementation of the hospital’s mandate and functions over a definite but relatively more extended period) creates room for more efficiency across all aspects of running the organization regardless of its size. Put differently, strategic planning in healthcare entails formulating objectives and setting goals for where a firm would like to go in years to come, like a period of three to five years, and then developing a plan to achieve the objectives envisaged.
Consequently, Part 1 of this essay summarizes the analysis of a healthcare organization’s strategic plan. The Michigan Medicine Strategic Plan (2019-2024) is the healthcare organization to achieve this goal. The paper leans towards the hospital’s marketing plan for adult specialty care in diabetes and endocrinology, where MM was ranked #10 in the Nation.
Overarching Description of the Healthcare Organization
Michigan Medicine is recognized as home to one of the largest healthcare systems in Michigan and beyond. The University Hospital boasts of an 11- story, 550- bed hospital that opened its doors in the mid- 1980s and is the Health System’s hospital for patients aged 18 years and above.
The facility sits on about 1.8 million square feet where the hospital’s diagnostic equipment, clinical laboratories, operating rooms, inpatient and intensive care units are located. Ever since the Medical School was founded in 1850, Michigan Medicine has witnessed significant groundbreaking advancements in medicine and healthcare technology. Most importantly, the Strategic Plan (2019-2024) endeavors to continue with the University of Michigan Medical School, a nationally recognized academic medicine leader in America (UMMS, 2021).
The strategic plan incorporates MM’s mission that concisely seeks to transform health through bold and innovative education, discovery, and service. The MM’s vision is to make discoveries that change care and offer care that changes lives. This roadmap comprises five strategic pillars that touch on the people, discovery, education, patient care, and service. The first pillar borders on the people and concentrates on the system’s most valued asset.
The University’s faculty, students, and staff are guided by the tripartite mission of education, research, and patient care. Some of the strategies to be applied are building a supportive and inclusive culture that all people feel valued and thrive. Another method is to invest in people by offering them professional development opportunities to realize the most significant potential. Several tactics are also integrated, like incorporating Michigan Medicine’s mission, vision, and values into the organizational processes.
The discovery pillar envisions the creation of transformative knowledge that advances science while simultaneously improving health. Likewise, the education pillar cultivates a learning community that participates in bold and innovative education to promote science, health, and healthcare delivery. The patient care pillar dedicates itself to the delivery of outstanding patient care. It enhances the health of populations at the local, state, national, and global stages while caring for each other.
Lastly, the Michigan Medicine service pillar requires that all stakeholders engage and collaborate in serving the health care needs of regional, national, and international communities. The organizational goals of Michigan Medicine are captured in its core values of caring, innovation, inclusion, integrity, and teamwork. For example, every worker’s goal is to treat every individual with dignity, kindness, and respect m besides promoting the well-being of self and others.
Brief Description of critical products and services of Michigan Medicine
Michigan Medicine is one of the leading healthcare organizations and a premier academic medical facility comprising the UM Health System, UMMS, biomedical research communities, and Michigan Health Corp. MM perennially features in Honors Rankings for its specialty care services to both adults and pediatrics. These include cancer, cardiology & heart surgery, and urology. The facility also offers specialty care for geriatrics, Ear, Nose, & Throat, and, Neurology and Neurosurgery.
It is important to note that the facility was ranked # 10 in diabetes and endocrinology in the Honors Roll 2021- 2022 (US News and World Report, 2021). The US News and World Report evaluate hospitals for their Best Hospitals for its annual list by rating the facilities using several measures that include but are not limited to commitment to patient safety, high-quality patient care, and clinical resources.
The favorable national rankings of Michigan Medicine are a clear testimony that this organization continues to live up to its mission of transforming health through bold and innovative education, discovery, and service. Similarly, its vision of making discoveries that change care through evidence-based medicine and healthcare practice and then deliver care that changes patients’ lives for the better.
Description of the Marketing Opportunities for the Organization Based on the Organization’s Strategic Plan and Adult Diabetes and Endocrinology as the Service to Focus the Marketing Plan
From the outset, it should be noted that the five-pillar strategic plan highlighted in an earlier part of this paper offers a wide range of marketing opportunities premised on the strategies and tactics outlined for each pillar. For example, the people pillar could target geriatrics care where like the learners there are trained on how to be committed to self-improvement.
Other marketing opportunities for adult patients include patients diagnosed with cancer, heart or cardiovascular conditions requiring surgery, and gastroenterology and GI surgery. The pediatric patient population also has marketing opportunities in neonatology, pediatric cancer, and pediatric cardiovascular and heart operations specialty services.
As captured in Michigan Medicine through the Strategic Plan (2019-2024) of UMMS, the Service Pillar espouses the engagement and collaboration with MM’s institutional, local, state, national and global communities to advance health and science. One of the patient populations that offer the MM with a wide range of marketing opportunities. According to Weller et al. (2017), diabetes is among the top cause of new cases of blindness, non-traumatic amputations, and kidney failure.
Michigan Medicine has the opportunity to market DSME services to patients to embrace healthy self-management practices like adherence to medication, self-monitoring blood glucose, exercise, and diabetes-friendly food intake. Successful healthcare marketing requires that the marketing executive addresses the marketing mix of product/ service, price, place, and promotion.
A vital consideration is deciding which type of diabetes is targeted since they are of various kinds. It will be Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, gestational diabetes, or juvenile diabetes. Alternatively, the role played by non – non-modifiable risk factors and modifiable factors need to be also considered. Armed with this information, the healthcare providers at Michigan Medicine can then decide what to incorporate in an appropriate mobile health care application (Adu et al., 2018).
Three Key Competitors to Michigan Medicine and Where They Are Located
Like any other healthcare organization, Michigan Medicine encounters competitors, and alternatives exist, meaning that failure to develop a successful healthcare marketing plan would see the facility driven to healthcare oblivion. Some of the leading competitors are Englewood Health, John Hopkins, and Detriot Medical Center.
Englewood is a significant competitor that was founded in Englewood, New Jersey, in 1890. Like MM, it has a teaching hospital and has a 280-bed capacity. John Hopkins is another top competitor located in Baltimore, Maryland, and has a checkered history dating back to 1889. The third and last of the competitors listed herein is DMC, located in Detroit, Michigan.
How the DSME Mobile Health App Offered By MM Service Differs From Two Competitors’ Offerings, and the product Fits into MM’s Strategic Plan
Contemporary management of both types of diabetes (Types 1 & 2) enjoy mobile health apps to improve DSME. At Michigan Medicine, NexJ Health Coach is one such application available on Apple and Android operating systems. This application is free to download in both operating systems but requires a prescription and subscription.
The applications assist the patient in monitoring their blood glucose, HbA1c, carbohydrates, food prescription, exercise, and weight. In terms of the privacy policy, NexJ has one. Although the data is generally secure, the application tracks the users’ actions and safeguards third parties from retrieving data without authorization.
On the other hand, one of MM’s competitors uses mDiab, which like NexJ, is available in Apple or Android operating systems and helps track their BG, HbA1c, C/F, Rx, Ex.& Wt. However, the similarities end since the latter is only downloaded after purchase at about $5-$6.Moreover, mDiab does not have a privacy policy. The other MM competitor has opted to use GatherHealth as its mobile health app of choice.
This app is also available for both Apple, and Android smartphone uses, is free but requires a prescription and subscription-like NexJ besides monitoring the same self-management practice measures for T2DM. Be that as it may, Gather health differs from NexJ in that the former’s developer reserves the right to share, sell, transfer the license and convey some or all of the information collected on the platform.
The developer, though, does not disclose the patient’s identity or contact details. The NexJ mobile health app to manage T2DM through telehealth services fits MM’s strategic plan under the service pillar. The appropriate service metrics and evidence-based practices are bound to indicate the effect of service and value to MM and the communities it offers services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Part 1 of Michigan Medicine’s (MM) strategic plan (2019- 2024) analysis has determined that the strength of a strategic plan is a function of the approach used in its development. It has demonstrated the need for healthcare marketing executives to engage the leading stakeholders to have a fair analysis of the data analyzed and factual realities within the organization’s internal and external context.
The adult diabetes and endocrinology specialty services leaning towards T2DM diabetes self-management education and subsequent self-management practices. Additionally, Engelwood Health, John Hopkins, and DMC are identified as MM’s leading competitors. Finally, the NexJ mobile health app is bound to help achieve the service pillar as it threads through MM’s mission, vision, and goals for the next five years, lapsing in 2024.
Part 2: Marketing Plan
Section 1: Place of Service and Channels of Distribution
A competent healthcare marketing executive knows that a marketing plan is not a mere list of marketing ideas. One randomly selects different concepts to test or combine on a trial-and-error experimentation. Instead, an effective marketing executive is aware of service and the distribution channels to utilize.
Taking any other route spells doom for the marketing plan and is a sure recipe for a high-risk prescription for failure, frustration, and utter disappointment. As such, having a well-designed marketing plan means possessing a strategic document developed to facilitate the realization of specific business goals and objectives within a relatively shorter period, like one year.
Who the Services Are Being Sold To
T2DM is caused by a combination of resistance to insulin and relative iron deficiency. Recent studies indicate that T2DM prevalence increased age but decreased with a higher level of education. A study conducted by Menke (2015) indicated that the prevalence of diabetes in the US increased in all subgroups between 1988 and 1994 and that of 2011 and 2012.
According to the CDC Report on T2DM (2016), the prevalence of T2DM was almost 9% representing 21 million US adults, with the highest prevalence rate being registered among non- Hispanic blacks. Therefore, the mobile health application DSME services will be distributed to Non- Hispanic black communities living in urban counties in Michigan State.
The risk factors for T2DM are age, sedentary lifestyle, excessive weight, and previous gestational diabetes, amongst other factors. The current shortage of endocrinologists means primary care physicians play a crucial role in managing T2DM. The patient is generally advised to increase physical activities, lower their total calorie intake, receive weight loss and management counseling and regularly consult with a dietitian.
For several other reasons, MM should target selling the DSME services through a mobile healthcare app. The mobile healthcare app-enabled DSME protocol (mHADSMEP) targeting adult patients includes healthy eating, being active, monitoring blood sugar levels, adhering to medications, and reducing stress among members living in the selected urban county neighborhood of Michigan state.
What the Potential Reimbursement Levels Are, and What Organization Will Contract with the Healthcare Facility for the Services
Steinhardt (2015) notes that over 29 million Americans suffering from T2DM costs about $245 billion every year because the disease is a choric disease that leaves a significant physiological and psychosocial impact on the patient. The successful implementation of this marketing plan would decrease hospital readmission rates for T2DM patients within 30 days of discharge, amongst other positive patient outcomes.
Having reduced readmission rates and numbers at MM would see the facility get a financial incentive to make discharge communication and care coordination activities seamless for both caregivers and patients. According to Powers et al. (2016), the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, as envisaged by the Patient Protection and Affordable care Act of 2010 and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, means hospitals get penalized through the federal government payment cuts to facilities that have high readmission rates. Currently, CMSA measures hospital performance in HRRP by computing excess readmission rates for every program measure.
Mcllvennan et al. (2015) remark that hospital admissions are linked to unfavorable patient outcomes and high financial costs. As such, HRRP success is both a quality measure and a means to bending the healthcare cost curve. Michigan Medicine boasts several mobile healthcare apps like MyUof MHealth app found on its patient portal to manage one’s health information through a mobile device conveniently.
Others include the PreOp diet, Roller Buggy, and UMSkinCheck(University of Michigan Health, 2021). MM needs to partner with NexJ Health, a cloud-based population health management solutions provider located in Toronto. Canada. This organization delivers patient engagement solutions for chronic disease management used by patients, payers, providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and retail pharmacies.
Channels of Distribution for Marketing the Service
Coculescu et al. (2017) note that distribution channels in healthcare comprise all the locations in which medical units that range from medical offices, clinics, diagnostic and treatment centers, and hospitals are found. In these medical units affiliated with Michigan Medicine, medical services to T2DM patients are carried out. The distribution channels for marketing the DSME in a mobile health app will further include the 4Ps of product, promotion, price, and placement. The organization’s reach is expanded and therefore read to a growth in revenue.
The channel of distribution will focus on the needs of the end-users- namely, the T2DM patients. The DSME will be available online, where the organization can create an e-commerce website and fulfillment system. Prescriptions that used to require face to face interaction will be available through online ordering and delivery by mail.
The medical units will also have a specialized healthcare sales team to prospect and close deals directly with the patients referred. In a best-case scenario, the end-users will get the information and service they need before and after the DSME protocol has been affected.
How Online Ordering Of Prescriptions and Mail Delivery Cost-Saving Facts Impact the Pharmacy Services of a Healthcare Organization
In mail order, a healthcare professional sends the patient’s prescription to a mail-order pharmacy like pharmacy Advantage Mail-order medications for T2DM medications are cost-effective because mail–order services operate through the patient’s health plan since the patient’s insurer buys the medication in large quantities from the drug manufacturer at a lower cost (Schimittdiel et al., 2019). MM can encourage mail pharmacy ordering by ensuring patients do not have to wait in line in person or having to travel to the pharmacy to refill their medications.
Evaluation of the benefits and constraints of Mail Order Pharmacy distribution of T2DM Medications
The chronicity of T2DM means the patient has to take regular medications. One could have lower out-of-pocket costs offer greater convenience by having the patient’s prescriptions filled by mail. One of the benefits of using mail-order pharmacy is that it saves time and money since the doctor will prescribe a three-month supply by mail.
The patient will also enjoy personal attention and convenience since the mail order pharmacy offers the same high-quality service that a patient gets from the neighborhood pharmacies. It is delivered at the patient’s doorstep at no extra cost. Another advantage of formal order pharmacy is that the pharmacy has a state of the art dispensing with multiple quality checks for both safety and accuracy. The demerits of mail-order pharmacies include some online pharmacies being fake or lacking sufficient safeguards to protect personal and financial information.
The sites will; also infect the patient’s computer or mobile device viruses. They could also sell a patient’s personal information to rogue websites and internet scammers. Mail-order pharmacy relates to MM’s strategic plan through the service pillar as the patient will actively manage their T2DM condition by adhering to the MHA- DSME protocol. Although nonlinear pricing models and fixed pricing models exist, these are not utilized at MM organizations.
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Section 2: Pricing and Contracting Strategies
The MM uses linear pricing, which is a basic pricing model of its products and services. Galetsi et al. (2019) note that the price is as linear function of the quantity purchased in linear pricing. Similarly, different types of healthcare provider contracts require the provider to weigh their options as they are not created equally. Significant differences in the contract can affect the organization’s revenue, determine the firm’s success and patient outcomes. The two main types of health care contracts are a fee-for-service contract preferred at MM and a pre-determined person payment.
In the fee-for-service model, the providers receive their invoices for services they have offered. Each service’s cost is charged to the patient and their respective insurer by the provider. A significant advantage of the fee-for-service contract is that more tests and services lead to better patient outcomes. Another benefit is that there are chances of higher revenue for providers.
A significant drawback of the fee for service is having some uncertainty in revenue because the fee for service contracts is unpredictable. Under pre-determined per person payments, the provider receives a set of payments for each assigned patient to their care irrespective of whether they sought the said medical service.
How Price Might Be a Strategic Issue for the Organization
There are several roles of price in a healthcare organization as it creates an image for the product or service, generates revenue and income, and capture’s a market share to edge out its rival. At MM, the price of the DSME protocol is designed to act as an incentive to use the product.
The fact that NexJ requires one to have a prescription acts as a disincentive. MM may use pricing strategies like comparative pricing at the retail level, where the price is maintained relative to its leading competitors. The healthcare organization can use discount pricing for increased volume, cash the spot, and pre-payment fees. Under the MM strategic plan(2019-2024) Discovery pillar that seeks to create transformative knowledge that advances science and improves health, the price of the services offered will create a sustainable investment model that improves the patient’s care.
How Current Trends in Healthcare Are Impacting Pricing Strategies for the Product Or Service On Which You Are Focused
Top health care trends in the 2020s are the affordable care act, Medicaid expansion, prescription drug prices, and price transparency, amongst other trends. Under the Trump administration, an executive order was issued for HHS to publish prices that reflect what people pay and demands that healthcare providers and payers disclose the out-of-pocket costs (Sine & West, 2020). One of the positive results of this executive order is that information available to the consumer has increased, thus inciting the providers and payers to reduce their costs without compromising the quality of care.
How Competition Is Impacting Pricing of DSME for T2DM Services Offered
Every marketing executive worth their pay know that pricing is the most critical aspect of any organization. No other lever has a higher effect on increasing profits hence the need for marketing executives to understand the advantages and disadvantages of every pricing model. Under competition-based pricing, the firm in context sets its prices about those of its competitors.
This contrasts with other models like value-based or cost-plus pricing, where the price is dictated by analyzing other factors like consumer demand or the cost of production. Even though the competition in healthcare may be a pricing strategy, the organization must remain cautious in creating and implementing their competitive pricing strategies because overlooking small details in their day-to-day activities may see them lose the competitive advantage they enjoyed. Subsequently, a competitive pricing strategy requires establishing a market identity, adopting a proactive process to maintain profit margins, and engaging in meaningful interactions with the patient.
Section 3: Promotional Strategies and Techniques
Healthcare organizations may not have the luxury of jumping into the latest marketing bandwagon. This is because there are regulations on what the firm can or cannot say due to the sensitivity of their subjects and the online power. As such, healthcare marketing executives should be conversant with marketing promotion strategies and techniques. Besides social media, other promotional strategies include using messaging apps, test influencer marketing, and creating content for niche communities.
Despite the limited scope of this essay, other promotional techniques and strategies worthy of mention are the utilization of video marketing, increase in internal marketing, creation of lead buckets, and setting up digital signage. Using text messages means the target customer is likely to do it within minutes of being received. Having a suitable messaging app helps the patient to know of a scheduled appointment, amongst other things. The advantages of using messaging apps are that they are cost-friendly, the patient can save the message for later reference, and it can be opened immediately after the client receives it.
One drawback is that the number of words the sender can use may have an upper limit. The use of abbreviated words to squeeze in the information may distort the message, thus leading to miscommunication. Unlike in email, the sender may not have to reflect on the message before sending it, where one can review the draft before sending it.
Next is influencer marketing is a significant marketing trend in business to consumer brands who seek to increase validation for their products or services. Influences refer to individuals who have traditionally built up a community or audience premised on their brand. Influencer marketing has the advantage of helping the marketing executive to reach a relevant audience if one collaborates with the right influences for the brand. Another advantage of influencer marketing is that it is less expensive because targeting micro-influencers means one does not require a massive budget, unlike collaboration with celebrity influencers. The third advantage of using influencers is that it helps one nurture trust and build credibility; developing trust takes some time, and people trust the influencers they follow.
The disadvantages of using influencer marketing include that working with the wrong influencer will be more than reasonable. Another demerit of using influencer marketing is that mistakes can cost the healthcare brand being offered. There is no handbook for successful influencer marketing as most rely on their hits and misses. The third disadvantage is that it is difficult to measure results.
The third and last of the promotional techniques and strategies is the creation of content for niche communities. Provision of healthcare services is a highly personal act, and therefore, unless an issue affects one at a personal level, one is not likely to want any information about it. Most importantly, an effective marketing strategy focuses on a particular issue within a selected niche community. These include printing a checklist of symptoms, a short talk on condition management, or a career’s podcast for T2DM patients. One has to test various mediums for one niche community and upon the location of the one to roll out across the other patient groups in other areas.
As the name suggests, niche marketing endeavors to promote and sell products or services to target consumers in a narrower market. Adopting niche marketing means focusing on the resources available because it serves fewer customers than mass marketing. There is little competition because large organizations are less interested in entering these markets and have high loyalty turnover.
The organization specializes in satisfying the customer’s specific needs, thus creating a stronger relationship between the customers, the organization, and the healthcare brand being marketed. On the flipside, niche marketing has low economies of scale, demands product perfection, and has low barriers to entry. Product perfection is a downside because the marketplace requires the organization to develop perfect strategies and offer better solutions with limited prospects, meaning less room for error.
How Social Networking Could Be Tapped To Engage Customers for DSME for T2DM Patients
Researchers have conducted studies whose findings indicate that a substantial number of people would choose a healthcare provider based on their social reputation. These channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. Healthcare marketing executives can use several social media strategies to market their products and services. The first strategy is the use of brand advocates.
Under this strategy, the organization uses people who love the organization’s brand to promote the service. This context is marketing a mobile health application that promotes telehealth services and remote monitoring of DSME for adult T2DM patients. Social media strategy number two comprises the creation of an efficient content marketing strategy. If quality is critical, content is no exception.
Suffice it to say that content marketing can attract an organic audience by creating relevant hashtags to optimize the content. Lasting a marketing executive who is using social media could initiate the use of chatbots. The chatbots create a personalized experience for the organization’s customers where relevant adverts can be linked to the chatbots.
Section 4: The Marketing Budget
Master Marketing Budget for Michigan Medicine
For the first Quarter of the Year 2021
| Item | Jan-17 | Feb-17 | Mar-17 | |||
| Budget($) | Actual($) | Budget($) | Actual($) | Budget($) | Actual($) | |
| Market Research | 130.00 | 120.00 | 130.00 | 145.00 | 130.00 | 120.00 |
| Printing | 110.00 | 110.00 | 110.00 | 10.00 | 110.00 | 15.00 |
| Messaging applications | 180.00 | 165.00 | 180.00 | 150.00 | 180.00 | 135.00 |
| Consultation and Advertising costs | 120.00 | 118.00 | 120.00 | 125.00 | 120.00 | 116.00 |
| Publicity | 125.00 | 125.00 | 125.00 | 125.00 | 125.00 | 125.00 |
| Creative design | 110.00 | 110.00 | 110.00 | 110.00 | 15.00 | 10.00 |
| Recruitment | 1417.00 | 1457.00 | 1417.00 | 1457.00 | 1417.00 | 1457.00 |
| Hardware | 175.00 | 175.00 | 175.00 | 175.00 | 175.00 | 175.00 |
| Total |
The Hypothesis of Costs and Expenses
Based on the figures outlined in the budget, mailing expenses for the first quarter of the Year 2021 exceeded these budgets by $ 10, while the recruitment budget total expenses exceeded the set budget by $1200. This means that healthcare organization is trending over the budget for the first three months. What factors could have made this happen? Maybe a sharp video savvy job candidate negotiated a higher salary. The marketing budget covers the costs of advertising, promotion, and public relations. There was a cost incurred for direct mailing of the printed DSME materials and telemarketing. Marketing research.
Analysis of Two Current Trends That Might Impact the Marketing Plan of a Healthcare organization
A notable healthcare trend in the delivery of modern healthcare services is data automation. To achieve personalized engagement, a healthcare organization must have innovative use of reliable patient data that produces the all-rounded insights required to target the right consumer, maximize the payer mix, and develop a personalized patient journey. This trend led to a higher budgetary allocation for marketing research. Similarly, another healthcare trend positively impacting healthcare is the use of mobile health applications.
Over 90 percent of adults have access to a mobile phone at all times. This means the mobile health care campaigns significantly used the short messaging application to reach the target audience, adult patients diagnosed with T2DM. Designing mobile health campaigns means the developer has to keep critical elements in mind, like navigation that is easily scrollable using fingers and clickable CTAs (Lee et al., 2017). The significant budget vote for messaging recognizes the rapid proliferation and their subsequent deep penetration into society.
Section 5: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Marketing Plan
The best healthcare marketing executives proclaim that no marketing strategy or plan is ever complete as consumer trends and behaviors change. Therefore, the marketing team should continuously follow the data to see how their marketing campaigns are faring. However, the parameters of measuring marketing effectiveness remain a challenging task because of the difference that exists between impressions and engagement. To evaluate the effectiveness of a marketing plan selling a healthcare service, one has to combine a calculation of returns on investment (ROI) and insight into your public awareness of one’s healthcare brand. For one to evaluate an effective marketing plan, there are three variables that one must focus on.
Three Variables That Must Be Taken Into Account When Creating an Approach for Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Healthcare Marketing Plan
Thabit and Raewf (2018) note that the effectiveness of a marketing plan is measured by the short-term and long-term revenue generated by a campaign and by how well the cost of the company on customer acquisition is lowered during that campaign. These researchers further noted that all strategies to reach the target consumer have the overriding goal of promoting the healthcare organization, product, or services by increasing the satisfaction of consumers using a marketing mix. In this marketing mix is the 4Ps are price, place, product, and promotion. Therefore, the three variables that one has to consider when evaluating the efficiency of a marketing plan are that they have a message(s) the clients find relevant ad timely.
For example, in this case, the individuals will find the management of T2DM using telehealth and remoting monitoring worth their time and effort. Healthcare marketers also know that the first challenge to buying and selling a healthcare service occurs when the prospective customers do not get what one is selling and therefore cannot even buy it. The second value has measurable vehicles for disseminating the selected messages, such as monitoring one’s blood sugar levels and designing the messages.
Creating messages that resonate with the customers means one has to bridge the information gap between the provider and the customer. A rule of thumb should be that the clients are not going through if the patient cannot hear what one says. Lastly, the methods used should be easily and profitably convert prospects into customers. In marketing the T2DM specialty care, one has to factor in trial usage, online ordering, distribution network, and telesales.
Two Specific Measurements That Indicate Marketing Effectiveness for This DSME Service
Once the DSME plan has been implemented, two specific measures that will indicate the success of the telehealth DSME program are that there will be an increase in knowledge regarding T2DM among the patients who used the MHA-DSME program. There will be a pre-test and post-test on DSME. A secondary outcome measure will be a decrease in hospital readmission for 30 days after discharge. A significant group will be attributable to the implementation of the DSME program.
Three Data Sources That Can Inform Outcomes of Marketing Activities Regarding the DSME Service
Data for the marketing plan will involve interviews, telephone interviews, surveys and questionnaires, and probability sampling. The interviewer will ask a standard set of questions with nothing more than what is already outlined in the interview. Next will be surveys or questionnaires using online survey software. The surveys will be designed to legitimize the behavior and trust of the respondents. Lastly, probability sampling is another source of data where the sample will be randomly selected so that the researchers make a probability statement using the sample they have collected as the basis.
Conclusion
To sum up, this paper has determined that a healthcare marketing plan on a mobile healthcare application in adult patients diagnosed with T2DM is bound to reduce the incidence of T2DM patients. It is expected that the intervention will see an improvement in provider compliance and management of T2DM. The successful implementation of the intervention will translate to the adoption of T2DM MHA-DSMEP across hospitals, not just Michigan Medicine.
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