Marketing Plan Part D Powerpoint

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Part C: Sarah's Behavioral Center Marketing Plan

Your Name

MKT500 Marketing Management

Strayer University

Dr. Lisa Amans

Date submitted

Introduction (note this is not bold)

Pricing and Distribution Strategy

The business name is Sarah’s Behavioral Center and it provides high-quality treatment plans for behavioral services and mental health for adolescents and the youth. Therefore, a successful healthcare center must have pricing and distribution strategies. However, the distribution of health services is a complex process. The process involves the decisions concerning the time, place, and methods used in supplying the services. Concerning the business activities of Sarah's Behavioral Center, distribution and pricing strategy include all activities taking place in time and space separating the client from the service provider.

Pricing Strategy

The pricing strategy of Sarah’s Behavioral Center is complex because the healthcare sector is increasingly becoming consumer-focused, with the rising transparency, transitions from volume to value, and high-deductible health plans (Westwood, 2019). Healthcare providers also have a growing need or developing pricing strategy that improves market competitiveness. One example of a pricing strategy that can be adopted by Sarah’s Behavioral Center is penetration, which is a massive volume pricing strategy. Sarah’s Behavioral Center can start with minimum pricing instead of minimum pricing, then gradually increases it in parallel with the volume. Nonetheless, there is some level of risks that are associated with zero or little profit at the beginning of the operation. Again, it is a freeway for encouraging customers to take services offered by Sarah’s Behavioral Center, which will be provided by discounted experience purposely for creating customer loyalty experience. Therefore, it is upon the management of Sarah's Behavioral Center to put the services price list at the breakeven point, or minimum level, or at some point accept planned losses. At this moment, Sarah's Behavioral Center will not be targeting profit but attracting a new market share. The main aim is to put the price at the lowest level and then gradually increase it in direct proportion with volume.

The penetration pricing strategy is primarily designed to put the spotlight on Sarah’s Behavioral Center as a brand. The prices of the services offered by Sarah’s Behavioral Center will always start lower than what the competitors are offering. Once Sarah's Behavioral Center manages to achieve market penetration, it can rise to the equivalent pricing depending on the positive feedback received from customers. The management of Sarah’s Behavioral Center is expected to understand that in the market, the organization is not alone but in a wrestling arena. Sarah's Behavioral Center is surrounded by competitors who are taking punches and hitting them much quicker. Therefore, the organization must always be aware of the movements of competitors.

Moreover, competitive pricing is not that much different from penetration pricing. However, instead of targeting the market, the objective is to keep competitors away from the clients of Sarah’s Behavioral Center. In that case, the organization will be doing pricing at a competitive level with the competitors in the healthcare sector while keeping an eye on the customer's and competitors' reactions. Prices should also be moved based on the movements of price-sensitive clients. Loyalty to the brand can also keep clients who prefer staying within their budget. Unfortunately, it is good to be careful because such dangerous strategies can never last forever because there is a need to consider different business strategies adopted by competitors.

Distribution Strategy

Sarah’s Behavioral Center is operating in a sector where clients have more options than before. Again, with a lot of information available online, most clients no longer feel the need to visit the closest hospital even the one close to their location or several locations within the community (Kotler et al., 2). For that reason, it is imperative to have a budgeted and planned marketing plan for reaching new and returning clients at the best moment. Even if the management is happy with the current client volumes, marketing cannot happen without a planned distribution strategy for keeping the brand of Sarah's Behavioral Center at the forefront of clients' minds. Perhaps, the management of Sarah’s Behavioral Center is expected to think of the reasons why people might seek their services because it is not guaranteed that client volumes will be kept forever.

The services offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center fall in the healthcare sector and for that reason, the organization needs the actual materialization of its activities. The whole process involves the accomplishment of medical marketing and meeting the satisfaction of clients (Youths and the Adolescents). Again, the distribution of health services is ambivalent and is usually performed at the request of clients by either accessing the services within the center or by moving the provider of the services to the client if the case is needed at home. Whichever the case, it is important to understand that there is a strong connection between distribution systems and healthcare services because of the influence the service provider has on the client.

The distribution system to adopted by Sarah’s Behavioral Center should consist of the locations, where all the units for providing service are found. The critical role in the distribution strategy is that service provided is performed in the most beneficial and pleasant conditions for the target audience. For that reason, optimal distribution strategies should be similar to the ones in the marketing of goods and this normally takes into account several factors such as schedule, location of the medical unit, waiting periods, comfort conditions, and the needed facilities for service delivery. Establishing the needs of clients and addressing the target market is the starting point for an optimal distribution strategy. Knowing the expectations of the client help in selecting the most effective method of distributing medical services and taking into account the satisfaction received by the same client. The distribution strategy is also expected to be cost-effective because it is geared towards the creation of spaces that meet the needs of customers within the widest possible range. Accessing the services should be made as convenient and easy as possible.

Moreover, a distribution strategy is more concerned with how the customer will access or buy the services offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center. Distribution strategy is more concerned with the path to purchase and not advertising. Perhaps, it is the route to marketing the services offered by Sarah’s Behavioral Services. Therefore, when determining the correct distribution strategy, Sarah's Behavioral Center should take into account how clients will appreciate its services and the factors influencing the direction-specific services (Chernev, 4).

The distribution strategy should also be leverage on social media by using the right approach. Most of the services offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center rely on organic social media for larger marketing strategies. Organic social media implies posting updates, photos, and events more directly to YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Perhaps, this is a valid strategy for building the brand while let clients know what is new regarding the services offered by Sarah’s Behavioral Center. However, the use of organic social media should not be the only distribution strategy. The use of organic social media might be the best way to reaching the right people who are looking for services offered by Sarah’s Behavioral Center. Distribution strategy forms the core part of the marketing mix and that is all about how and where the service offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center will be accessed by customers. In this particular case, the distribution strategy will design the path taken by the service from the provider to the end-user. Whether the distribution of the services will be done online or physically, the management of Sarah’s Behavioral Center must define the personnel who will perform every function within the distribution channel.

Furthermore, it is imperative to understand that at Sarah’s Behavioral Center, the distribution channel is usually the path of referrals among the service providers. Therefore, the decisions made during the distribution of services are not under direct control by marketers of healthcare services. In this particular case, the channel length will be the number of people between the service provider and the end-user. Considering the issue of supply chain management, distribution decisions will directly affect costs, which will eventually affect the pricing strategy adopted by Sarah's Behavioral Center. Therefore, it is upon the management of Sarah's Behavioral Center to work well with the special elements of the marketing mix.

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated marketing communications is a process for conveying a unified message across different channels. The primary aim of integrated marketing communications is to drive higher customer engagement for services offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center. In that case, integrated marketing communications will attempt to meld aspects of communication in marketing like sales promotion, advertising, social media, direct marketing, and public relations. Here the integrated marketing communications will be based on message strategy and media strategy.

Message Strategy

The communication or message strategies adopted by Sarah's Behavioral Center aim at changing the knowledge of customers, attitudes, or their behaviors. Whether the message will be delivered through traditional or social media choices, it will reinforce positive behaviors, increase risk perception, increases the availability of the needed services, and influence social norms. The message can be delivered in three forms, which include written, non-verbal, and verbal communication. The idea is to be educating, informative, prompting, and persuasive.

Media Strategy

The capability of sharing information concerning the services offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center extends beyond the organization itself. With HTML digital and web-based signage, Sarah's Behavioral Center can share its digital screens with outside clients or participants through the internet. The whole process entails providing them with a simple web address for accessing the services offered by the organization. The digital signage will be used by the organization as a network for managing digital displays designed for driving engagement and awareness within the pre-determined goals. Therefore, it is both the content and platform on which the telecommunication activities of Sarah’s Behavioral Center reside. Again, what makes the media strategy (digital signage) adopted by Sarah's Behavioral Center attractive is the control it has over networks and the ability to incorporate different channels of communication seamlessly.

Public Relations, Sales Promotion, and Personal Selling Plan

The main aim is to discuss the sales promotions, public relations, and personal selling plan that will be adopted by Sarah's Behavioral Center. The public relations plan will illustrate how the product or service offered will be released to the general public. The sales promotion plan that will be adopted entails loyalty programs, couponing, rebates, and tier pricing. Personal selling will entail telemarketing, offering customer services, employing outside and inside sales representatives, and offering live chats as well.

Public Relations Plan

The press release on the new product or services offered by Sarah’s Behavioral Center will start by finding the angle of the information to be released to the public. For that reason, the headline of the services offered should grab the attention of the audience.

Sales Promotion Plan

The sales promotions that will be adopted by Sarah's Behavioral Center will entail couponing, loyalty programs, rebates, and tier pricing. Furthermore, sales promotion is the element of the marketing mix for differentiating the services offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center from the competing services in the mind of potential clients. Again, the management of Sarah's Behavioral Center must define the sale promotions objective based on the opportunities that come with marketing.

Personal Selling Plan

Effective personal selling plans involve the effective use of telemarketing, outside and inside sales representatives, offering live chats, and ensuring quality customer service. Whichever the case, the primary aim of the personal selling plan is to convince customers to purchase services offered by Sarah’s Behavioral Center. Therefore, the sales representatives must use a personalized method, which is tailored to meet the needs of customers while demonstrating how the services will benefit them.

Online and Direct Marketing Plan

The direct and online marketing plan to be developed must be relevant to the services and the audience. Here the media and direct marketing tools that will be used include website, advertising, SEO, and social media.

Website

The purpose of the website designed by Sarah's Behavioral Center is to showcase the general, new, and updated information about services offered by the organization. The homepage of the website should have complete details and actions needed for service delivery. For instance, visitors of the website will be looking for key items, which include the name of the service provider, locations or facilities, and services offered.

Advertising

The online advertising approach is based on display advertising and pay-per-click advertising. The displaying advertising will typically use text and images for advertising services offered by Sarah’s Behavioral Center. The popular forms of ads that will be used include popups, banner ads, and landing pages for directing the attention of the potential client to the services offered.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is the science and art of getting the pages of Sarah's Behavioral Center ranked higher in the search engines like Google and Yahoo. Since search is one of the primary ways in which customers discover content online, ranking at a higher level in the search engine will result in an increase in the traffic to the business's website.

Social Media

The best social media platform here is Facebook because it has more than 200 million fans and followers and who are of age between 18 and 45 years (Hollensen, 1). Followers also exhibit an average level of income and therefore, making Facebook the best place to market services offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing will be used as a form of advertising that will specifically target the audience while raising the profile of the services offered by Sarah's Behavioral Center. The sales representatives of the organization will be encouraged to use telemarketing, direct mail, and email marketing as the popular types of direct marketing.

Social Responsibility Plan

According to the case of Sarah's Behavioral Center, the social responsibility plan is more concerned with doing something beneficial and delivering quality services to every person that is entitled to it. Again, the social responsibility of Sarah’s Behavioral Center will be the integration of environmental and social concerns within the operations of the organization.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the marketing plan is mainly aimed at bringing the much-needed customer volume to Sarah’s Behavioral Center. Therefore, it is upon the organization to exhibit effective pricing and distribution strategy. Integrated marketing communications must be well-established for successful marketing of the services offered. Sources

1. Hollensen, S. (2019). Marketing Management. Harlow, United Kingdom: Pearson Education Canada.

2. Kotler, P., Manceau, D., Keller, K. L., & Hemonnet-Goujot, A. (2019). Marketing management. Montreuil: Pearson.

3. Westwood, J. (2019). How to Write a Marketing Plan: Define Your Strategy, Plan Effectively and Reach Your Marketing Goals? New York: Kogan Page.

4. Chernev, A. (2020). The marketing plan handbook. United States: Cerebellum Press.