Marketing Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Marketing
Name:
Institution:
Marketing
Executive Summary
The interest for assisted living and elderly care services is always increasing and the demand for care services is anticipated to remain vibrant for an unforeseeable future as the elderly population increases and relatives seek for alternatives. With this in place, marketing remains to be one standout activity necessary for these facilities despite being an area that may not be a specialty for health care providers working in the facility. Promoting an Assisted Living Facility is an important yet frequently difficult assignment in charge of creating demand, pulling in occupants as well as to enable the facility meet its operational costs. This can be accomplished through utilizing various expert marketing tips and consolidating present day tools that exploit today's innovation and assets to market the facilities. The Assisted Living Facility (ALF) will strive to provide these individuals with the up to date comprehensive services with regular supervision and assistance from a wide range of health care providers to ensure they enjoy proper health as well as to guarantee them their safety and well being. This marketing plan targets to improve the volume of admission of new clients as well as to avoid transfers for the current clients at the facility.
Current Marketing Situation
Market Description
Development in assisted living industry has been driven in expansive part by customer demand. Individuals who need help with performing ordinary tasks like bathing, taking their meals, or putting on their clothing prefer to acquire the services in settings that resemble homes and not institutions. The business sector for assisted living has advanced over the previous decade as facilities now serve a more handicapped occupant population with complex demand for services, conceivably inferring that helped living could be a more suitable nursing home option than it at first was (Marsden (2005).
Benefits and Product Features
The ASL will provide throughout the clock supervision and care for the clients. This will ensure that the clients are well served when there is need regardless of the time of the day. Clients will be provided assistance in eating, bathing, dressing and taking medication. The program of the facility will also include a health and exercise program (Yee-Melichar, Boyle & Flores 2010). This will make the clients to be physically fit. Clients who will need to be transported to medical hospitals will be offered transportation services by the ASL facility.
Product Review
Assisted Living facilities continue to provide people with disability and elderly citizens with necessary services with full time supervision so as to ensure adherence to medication and healthy livelihoods. Many middle age working individuals find it hard to perform in their work while at the same time taking care of the elderly or those with disabilities in their homes (Yee-Melichar, Boyle & Flores 2010). In case they leave them at home, they will be risking their safety. Taking them to ASL ensures that they are well taken care of and their safety is guaranteed. The facility will provide an environment that is free for the clients to interact with others as well as regular monitoring of their mental health.
Competitive Review
The selling point of the facility will be the quality of the services provided. Client’s testimonials on satisfaction will be well documented and used to market the facility to other potential clients. Through regular marketing campaigns, the facility will aim to make a brand that will be unrivalled due to quality service provision. Marketing campaigns are an effective way to penetrate the market (Gospe 2008).
Distribution Review
The need to advance an assisted living facility and empower potential occupants and their families to timetable arrangements or take visits is frequently faced by many difficulties. Ordinary hindrances incorporate little or even non-existent marketing spending plans, trouble finding relatives and other decision makers, next to zero information of how to incorporate internet marketing skills and the absence of a strong brands (Zimmerman et al 2001). Each of these concerns can prompt low-energetic, inadequate promotion campaigns which have a tendency to draw in low volumes of potential occupants, a large number of whom may not be a solid match for the facility.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis
Strengths
The size of the facility and the number of staff who are committed to serve the client throughout the day and with passion remains to be the main strength of the facility. This results to client satisfaction and increases referrals. Motivating the staff and creating a healthy working environment will enable the facility to achieve its targets and goals.
Weaknesses
The main challenge in proper market penetration is the lack of clear information on where to find the potential clients and the people who influence decisions. As such, marketing campaigns will be open and unspecific since they will be directed to the general public with the hope that the potential clients will be reached through this manner. This will be quite expensive compared to targeted marketing campaigns but will be necessary to penetrate the market.
Opportunities
Regardless of the wide spread supply of ASL services, there still lacks a brand that has a substantial market share. The facility will target to be the market leader through constant marketing, capitalizing on referral services and maintaining high quality services.
Threats
There are constant threats from new entrants who might see gaps in the industry and use it to capitalize their market entry. The facility will counter this by always reviewing the services provided to ensure that they are up to date by employing the best technology.
Objectives and Issues
The main objectives of the company are to increase its market share and increase enrollment to the facility. This will as a result lead to increased profitability, making the facility to be sustainable (Allen 2004). The level of client withdrawal will be used to measure the quality of services provided. High number of churn will signify provision of poor services prompting management to take corrective measures. Low number of clients churn will show high client satisfaction and happiness. The first year objective will be to focus on quality services, increase visibility thus encourage referrals. The second year will be to increase the number of clients to manageable amount.
Marketing Strategy
Positioning
The facility will capitalize on treating the clients as family and create a home environment for them to be comfortable to interact with each other rather than taking the form of a facility. The staff will serve the clients with maximum respect and care.
Product Strategy
Services provided at the facility will be comprehensive in nature to suit the well being of the clients. The clients will be entitled to three meals a day, access to physicians, 24 hour supervision, assistance in eating, bathing, taking medication and dressing. These products will be used to market the ...