Marketing Control and Marketing Standardisation Strategies

Question: Discuss the marketing plan for TIC Hospital. Answer: Introduction A marketing plan is an extensive record or plan that layouts an organization's publicizing and promoting endeavors for the coming year. It portrays business exercises required in fulfilling particular developing destinations inside a set time span. This report summarizes the Marketing Plan for TIC Hospital. It covers developing technique, showcasing strategies, achievement measurements, and financials. All real advertising exercises are abridged and depicted in the Marketing Activities area for snappy reference Market Summary TIC, i.e., Transitional Infant Care is a unit which takes care of prematurely born babies in the hospitals around the country("The European Market Executive Summary", 2001,p. 5-8). Since this healthcare unit has been founded with the motto of helping the babies and their families to overcome the deadly health issues, they have that required facility, and also they have their name with the collaboration of the other few hospitals for referrals. They have asked those hospitals for the referrals to the TIC eligible babies but in recent years as the collaborative hospitals have developed their facilities and different healthcare unit, they have lessened the number of references to the TIC. It has become a threat to the hospital as the lack of proper marketing strategy is leading them towards the end of it. A good marketing strategy is required to overcome the issue and to get as many patients possible to become the leading healthcare unit for the babies(Cohen , p.46). Target markets: In this case, the target markets should be different hospitals who dont possess that advanced facilities as well as the hospitals who are offering the same care at higher rates. Since TIC provides their assistance to the babies and their parents as well at a very nominal charge if compared to the market rates, so if the marketing strategy presented revolves around the comparison of the rates and percentage of care and atmosphere, then the targets may be achieved successfully(Lout, 2003, p. 719-719). Market Demographics Since demographics in marketing refers to the age, gender, income level, race, and ethnicity, TIC needs to do a proper market survey to identify the targeting and segmenting audience. Through the years, the demographic condition has changed as it changes with the population over time, and that is why proper marketing planning is needed to reach more audiences so thatno more TIC should depend on upon the referrals from the other healthcare units for patients entirely(Arnott and Casscells, 2003, p. 20-29). Because through the years, the other healthcare groups who previously give referrals to TIC, have developed the facilities and now they can provide almost same premises to the patients, and due to that reason, they now don't bother to give referrals any more. This situation has to be stopped with the help of new marketing services using technology to reach to the target audience well in time. Advertising the facilities with the aid of television, email, social media, and phones can b e of great help to highlight the reason to choose TIC for the babies(Chang and Thorson, p.75-84). Market Needs Previously TICs founder Ron David believed in the referrals from the known healthcare professionals, but now due to the development of the other healthcare units, it has come to a point that no other hospitals are giving referrals to TIC. So to cope up with the situation, firstly it is important to know what the market needs. In any sector, the market demands good quality and quantity at an affordable price, so if TIC highlights its cost feature to the audience, then it may become a fruitful reason(Berkhout, Hartmann and Trott, 2010, p.474-490). Now facilities are all same in the hospitals of that area, but the costing factor is different, and this should be the most highlighting point for the marketing. Market trends Every time the market trend follows the need of the ordinary people, as they are the most valuable element to reach the highest level of success. Now with the advent of technological use in the marketing strategy, email marketing, social media marketing, SEO marketing are the most used marketing plans in this era (Muradolu and Aydoan, p. 41-60). Because these are the easiest and cost effective way of marketing and like any other NICU hospital have started to advertise a television commercial to reach their target audience, TIC also announces their highlighted features and the whole healthcare set up to impress the goal audience. Market Growth The proper growth of TIC is only possible if some investments are made for more planned and designed facilities which can be provided to the patients. To grow more, TIC should advertise their success stories with the consent of the patient parties to let the other people know about the first ever made healthcare unit especially for the premature babies in Pittsburg. Relationships with NICU staffs have helped to get referrals previously but now targeting the right audience will do more good to TIC as this will be beneficial on the account of getting thedirect patient("Identifying Growth Opportunities In The European Market", 2003, p. 29). With the help of the advertisements, the families who are facing some problem regarding the babies, will get to know the place where should they go. Marketing Objectives The marketing objectives of TIC should be: To have a separate marketing department with the marketing personnel who can look over the marketing budget plans. The separate office will help to differentiate the responsibilities of the marketing and nursing staff, and then both can follow up their duties well(Shipley, p.48-56). Advertise through television, newspapers, emails, social media; SEO marketing should be done to get hold of a position in the market. Promotional events should be conducted in mostly populated locations, to reach to more audiences. After every promotional event, brochures and leaflets should be given to focusing more on the services offered by TIC. With the help of SEO and SEM website should be launched so that the person in need for assistance could contact easily. The site should contain proper information about the services as well as the contact details (Gaubitz and Thesmann,14-21). To enhance the financial condition of TIC, charity functions along with some sponsorships can help the organization to go ahead a long way. As through this, they can enhance their financial condition and can also make good investments for their more advanced infrastructure. Expanding of the market position will help to deliver excellent service to the people as expanding will provide more confidence in the financial aspect and thus will help in the betterment of TIC. SWOT Analysis Firstly, TIC have a high point for marketing its service, and that is its costing feature since it costs much less than any other NICU healthcare unit, it can highlight the value feature as its strength(Flacking et al., 2013, p.107-112). Secondly, due to lack of advertising and marketing strategy, TIC is failing to fill up its ten beds. More attention should be given to the point of marketing to acquire more audience. Thirdly, it can provide an excellent opportunity to the families of the babies by giving them proper care tour and can give few more facilities for the ease of the parents while staying in there. Lastly, lack of marketing planning may lead TIC to get a threat of closing the whole unit, because the other NICU hospitals are taking advantage of the advertising its features which tend to be amore useful point to them. So it is necessary to advertise with a proper planning to reach to the target audience("Target Audience", p.229). Competition Competition between TIC and the other NICU hospitals should be more. Previously, these NICU hospitals used to give referrals to TIC but now they have developed the same facilities provided by TIC. That means they have developed their services to provide a perfect competition to TIC and by considering the same strategy, TIC should also work on the advertising section to give a proper game to the NICU hospitals. Moreover, this is the only way to compete, and securely hold the position in the market. Product/ Service Offering Highlighting the offers for the services should be maintained properly. The special offers and services of TIC are good enough to bring out the audience to consult them for their problem. But only due to the lack ofproper execution of the marketing plans, they become the sufferers(Chung). TIC offers various services starting from the initial decision to admit, parent tours, family decisions; final decisions to accept the baby, all the opportunities are given to the parents of the child. Besides, they take the responsibility of transferring the baby from the hospital to TIC, then admission, proper caregiving, selected staffs for care providers, parentsrole, and discharge planning, all the features are provided to the parents. Marketing Mix A marketing mix is a tool for business mainly used by the marketers to determine the brand's offer and services. Whatever TIC provides the services should be determined well so that they can be placed in a strong position in the market. Moreover, the marketers who will work for TIC should know the pros and cons of the organization so that the marketer can manage the whole situation well("THE MARKETING MIX: A REVIEW", 2014). The four P's that includes in the marketing mix should be maintained that is price, product, place, and promotion. That means theproper quality of service should be provided at an affordable rate with appropriate promotional events at an ideal location. Promotional events are very much helpful as many people came to know about the facility at one place, and it will be more useful if they are provided with some brochures of the services given at TIC(Constantinides , 2006,p. 407-438). Marketing Strategy For TIC, marketing strategy should be planned in such a way that the organization should catch hold of the exact number of audiences(Krstic and Basic, 2011, p.118-126). The biggest problem with the group is the lack of planning because the staffs and the director of TIC alwaysprovide their attention more towards the babies, the marketing for the team is also important so that more families get to know about the organization so that TIC could serve their service to more people. As TIC claims to provide better services at a lower price, this should be highlighted with the help of the advertisements and media marketing so that, more people came to know about the offers and they could use the facility when there is a need for it, or can recommend it to someone. Besides advertising the services through media, charity functions or events can be conducted along with some sponsorship to get a good amount for their betterment. They also can make events with the collaboration of some individual organizations to attract more people to buy tickets for the event, and also they can take help from any celebrities to come over for their event. As anyone has got an emotional side so doing, some charity will be a yes for everyone. The amount which will be collected after the event, a percentage can be given to the collaborative organization and the other portion of the collection can be used for the betterment of the infrastructure of TIC. To gain more patients, TIC can increase their costing feature a little to meet up the needs for the proper maintenance of the infrastructure. But the costing should be much inferior to any other NICU hospitals. Another point is to expand the TIC Empire to hold a strong position in the market, and it would help TIC to m ake necessary changes in their service to serve more people at once. And for expanding, proper marketing policy is required to be followed and with the help of that, TIC can grow like a huge tree within a year or so. The main motto of the organization should be the responsibility to offer better service than any other NICU hospitals as well as to marketing the organization and its features well to gain the attention of more people residing in Pittsburg. Also, TIC should focus on locating its exact target consumer base. After the consumer base has been located, the company should focus on creating content suitable for that group. 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