International Marketing in Healthcare Organizations

Introduction

International marketing strategic planning is one of the effective tactics for all the health and social care organisations, where through the promotional activities and other marketing mix strategic planning, the care homes are trying to promote their hospitals or nursing homes for retaining more individuals for better care and services, that will be effective for enhancing the quality of life and maximising of the wellbeing of the individuals in the society (Sampson et al., 2019). The aim of the study is to analyse the environmental factors, including political stability, social and economic factors, environmental and technological factors that influence the activities of health and social care organisations and the study also provides a scope to analyse the marketing tactics and develop a suitable planning for promoting the organisational services for the benefits of the patients.

Task 1: Marketing planning

1.1 Identifying the purpose of marketing planning

It is necessary for the multinational health and social care organisation to develop suitable marketing mix strategic planning in order to,

Maximise the patient care service by creating values for the patients

Deliver high quality health and social care service and treatment to all the individuals

Create values or overall social communities

Manage patients efficiently

Develop patient centred care by empowering all the individuals in developing appropriate care plan

Create strong patient base by retaining the individuals for the efficient treatment and quality care to secure future sustainable development of the organisation in the global health care service

1.2 Identifying the skills required to develop marketing strategies and planning

The major skills, required for developing appropriate marketing planning are such as,

Problem solving skill in order to identify the existing problems in the organisation and develop proper tactics to promote the organisation in the international level

Critical analysis skill, which is necessary for analysing the present situation of the organisation and develop effective marketing strategy

Inter personal communication skill for sharing the organisational activities and goals and expecting different decisions from the colleagues for developing proper marketing planning

Collaborative skill for developing partnership working practice in order to analyse the market of health and social care and target the patient group for retaining them for better service and support

Decision making skill which provides a scope to make effective decision for the benefits of the firm where the organisational staff can collaborate and develop effective marketing strategy to fulfil the above mentioned strategic objectives

Task 2: Analysing the marketing environment influencing the health and social care organisation

2.1 PESTLE analysis for health and social care organisation

PESTLE analysis is appropriate for understanding the external health and social care market across the globe.

2.2 Analysing competitor’s strategies, strengths and weaknesses

Competitors strategic planning is necessary to be analysed for developing the marketing strategic planning of the multinational health and social care organisation, where the model of Porter’s five forces is effective to evaluate the competitors in the market and their strategies in developing strong patient base for future success (Benfer, 2015). As per the Porter’s five forces model, there are five forces which are threats of new entrants, threats of substitute products, competitive rivalry and bargaining power of the supplier and customer’s bargaining power.

After competitor analysis, it is possible to conduct SWOT analysis, which is effective to analyse the internal strengths and weaknesses of the firm as well as assess the market opportunities and threats in the context of health and social care service.

Through the above mentioned SWOT analysis, it is possible to understand that, the major strengths of the multinational care home are string presence among the patients where the satisfaction of the patients are maximised well by delivering quality care and efficient treatment. Apart from that, strong information system and technological advancement further help the organisation to manage the patient systematically and create values for all of the individuals (Fitter, 2016). The major weaknesses are such as high turnover rate, lack of clinical experts and poor staff development policies which may deteriorate the service quality of the care home. As per the market, there are some opportunities which are high aging population, increasing the critical diseases among the individuals and strong information technology up-gradation which provides a scope to the firm to target the population in the market and retain them for better care and efficient treatment.

2.3 Analysing the factors increasing the demand for the health and social care service

There are different factors contributing positively in raising the demand for the health and social care service, which are growing aging population and the growing economy, where people are earning more and they prefer efficient treatment and quality care for better living condition and improving their wellbeing. In addition to these, increasing the awareness through health promotional campaigning and sharing information for better living activities are also influencing to rise the demand for quality care from the health and social care service providers. Additionally, the factors such as growing medical tourism, increasing investment on the health and social care and shifts in disease towards critical disease due to high pollution and unhealthy living style are contributing in increasing the demand for the health and social care service (Nowak et al., 2015). Apart from that, the quality of care and efficient treatment further attract the audiences in the country to get proper support and secured treatment for overcoming their health issues and living a normal life like others.

2.4 Evaluating main factors and forces reducing the demand for health care

There are few factors, which decrease the demand for health and social care service such as increasing cost of the treatment and effective care, lack of equipments and mistakes happened by the non-clinical staff members and increasing policies and litigations for which there is decrease in demand for the health and social care service in the market, where some of the individuals cannot access the health and social care service due to high difficulties, lack of knowledge in online activities and high cost of treatment.

Task 3: Identify the process of brand development, pricing, communication and marketing implementation

3.1 Major steps of developing and launching new service

In order to promote the organisation in the global health care sector, it is necessary to develop new services and launch it properly in the market. For becoming a successful organisation in the health and social care sector, it is necessary for the organisation to create a business plan and register the tactics of managing the health care service, where the organisation needs to focus on hiring adequate staff members and getting the clients properly. It is also necessary to reallocate the organisational resources and invest proper financial assets in different planning for successful growth plan (Fine, 2017). In this regard, the organisation need to focus on promote the organisation by developing effective marketing planning, so that the customers can understand and identify the new services, provided by the organisation. In this regard, the new service of lower cost of treatment for the people under below poverty line and emergency care service are one of the great initiatives to retain the audiences and create social values. It is beneficial to create values for the individuals and help them to get first-aid treatment and emergency care free of cost. This is a new service innovation, where the organisation needs to launch this through distributing the leaflets of the hospital so that the individuals can access the service and acknowledge the quality of the service. Additionally, it is necessary to promote and launch the new service through health campaigning both offline and social media, where it is also possible to target the audiences and give them suitable care and treatment according to their health issues and personal preferences.

3.2 Major stages of product life cycle

There are four stages of product lifecycle, which are introduction, growth, maturity and decline, where the organisation needs to focus on maintaining the product life cycle for better product and service management. Introducing the above mentioned service in the market is mandatory, where the tactics of launching the services through distributing the leaflets and arranging free check up campaigning and social media campaigning are effective to promote the new innovative service and create values of the social communities as a whole. In this regard, after introducing the service, it is necessary to manage the growth, where the patients access the service and they are interested to get efficient treatment and care for maximising their wellbeing (Dunleavy et al., 2018). At the maturity stage, the sale is at peak stage and the organisation can compete with other firms and gain profitability and sales volume. After that, decline stage happens, where the sale for the new service may fall due to existing competitor and substitute health care services, available at the health care sector.

3.3 Evaluating the steps of setting initial price

The steps of setting the initial price are identifying he target audiences, conducting market research, identifying the business goals, executing pricing strategy and setting price effectively for new services. In this regard, the target audiences of the organisation in this regard are the individuals who seek immediate care and support and the goal of the organisation is to support the social communities with efficient treatment care and treatment at lower cost, so that all the members can afford the treatment successfully. After analysing the target audiences and business goals, the leader set the lower price for the treatment and health care services for the individuals, who seek immediate are and support with first-aid services, where pie penetration strategy is effective for the brand as penetration pricing indicate that the business sets lower price for the services to serve a wide range of the individuals in the society (Flora, Schooler and Pierson, 2018).

3.4 Identifying major elements for marketing communication process in health and social care sector

For enhancing marketing communication, the organisation needs to focus on social media, which is an effective two way communication platform where the patients and the health care professionals can interact with each other positively.

Television and media advertisement is another major tool for improving the marketing communication.

Health promotional campaigning through social media or the arranging program at the hospitals is another effective way to interact with the people and promote the efficient services of the organisation (Goldberg, Fishbein and Middlestadt, 2018).

Managing public relations, sending direct mail to the patients and telephonic communication are other ways to improve market communication for the health and social care organisation.

3.5 Identify main steps to implement marketing plans

The major steps to implement the marketing planning are,

Setting the gaols and vision of the business

Building the human resource by providing training to the staff members for handling the patients at the organisation

Reallocating organisational resources and investment of financial resources.

Building timeline of the task and setting up tracking method for evaluating the performance of the staff.

Promoting the services in the market for attracting the target audiences.

Communicate with the individuals across different social communities through advertisement and social media.

Creating health promotional campaigning for establishing the innovative service for the benefits of the society as a whole.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the organisation needs to focus on launching the new innovative services in the market to attract the audiences and give them efficient treatment and care after proper diagnosis of their health condition. Developing patient centred care, hiring clinical experts and staff as well as improving marketing communication through social media advertisement, television and media coverage, public relations and health promotional campaigning are effective for establishing the organisation at the international health care sector.

Reference List

Benfer, E.A., 2015. Health Justice: A Framework (and Call to Action) for the Elimination of Helath Inequity and Social Justice. Am. UL Rev., 65, p.275.

Dunleavy, L., Walshe, C., Oriani, A. and Preston, N., 2018. Using the ‘Social Marketing Mix Framework’to explore recruitment barriers and facilitators in palliative care randomised controlled trials? A narrative synthesis review. Palliative medicine, 32(5), pp.990-1009.

Fine, S.H., 2017. Marketing the public sector: Promoting the causes of public and nonprofit agencies. London: Routledge.

Flora, J.A., Schooler, C. and Pierson, R.M., 2018. Effective health promotion among communities of color: The potential of social marketing. In Social Marketing (pp. 353-373). London: Psychology Press.

Goldberg, M.E., Fishbein, M. and Middlestadt, S.E., 2018. Social marketing: Theoretical and practical perspectives. London: Psychology Press.

Guzovski, M., Smoljic, M. and Blazevic, L., 2016. Impact of social marketing on national programs for prevention and response in Vukovar. Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceedings, p.208.

Nowak, G.J., Gellin, B.G., MacDonald, N.E. and Butler, R., 2015. Addressing vaccine hesitancy: the potential value of commercial and social marketing principles and practices. Vaccine, 33(34), pp.4204-4211.

Sampson, E.L., Feast, A., Blighe, A., Froggatt, K., Hunter, R., Marston, L., McCormack, B., Nurock, S., Panca, M., Powell, C. and Rait, G., 2019. Evidence-based intervention to reduce avoidable hospital admissions in care home residents (the Better Health in Residents in Care Homes (BHiRCH) study): protocol for a pilot cluster randomised trial. BMJ open, 9(5), p.e026510.