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Formative Evaluation in Marketing Plan Development

Formative evaluation (FE) draws upon various conceptions and impact practices from models, theories, and frameworks in education, social psychology, communication, and marketing. The value of this process stretches to the field of healthcare as well, where it proves helpful in various healthcare functions. One of those areas in which the significance of formative evaluation is profound and well-documented is marketing (Hillestad & Berkowitz, 2012). Comparable to the business meadow, in healthcare, it FE is highly applicable in the development of marketing plans (Cooper et al., 2011). Therefore, how is it applicable in instituting marketing plans? How can formative evaluation methods be incorporated in the design of health care services marketing plans, and how could this be important for the practice of health care administration?

Consider my marketing plan, which is designed to promote nutrition among teens, especially in middle schools. Data shows that teens form the economically active population and make the most nutritional mistakes leading to the high cases of obesity. In this case, formative evaluation methods would be useful in identifying the prospective clients for the nutrition promotion products that the company offers. My product strategy involves the positive impact that breakfast has on Continuous Assessment Tests scores and classroom behaviors. Contrarily, the pricing strategy entails costs and recommendations that will be helpful in lowering the barriers of implementing a Grab-N-Go breakfast. For instance, in case of student rejection, the school faculty can offer a variety of foods each day, and they can present foods in a manner that students find more attractive.

The plan also incorporates a placement strategy erected to guide the location that breakfast is sold and consumed in middle schools. The sales will minimize the amount of time needed to purchase while the consumption allows students to eat breakfast where they can interact with other students. My promotional strategy involves recommendations for promoting the program to various teens around the state. I think that we can use older teens and other high school students to promote regular breakfast consumption. In addition, in promoting the program, parents or teachers can use word of mouth, school websites and even signs placed in front of schools to reach out to students who are having trouble grasping the importance of the program. Furthermore, with the aid of the Alabama Department of Public Health, my plan can be successfully implemented.

In this plan, FE would be handy in two ways, namely (i) during the project set up and (ii) during the implementation of the plan. In the first case, FE would come in during the identification of requirements. In the first place, it would facilitate products’ target population identification. Effective marketing plans focus on manifold, specified audience segments (Hillestad & Berkowitz, 2012). Formative evaluation is expedient in ascertaining high-priority subdivisions by collecting information regarding the most relevant categories of individuals to the marketing goals. According to Miake-Lye et al. (2011), successful businesses heavily rely on understanding customers’ needs and offering them products and services that meet them. FE is applicable in drawing knowledge about these needs, consequently enabling firms to streamline their products and services as well as their goals alongside the lines of the needs. In my example, for instance, the strategy would help identify the able and willing nutrition interventions clients, and the option that appeals to most of them, as Miake-Lye et al. (2011) suggest. As such, one of the leading roles of FE in the development of marketing plans in healthcare is by identifying needs.

In the second case, FE would play an essential role in facilitating and enhancing the implementation of the marketing plan. My marketing plan, like many others, is comprehensive and sophisticated. Because of this factor, it contains functions that work and those that does not, as well as numerous unexpected outcomes. Such factors need monitoring and regulation unless they bring the whole plan down. FE would offer the solution to this quandary in my project. According to (Hillestad & Berkowitz, 2012), FE is virtually mandatory in processes that are prone to unexpected outcomes and where following and capturing successful feedback is difficult. The rationale is that FE enhances the implementation of projects. Thus, it would help enable my plan to achieve its anticipated outcomes.

The method would also be expedient in assessing, understanding, and addressing process changes in the plan. Cooper et al. (2011) aver that FE facilitates the understanding of virtually all process changes. The tool would facilitate the screening of not only what would be working and what would not be working but also pinpointing the actual reason for such consequences. In this way, the method would make the implementation of the project successful by pointing out faults and ironing them out.

All these make FE a pillar of marketing plan development and implementation in healthcare and afar. Its main advantage, arguably, is that it aids plans to achieve their outcomes effectively and successfully. In this connection, the tool brings about continuous improvement besides enabling future plans. FE is particularly useful for complex settings and projects as it refines composite interventions. The tool is involved in all stages of marketing planning, and this is what makes it the backbone of the process as well as other projects.

References

Hillestad, S. G., & Berkowitz, E. N. (2012). Health care market strategy: From planning to action (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Cooper R. L., Cloud R., Besel K., & Bennett A. J. (2010). Improving access to substance abuse treatment services for consumers with AIDS: A formative evaluation. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 7(1/2), 115–129. Note: Retrieved from Walden Library databases.