Overview
As an established company, New City Home Care is seeking to grow its facilities into the bordering community. While the community’s population is much smaller than the current location’s population at 55,000 people, the proportion of the elderly is rising rapidly. Even with the dynamics, no residential health care organizations exist in the city. As such, New City is taking advantage of the opportunity to expand its business. Proper market research is essential in ensuring the success of the new venture. Establishing a satellite office will need getting the proper personnel, including the health care professionals, as well as the customer service/ scheduling staff. The number of staff will depend on the service demand in the new facility, the amount of space needed, and the level of marketing necessary. With the developed marketing plan, the organization will have an overview of the new venture and the approaches that it should espouse for it to succeed.
Historical Trends and Strategic Plan
The relevant trends for this organization costs, use, and demand for the home health care services. History also provides an outline of the lifestyle of the individuals living in the region and their previous methods of older adults’ health care. The study will explain the changing dynamics regarding how older adults are cared for and what is expected from any new entrant. For instance, if the community primarily used community groups to nurture older adults at home or offer a place where older adults can meet and offer each other support, they may not easily buy into the idea of having residential services around for older adults. As part of the tradition, younger family members are sometimes left with the responsibility of taking care of older adults. In other cases, older adults can take care of themselves without seeking help from anyone else (Landers et al., 2016). The marketing strategy is different for each situation.
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The history also facilitates the understanding of the preparations that people make when young to guarantee a comfortable retirement. After the trend is identified, a comparative analysis with the company should be done to establish if they are in alignment based on the type of customers that the organization is anticipating and the gap that the company if filling. With this information, the marketing department will establish the marketing strategies that will have the most influence on the targeted consumer’s decisions even when they have traditionally taken care of older adults.
Concerning the marketing plan, details on historical trends are key since the marketing plan should target the correct market while offering them the care and services that they need. The demand for services is never static, and issues such as price and population demographic changes dictate the demand for services; third-party payers exist are likely to influence the pricing (Landers et al., 2016). Service distribution is key to the success of the new satellite office. The organizations’ current market is somewhat elastic regarding demand, and the new market is likely to be the same.
The cost of service delivery is also a key factor in home health care ventures. The factor influences the decisions made about the level of services offered as well as the services offered. Many older adults are keen on knowing the available services. For instance, they may be interested in occupational therapy, physical therapy, IV care, nursing care, or basic care. Unless the demand is high, providing some of these services may be expensive due to the cost of staffing and hiring the certified and skilled health care workers in each of these areas (Landers et al., 2016). As such, the company must research on the present market and attempt to envisage the services that would be highly demanded by the new market to ensure that only the appropriate services are marketed.
Lastly, co-branding or consumer referral to get more services such as therapy can be an arrangement that has mutual benefits. The company may have to create protocols for a referral to specific centers that provide extra services. This arrangement is beneficial for both companies, even when the nursing home provides only home health care.
Demographic Data
Demographic data includes information about the gender, education, socioeconomic status, age, and size of the household, among others. With these details, the organization will appreciate the type of population in the new market, their lifestyle, socio-economic activities, and financial ability (Lombard et al., 2018). The details will also be employed to establish the scope of the targeted consumers and the trend based on the present aging population. For the case of New City Care Home, it will utilize the demographic facts to assess the older adults’ population in the new market. The company will also assess the trends in the future of the older adults’ population in the area and the possible changes that the market will experience. It is important to gather the demographic data for both the older and the younger population for a better understanding of the trends, which will guide the company in making strategic decisions. The data will also help the company evaluate the population’s ability to afford the services offered (Lombard et al., 2018). Evaluation of the utilization of modern technology, including the electronic mails, social media, smartphones, and the internet among the targeted older adult populace, will inform the marketing team on the best way to access the target audience.
Quality Standards
The market research has to evaluate the ability of the organization to uphold quality after expanding in the new market and stay in alignment with the customer’s expectations and the authority’s requirements (Hoyle, 2017). As expected, the home of care may have various health requirements of the targeted consumers. They range from regular checkups for individuals with chronic health issues to typical medical services. The home care should also offer social needs services to the older adult in their day-to-day lives via quality care.
The new center should be accessible by older adults. It should also be well equipped with certified caregivers, and establish a working arrangement with referral health care facilities where the clients can be referred to in case of an emergency. The satellite office should cater to the emotional, psychological, social, physical, and day-to-day requirements of the older adults while ensuring that services provided are of high quality. The individual needs of the older adult population should determine the quality standards.
Marketplace Analysis
Understanding the market and its dynamics can be achieved by evaluating the target consumers’ willingness to use the organization's services and what value they place on such services. The market research will concentrate on establishing if the community understands the essence of older adults’ residential care and their opinion on the services. The assessment can include evaluating the caregiver, guardians, family members, or the older adults’ attitudes towards home health care. It will also include establishing the targeted consumers’ readiness to release their family members into home health care and remunerate for the offered services.
The analysis will also include the evaluation of the competitor in the market. Presently, there are no home health care facilities in the area, but the community members could be using alternative services to ensure the older adults are well taken care of. The organization should pay attention to these alternatives since they are directly in competition with it. Other competitors would include companies incubating a similar idea of venturing in the future. The organization should be evaluated, and its possible impact on the organization’s future operations measured.
Model and Best Practices for Accessing the Targeted Customers
In this case, the marketing model would concentrate on accessing older adults who are the targeted consumers. Therefore, it should be based on a superlative communication method, written or verbal, or they provide help when required (Todor, 2016). The model should also put accessibility into consideration. The selected communication models should be fully accessible to the targeted consumers. Therefore, the marketing team should concentrate on the areas where it is easier to access older adults, which can include religious and spiritual places like meditation centers, churches, and medical facilities.
The assumption made is that the target population entails older adults, who have retired in recent times, or they are almost retiring; hence, they can read or write. Using banners with well-articulated messages placed in these areas will pass across the information to a wider audience. Healthcare providers in the area are also another powerful tool that the marketing department can use to access the target audience. The healthcare providers can be asked to refer individuals that may require specialized care that can be offered at home to the new facility. The design’s key objective should be to access big numbers of clients, and ensure that they completely comprehend the services that the company offers as well as their importance.
Recommendations in Alignment with the Organization’s Strategies
The company offers nursing care and therapy services to the older adults’ population. As such, the designed marketing strategy should be keen on drawing in these older adults who are looking for additional services on nursing care and therapy that are not presently offered in their residences (Todor, 2016). The marketers should ensure that the actual nursing care and therapeutic services are offered in the company to ascertain that the promotion outcomes do not overstretch the company with situations beyond its manageability. For instance, older adults who need hospice care may be quite challenging to manage when compared to older adults who need nursing care because of age-related issues. Proper communication modes should be employed to make sure that the message reaches the targeted audience (Todor, 2016). Additionally, the message communicated should be apt, perceptible, simple, visible, and straightforward.
Writing Plan and Setting Anticipations
The introduction of the marketing plan will include marketing research’s goal and mission. The marketing research’s goal will be to determine the viability of the nearby town for the establishment’s extension. The market research stratagems will concentrate on evaluating the population demographics as well as the likely competitors (Aquila, 2016). The population’s disposition to adopt the service that the organization is offering will also be assessed. The next objective will relate to defining the target clients and establish the approaches to use in accessing them. Marketing strategies will be utilized to make sure that the company effectively accesses the majority of targeted clients (Aquila, 2016). With efficient marketing strategies, the company will attract a wider number of consumers within the initial week of operation in the new location. The provision of quality services is a marketing strategy that the company will leverage to build confidence in the facility and encourage enrollment of an increasing number of clients in the immediate future.
Plan Implementation
The plan implementation will commence by finding the most appropriate place to launch the satellite office. With the location already known, the marketing team will work on advertising the residential care facility through television adverts, newspapers, radio, flyers, and banners to notify the targeted populace of the newly opened facility with nursing and therapeutic facilities for older adults (Todor, 2016). Electronic media will also be employed to communicate with older adults and their caregivers. Social media is also an effective marketing platform that will be leveraged as the organizations target the older adults’ children or grandchildren that may be looking for help with their older relatives as well as older adults who have embraced social media.
However, traditional advertising methods will primarily be used since the target audience is primarily older adults who are may not be necessarily internet-savvy and would rather interact with traditional methods of advertisement that they are accustomed to and trust (Todor, 2016). The impact of these marketing approaches will be reviewed after some time to determine their effectiveness and make changes if necessary. The service provision at the facility will start as soon as the customers start coming. During the marketing plan implementation, all departments in the organizations will be actively involved, from the marketing department to operations and the human resources, to ensure that the center is running effectively.
Tools for Evaluating and Adapting the Plan
After the implementation of the plan, it is important to evaluate the adopted strategies to ensure that every element is effective and working optimally (McDonald, 2016). With the information gathered, the company can develop a plan that will build the business. Various tools can be employed in establishing the effectiveness of the applied marketing plan. One of the evaluation implements is the clients’ register book. The new center needs to have a registration book where all first-time visiting clients register and are provided with the customer identification number (McDonald, 2016). As a marketing plan evaluation tool, the register book provides information on the customers' flow, which is a direct indicator of whether the strategy is successful, or some improvement is needed.
Another measure of the marketing plan’s success relates to the headcount of the older adults that are received at the company’s facility. Financial tools also provide an overview of the marketing plan’s success (McDonald, 2016). The cash in-flow that the company is getting from the facility or the entire amount of generated revenue for a specified duration can be utilized in establishing if the promotion plan is effective or not. If the clients refer more people to the center after experiencing the quality services, it can also be regarded as a contributory factor to the success of the marketing activities. Healthcare’s marketing departments regard the quality of services as a marketing strategy. As such, if the facility provides high-quality services and the clients are impressed, they will advertise the center through word of mouth to their family members, neighbors, and friends, thus, growing the client flow into the facility. Therefore, it would also be key to inquire from the patients how they learned about the center.
With this information, the organization can eliminate ineffective marketing strategies and optimize the relevant ones. The outcomes of the marketing activities are measured against original targets and objectives (McDonald, 2016). More attention should be placed on expensive strategies to ensure a worthwhile return on investment. The market plan evaluation will be done after every three months to help refocus, modify, and introduce new objectives.
References
Aquila, A. J. (2016). The Marketing Plan: An Audit‐Based Approach. Bull's‐Eye! The Ultimate How‐To Marketing & Sales Guide for CPAs , 39-64.
Hoyle, D. (2017). ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook-updated for the ISO 9001: 2015 standard: Increasing the Quality of an Organization’s Outputs . Routledge.
Landers, S., Madigan, E., Leff, B., Rosati, R. J., McCann, B. A., Hornbake, R., & Lee, T. (2016). The future of home health care: a strategic framework for optimizing value. Home health care management & practice , 28 (4), 262-278.
Lombard, C. et al. (2018). Communicating health—Optimizing young adults’ engagement with health messages using social media: Study protocol. Nutrition and Dietetics, 75 (5): 509-519
McDonald, M. (2016). Strategic marketing planning: theory and practice. In The marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.
Todor, R. D. (2016). Blending traditional and digital marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V , 9 (1), 51.
