Conceptual Marketing Plan

Philip Kotler developed an eight-step process for market analysis, planning, budgeting, and measurement of performance (Fortenberry, 2010). When developing a strategic marketing plan, many industries create and implement their plans following Kotler’s process: Executive summary and table of contents. Current marketing situation. Opportunity and issue analysis. Objectives. Marketing strategy. Action programs. Financial projections. Implementation controls.   Consider how a health care organization might differentiate its service from a competitor.  Scenario Recall from your previous visit with the leadership team that your CEO has communicated a growth strategy for St. Anthony Medical Center. The marketing director and leadership team have further determined that the labor and delivery service will implement a market pull strategy where consumers will be drawn to the organization based on some unique feature or features of the service line (also known as differentiators). You are competing against similar services at two other hospitals in the area, so your marketing conceptual-level recommendations will need to assure that you have differentiated St. Anthony Medical Center’s labor and delivery service in a competitive manner. Your marketing director and the labor and delivery unit manager would like to discover your fresh perspective and new ideas that include recommendations for converting prospective consumers into satisfied labor and delivery patients. Instructions After you have surveyed the literature on strategic marketing, you are required to use information gathered in the required Vila Health Challenges linked in Resources. Review the vision, mission, values statement, and strategic directional strategy for St. Anthony Medical Center, and assess the labor and delivery service line offerings. Conduct a gap analysis of St. Anthony Medical Center’s labor and delivery service relative to internal goals. Remember to assess gaps between actual performance versus desired targets (review the current labor and delivery budget to determine current versus targeted number of deliveries, profit margin, and so forth). Construct a competitive analysis of St. Anthony Medical Center’s labor and delivery service relative to competitors. (Note: You will need to look on the Internet to find this information.) Propose general or conceptual-level recommendations to close gaps, such as missing services, missing marketing channels, suboptimal profitability, and so forth. Include evidence-based recommendations. Offer creative insights regarding how to optimally position and communicate the labor and delivery service line to prospective consumers. Prepare a draft of your conceptual marketing plan for presentation to the marketing director (your instructor) for review and feedback.