Marketing Communication Plan
A marketing communication plan
focuses on the promotion aspect of the marketing mix. Marketing communication
tools allow organizations and entrepreneurs to speak to the consumers in a way
that guarantees higher purchases and increased demand. Marketers use either
push or pull approaches in promoting their goods and services. The push
approach informs the public about the goods and services that the organization
offers while the pull factors aim at increasing the levels of demand for the
goods and services. The combination of these approaches guarantees success,
especially in the service industry. The healthcare industry uses different
approaches to reach the consumers. Most of the healthcare facilities are not-for-profit
organizations; therefore, marketing the services and products of such an
organization requires a cost-sensitive approach. Consequently, the healthcare
industry serves the interests of the public rather than those of the
organization, thus making it a priority to listen to the audience. As such, the
best marketing communication approaches to employ in the health industry are
those that guarantee interaction between the marketers and the public (Hasz,
2012). The purpose of this paper is to discuss a marketing communication plan
that will be used to promote an occupational health clinic. The plan will focus
on the three months before opening and three months after the clinic becomes
operational.
The
Marketing Communications to Use for Three Months Before the Clinic Opens
The marketing team will use integrated
marketing communications to make the clinic and its services known to the
public. Advertising, direct marketing, and the use of public relations are some
of the marketing communications that the organization will employ in marketing
the company. The integration of different promotion tools will help in
improving the number of sales and the profitability of the company. Consequently,
the tools will help the company to reach a wide range of consumers. An
occupational health clinic serves employees and employers in different
organizations; thus, integrated marketing communication will help the company to
reach the target market effectively (Chan, Shen & Chiu, 2007).
Advertising
The marketing team will use the
advertising tactics to make the clinic known to the target market. Media
services that serve employee and employers within an organization will be ideal
in conducting this kind of marketing. For instance, many working class people
prefer to listen to news on the television and radio. As such, the company will
place adverts on these platforms, explaining the nature of the services that
the clinic intends to offer to the public. Consequently, the adverts will contain
specific messages detailing the diagnosis, the treatment, and the prevention
mechanisms that the organization intends to use in dealing with occupational
health problems. The company will not only focus on the general health of the
employees, but the specific needs of each particular working place (Fortenberry,
2010). The specialty aspect will help differentiate the company from its
competitors. As such, the television and radio adverts will give a detailed
account of the cost of care and the nature of care that the clinic intends to
offer around the city. The reason for choosing this marketing communication
approach is that it helps to reach a wide range of clients and provides a specific
message to the right customers. Advertising is a more focused kind of promotion
as compared to its counterparts. However, the greatest weakness of the approach
is that it limits the number of people receiving the message. Communication via
advertising will take place for a period of six months.
Publicity
The marketing team will use media
platforms to create publicity for the clinic and the services it offers for a
period of three months. The company will send news releases on different media
house to create public knowledge of the clinical services. Consequently, the
team will conduct surveys and research to identify the specific needs of the
target population. The survey will include the team visiting different organizations
within the city to identify the specific health needs that each organization faces.
The success of an occupational health organization is dependent on the
organizational ability to determine the specific health needs of each company.
The internet presents an ideal opportunity for the marketing team to create a
public knowledge of the company. The team will use blog sports and the social
media to create awareness and inform the target market of the vitality of
healthy working. The company will seek to persuade employers and employees to
value healthy living by presenting informing the target audience of the impacts
that health has on productivity and vice versa. The strengths of publicity are
that it is cost effective and it is more credible than other promotional tactics
(Vasilache, 2014). However, the marketers do not have control of what the media
releases thus limiting the information that the target audience receives.
Direct Marketing
The marketing team will hold
workshops with the target audience who are employees and employers to create
awareness of the clinic. During the workshops, the team will interact one on
one with the target audience to learn more about the health needs of different
professionals in the workplace. The main purpose of the workshops will to
communicate directly with the customers and to prepare them for the clinic
launch. The approach is quite instrumental in the creation of brand awareness
and in understanding the consumer needs. The team will earn the consumer trust
by interacting with them and allow the company to develop ideal retail
relationships with other organizations within the health industry.
Collaborating with credible companies in the health industry will help in
increasing the organization recognition within the region. The use of direct
marketing promotes the use of word of mouth, which is a healthy marketing tool
for any company. The major weakness of this approach is that it is costly and
time consuming (Hillestad & Berkowitz, 2013).
The
Summary of the Tools
Tools/functions
Strengths
Weaknesses
Role
Timeline
Advertising
Focused
on the specific audience
Limits
the recipients
To
offer more information to the public on the company
6
months
publicity
Cheap
and credible
Lack
of control
Offer
more information
3
months
Direct
marketing
More
focused
Limits
the range of recipients
Create
relationship with the target market
3
months
Marketing
Communication Tools to Use after the Launch of the Clinic
The company will use advertising,
public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion to communicate with the
target market. The promotional tactics at this stage will be more aggressive
than the ones that the team used before the launch of the clinic. The first
three months of any organizations are essential to the success of the company
within the market. Competition and bad publicity are some of the issues that any
organization must deal with in the first three months of operation (Hasz, 2012).
The four promotional techniques will assist in creating an ideal brand for the
clinic in the city.
Public Relations
The clinic will hire public
relations personnel who will help in managing the internal progress of the
company. The success of any organization within the health industry depends on
the ability to avoid mistakes. However, mistakes are inevitable in life. As
such, the public relations team will come up with ways to control situations as
soon as they happen to prevent negative publicity on the clinic. The
organization will offer free services to rectify any mistake than happens in
the process of service delivery. The organization will constantly train its
employees to be effective and efficient in service delivery. Effectiveness in
service delivery within the health industry limits chances of mistakes, hence
maintains a good public relation. The team will use social media platforms,
news releases, and websites to maintain a positive public image of the clinic.
One of the strengths of this approach is the inexpensiveness (Chan et al., 2007). Therefore, it is ideal at
this stage of the clinic’s development where profits are yet to be
achieved.
Sales Promotion
The clinic will offer incentives to
organizations that allow the clinic to oversee the health of their employees.
Companies that use the clinic for more than a month will receive a free
diagnosis for their employees. The incentive will encourage many companies to
choose the clinic for the occupational health needs of their employees. The
purpose of choosing this tactic is that it will help the clinic to achieve high
sales at a faster rate to enhance the growth of the clinic. However, the
approach does not offer long-term results in the clinic (Fortenberry, 2010).
Personal Selling
Personal selling allows the company
to develop ideal relationships with the target market. In this case, the clinic
will contact customers individually to find out their views on different
services that they receive from the clinic. The approach will allow the company
to adjust its operations to meet the changing consumer needs as customers give
their various feedbacks on the quality of services offered. The importance of
using this tool is that it provides long-term results, which are essential for
the growth of the company (Vasilache, 2014).
Summary
of the Tools
Tools/functions
Strengths
Weaknesses
Role
Timeline
Public
relation
Inexpensive
–
Maintains
the clinic’s name
3
months
Sales
promotion
Its
quick
Only
short time solutions
Increases
sales
3
months
Personal
selling
Provides
long term results
Takes
a lot of time
Build
relationship with the right companies
3
months
References
Chen,
C., Shen, C. & Chiu, W. (2007). Marketing communication strategies in
support of product launch: an empirical study of Taiwanese high-tech firms. Industrial marketing management, 36 (8),
1046-1056.
Fortenberry,
J. (2010). Health care marketing: tools and techniques. Sudbury,
Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Hasz,
M. (2012). Contemporary dilemmas of management. Kraków: Krakowskie
Towarzystwo Edukacyjne – Oficyna Wydawnicza AFM.
Hillestad,
S. & Berkowitz, E. (2013). Health care market strategy: from
planning to action. Burlington, Mass: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Vasilache,
S. (2014). Cross-cultural training and teamwork in healthcare.
Hershey, PA: Medical Information Science Reference, an imprint of IGI Global.
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