15 Jan First impressions are important,

HMGT335 Health Care Marketing

Written Assignment 1

Assessment of the current situation at a health services organization – worth 15% of the grade

Task – You will be picking and analyzing a current health services organization in terms of its current situation and focus on its customers. Remember to follow all the general requirements for written assignments published in the syllabus as well as the details below. Refer to the grading rubric in the syllabus before submitting your paper to ensure you have given yourself the best opportunity for maximum credit.

Approach your written assignment as follows:

Pick a health services organization that you may work for or with which you are familiar. It can be a local or national organization.

Research the organization by visiting its website and, if possible, its location.

Research the industry in which your organization operates, e.g. nursing homes, private physician practice.

Using your findings, conduct a SWOT analysis of your organization. Use the SWOT Analysis Worksheet provided under Course Content

Conduct a competitive analysis of your organization. Use the Competitive Analysis Worksheet provided under Course Content.

Prepare your written assignment by addressing each of the following questions in order:

What is the mission of the health care organization?

What are their corporate level goals?

Who are their customers?

From your SWOT analysis, what do you conclude are the organization’s main strengths and weaknesses?

From your SWOT analysis, what do you conclude are the organization’s main opportunities and threats?

Who are the primary competitors to the organization?

Do you think the organization has a customer-focused orientation to its practices and procedures? Why or why not?

NOTE: You will not find definitive information on your organization relating to these questions, some of the information is propriety or not available through public means. Use and cite data whenever you find it, or use your best judgment as to what you think is occurring at the organization. Be sure to offer your rationale for your conclusions.

Be sure to ask your faculty member any questions or concerns you may have prior to preparing your written assignment.

HMGT335 Health Care Marketing

Written Assignment 2

Target markets, positioning & customer behavior – worth 20% of the grade

Overview: For this second assignment, pick a health services organization of your choice and conduct an analysis of its target markets, how it is positioned in the marketplace, and what kind of behaviors its customers exhibit when selecting their services. This includes topics covered in Weeks 3 and 4. Your research can include your own experiences with the organization, experiences of friends or relatives, the organization’s website, a visit to the organization (if possible), websites of competitors, library research on the service category, any notes from the overview and readings for Weeks 3 and 4, and any other place you think you can find information to provide depth to your analysis.

After completing your research, prepare your Written Assignment 2 as directed by the general guidelines for written assignments in the syllabus, project descriptions, by answering each of the following questions in turn:

Name and describe the health service organization.

Describe its primary target market in terms of the segmentation variables presented in the Week 4 Overview. You can use the PRISM system or describe it yourself.

What kind of behaviors do its patients/clients exhibit when making a decision to use the organization’s services? Might want to refer to the Health Service Model.

What do you think is the organization’s value proposition? Use the generic value propositions outlined in the Week 4 Overview.

Describe the organization’s primary competitors. If possible, prepare a positioning map using two variables important to the patients/clients of the organization.

Based on your competitive analysis, what do you is the organization’s competitive position?

What recommendations would you make for changes to the organization’s target market, services or competitive position and why?

HMGT335 Health Care Marketing

Written Assignment 3

Health services organizations place and price decisions – worth 20% of the grade

Overview: Your third assignment will be an analysis of the place and price decisions of a health services organization as covered in Week 5 and 6. You may use the same organization that was your focus on Written Assignment 2, or pick another health services organization with which you are familiar. Be sure you understand the marketing concepts discussed during Weeks 5 and 6 and can apply them to your organization.

You might have to seek out some information on the organization by visiting its website, or if it is an employer interviewing someone who has knowledge of the pricing and distribution decisions. After you have completed your research, answer each of the following questions in turn following all the general guidelines or written assignments posted in the syllabus.

Brief overview of the organizations service/products and a description of their target market. This is important to ensure that your analysis considers the needs of the target market in evaluating their pricing and channel decisions.

How do you think the organization arrives at its price? Refer to the Week 6 Overview for a framework of some of the pricing considerations and discuss those that appear relevant to your organization.

Do you think the pricing strategy is appropriate? Can it be improved to better meet its customer’s needs?

Is the organization hindered or helped in their pricing decisions by government or payer restrictions. If so, how do these restrictions impact their pricing strategy?

What kind of value delivery network does the organization employ, e.g. horizontal or vertical, and what is their distribution strategy, e.g. exclusive, intensive or intensive? What factors influence the distribution strategies of this organization? Are they customer-focused? If possible, outline all of the channel members and what function they perform to serve the customer?

Can you recommend any changes to the value delivery network that would serve customer needs better?

HMGT335 Health Care Marketing

Written Assignment 4

Final project – PowerPoint & VIDEO

Marketing Plan Presentation: worth 20% of final grade

Your final project is in lieu of a final exam and is worth 20% of your final grade. As such, the final project will assess your ability to synthesize the marketing principles by applying them to a health care organization. Your end product will be a brief overview of a marketing plan for your organization accompanying a video presentation using software called – screencast-o-matic. You are not expected to reach the level of authoring a professional, actionable, marketing plan, but you are expected to demonstrate an understanding and application of basic marketing principles.

Final Project Objectives

1. Understand impact of marketing environments on health services marketing strategy

2. Develop marketing objectives

3. Apply marketing concepts of segmenting, targeting and positioning a health services market

4. Describe a health services organization’s current marketing mix and suggest modifications based on marketing objectives

5. Identify measurements to access the marketing plan’s impact on the health services organization.

6. Demonstrate college-level research and writing skills commensurate with a 300-level course

Steps to completing a Successful Final Project webcam/video:

Chose a specific health services organization. You can choose any health care organization that interests you. This can be because you work for the organization, would like to work for the organization, are a patient or client of the health services organization, or any other reason that will inspire you to examine the organization’s marketing efforts. Be sure you either are sufficiently knowledgeable about the organization or can gather information on the organization and its competitors. Since the focus in this course is on the health services patient/client, please do not chose health care insurance plans or pharmaceutical companies.

All of the following types of health care organizations are acceptable for your final project:

Community hospital

Academic hospital

Specialty hospital

Surgicenter

Rehabilitation center

Urgent care facility

Physician practice

Dental practice

Home health care

Imaging services

Health advocacy organization

Hospice care

Medical equipment sales/rentals

2. Submit your final project organization topic for approval. As directed by your faculty member, submit the organization that you will pursue in the assignment dropbox. Provide a brief description of the organization and why you chose it. You will submit this topic for approval in week 3.

3. Research your health service organization. Your research should take many forms, including academic research from the UMUC library. Your research should also include a visit to the organization, interviews with key administrators or marketers (if possible), research on the category of health services in which the organization belongs, e.g. hospitals, physician practice, etc., website review, review of similar services which would be considered direct competitors. You might want to refer to the Marketing Webliography found under Course Content > Course Resources > Marketing Toolbox > Marketing Webliography.

4. Review the final project Power Point Template. This can be found under Course Content > Course Resources > Final Project Power Point Template. Be sure you understand all the relevant marketing concepts; ask your faculty member to clarify, if needed.

5. Use the marketing plan template to complete your Power Point Presentation. The template is located in Content>Course Content>week 8. Feel free to change the design and slide layouts in whatever way you feel best represents and communicates your best work. Be sure to remove any of the generic text provided to you for guidance.

Refer to the Marketing Toolbox under Course Content > Course Resources > Marketing Toolbox >Tips for Effective Power Point Presentations for some ideas on how to present your ideas in a format that clearly demonstrates a correlation between the concept and the subject of your term project.

6. Seek out your faculty member any time you need assistance or guidance. You will not be able to find out everything about your organization or its industry, some of the information is propriety, so be prepared to make some well-reasoned statements in your final project.

7. Keep your Power Point presentation simple. Reserve the main portion of your presentation for your key findings, conclusions and recommendations. Use exhibits to add supplemental or source information such as charts and graphs.

8. Be sure to include endnotes and/or a reference page as part of your grade is on your ability to demonstrate these skills.

9. Review your Power Point Presentation against the project rubric. You may want to revisit those sections that would appear not to provide you with enough points for an acceptable grade.

10. Carefully edit your Power Point Presentation to be sure it presents your best work, is free of typos, is appropriately cited and referenced; and that it clearly communicates your points.

11. Use screencast-o-matic software to record your final project ppt and video simultaneously.

12. Submit your final project in the assignment section of LEO on or before the due date noted in your LEO classroom calendar.

13. Once your final project is graded, be sure to check out the faculty member’s feedback, which will correlate with the grading rubric

HMGT335 Health Care Marketing

Introduce Yourself Video Assignment

For this assignment, please submit a 1-2 minute webcam/video with audio component. Introduce yourself to your fellow classmates (be creative). This assignment provides an opportunity to enhance your webcam/ video editing skills for your final project Video assignment (using screencast-o-matic software) due later in the course.

Required Assignment Tools:

You are required to use a webcam/video, and software capable of recording video with audio component. You will be required to submit a screencast-o-matic video using both the webcam and screen (record using –both – webcam and screen).

For a tutorial on how to use this software – please go to the following link: Screencast –o–matic tutorial. You then upload your screencast-o-matic video as your presentation into our dropbox of our course!

Presentation Assignment Considerations:

First impressions are important, especially when it comes to Presentations & of course marketing!

If you don’t take your appearance seriously, you give the impression that you will not take your work seriously.

Here is a Dress for scuccess ppt to review dressing for success