You are required to identify a suitable Business Case. It must be for a New Zealand business or organisation. It may be one that you are already familiar with.
The purpose of this report is to analyze the marketing theory which is the most important factor for any institution to run business as this is completely based on the understanding of the consumers’ requirement and satisfying them. The report will define the different scopes of service science as a marketing theory for the chosen organization.
The organization chosen for the purpose is Oceania Healthcare based in New Zealand. It specializes in providing aged care across the country and boasts of services like residential apartments, care suites and so on (Oceaniahealthcare.co.nz, 2018).
The report will highlight the strategic developments of the organization while proposing relevant ad contemporary theories and practices of marketing. The report will further analyze the different marketing theories and arguments related to the implementation of these theories to identify customer needs particularly within the service industry.
Strengths – Views and arguments by different authors associated with this filed will be included in the report providing coherence to it. The report follows a systematic explanation of the various marketing theories and the ways the chosen organization could leverage these theories.
Weaknesses – However, time limitations, collecting primary data and direct survey could not be conducted and hence, the report had to depend on secondary data.
The contemporary business strategies have different features from the traditional marketing strategies. Therefore, the marketing theories which used to be followed before have changed with the improvement of technology. In every marketing strategies, the chief point that is mainly focused is related to satisfy the consumers’ need and wants. In order to match the consumers in this digital era, the marketing theories have become more service or product oriented. In the service sector where Oceania Healthcare operates reaching the customers through proper understanding of their needs and demands is mandatory. Hence the most prominent theories are segmentation, targeting and positioning theory, marketing mix, marketing positioning and branding.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning theory:
This theory aims to discuss the process of segmenting or splitting a market into small groups with similar features for the purpose of selecting the appropriate target markets. Market segmentation helps to identify the bases for the segmentation that is to identify the wants and needs of the customers through an effective market research. This also determines the most important features of each of the market segments so that strategies can be developed easily (Kienzler & Kowalkowski, 2017). Target market selection is the Evaluation of potential as well as commercial attractiveness of each of the segments where the organizations select one or more segments to understand the market demands. Product positioning is the method of developing the organization thorough a detailed positioning of product for the selected segments. It also aims to develop a marketing mix for each of the selected segments (Sagala et al, 2014). As Oceania Healthcare mainly provides healthcare facilities to the elderly people of New Zealand, it needs to know the method of effective marketing both theoretically as well as practically.
Marketing mix theory:
In this theory the organizations mainly focus on the improvement of product, process, place, price, people, promotion and physical evidence. These factors are to be analyses extensively so that the organizations can understand the exact police to apply and strengthen their own weak areas.
Product: it is the method of perfectly fitting with the demands consumers and satisfy their expectations effectively. In case of Oceania Health care, it is their service through which the organization can improve facilities, the chief factor or which the clients avail their services. Moreover, it provides various types of facilities like Rest Home, Dementia Care, Hospital Care and Psychogeriatric Care among which the patients can select the services more fitting to their demands.
Place: making the products available for the targeted consumers so that they can find the products more easily. Oceania Healthcare makes itself more available to its clients so that the care for the old people become more reliable and acceptable (Wrzesinski et al., 2017). It provides facilities for the retirement homes and care suits where the clients visit easily and get facilities.
Price: the service and product of the organization must be representing good value for the customers money (Rezaei, 2015). Cheaper yet god quality product or service will reach more people. Oceania Healthcare has a moderate rate for treatment which gives it a competitive edge as they are acceptable by the customers.
Promotion: through advertising in the traditional and digital media, public relation and sales promotion organizations promote their products. The organization ahs its own websites which it uses extensively for promoting their services and other facilities. As this is an aged care system, the organization prefers the traditional media for promotion to reach the targeted customers.
People: having right employees both in the front line of sales as well as back offices, help the companies to efficiently offer the services and products. Oceania Healthcare has great connection with the government of the country as it fills all the criteria of aged care system. Moreover, it has an efficient workforce which has stranded this particular organization both internally as well as externally.
Processes: the process of delivering the products or services is within the demands of the customers as they pay for the process also. The process of delivering service is highly reputed in this organization. This is due to fact that the organization perfectly understands the market and the demands of the clients (Taylor & Hunter, 2014). Hence it gets high among of returning customers who want to avail the service several times and all these are made possible for the organization’s smooth process.
Physical evidence: the companies provide a physical evidence to the customers as physical products are associated with their offerings. With services and other facilities to the aged clients, the organization provides evidences which are tangible to the clients (Oyserman & Schwarz, 2017). Appropriate documents, process of availing the service of this particular organization and other evidences of treatments by Oceania Healthcare are provided with the service.
Positioning theory:
Market positioning refers to the perception of the consumers of any service as well as product in the relation to the contending brands or products. It is the process of establishing identity of product to the consumers in such a way that the chief motto of this brand reaches the customers (Pitt et al., 2017). Each product has different types of brand positioning method. For instance, a car brand can position itself to be a luxury status symbol whereas the battery company will prefer to pose its products to have a long-lasting capability as well as reliability. On the contrary a computer company can position itself by offering innovative as user-friendly products. Through brand positioning, the organization can create as well as establish the image and their identity within the mind of the customers in the target market (Gummerus, 2013). The market positioning of the brand as well their products need to be maintained over life of that brand. For doing this, the organizations need ongoing marketing measures intended for reinforcing the perceptions of the target markets of the product as well as brand. Moreover, distinguishing the features of the services and products, the organization can stand aside in the crowd of the competitors.
Oceania Healthcare follows the positioning strategy through quality approach. This is due to the fact that the clients always prefer high quality healthcare but in cheaper expenses. It deliberately attempts to offer more in terms of performance and service features. As healthcare industry does not depend upon the application, hence the organization gets scope to expand its market deliberately. New Zealand has a highly concentrated healthcare market but Oceania Healthcare mainly focusses on the aged care system which helps the organization to stand individually in the market. In order to approach more clients, the organization has a determined brand objective which is perpetually conveyed to the audience (Möhlmann, 2015). Proper analysis of the demography like age, income range, occupation and fields of interests helps the organization to understand the brand barriers and overcome them.
Service science is relatively a new discipline in business especially within the service sector. In spite of the service industry being the dominant provider of economic stability to governments and companies, least attention has been given to research and innovation in this field (Schindlholzer, Uebernickel & Brenner, 2013). The concept of service science is embedded in the interdisciplinary study of mathematics, computer science, industrial engineering and research business strategy amongst others. The primary aim of service science is to resolve issues like the extent to which organizations could be reorganized and the means to manage service innovation and so on. In recent years, researches have been carried out in this discipline to reveal the ways for designing, operating, using, sustaining and disposing off systems of science (Osborne, Radnor & Nasi, 2013). It is being done to provide maximum benefit to multiple stakeholders that include the customers, employees, partners, shareholders and the larger society as well.
Oceania Healthcare is very new to the service industry and it would be extremely beneficial for it to acquire the advantages of the new discipline of service science.
Service science provides the service industry a platform from which it could find innovative ways to better its services. Many companies and governments are starting to acknowledge the importance of service innovations as an effective way to create economic growth and wellbeing. As Maglio and Spohrer (2014) describe, “service science combines organization and human understanding with business and technological understanding to categorize and explain service systems, including how they interact and evolve to co-create value”. Service science could also be termed as a part of business model innovation that provides managers with the opportunity to advance and strengthen the service organization’s business. Service providing companies are facing challenges in the contemporary world as more and more companies are emerging within this sector.
Oceania Healthcare has been providing aged care services for more than a decade to thousands of New Zealanders and aims to develop further. It would therefore be of great help for the organization to implement service science and research on the ways to integrate technology into its services.
According to Huo and Hong (2013, p. 51), “Service science is fundamentally motivated by the development and progress of service economy as well as the demand for a new discipline posed by the changes of business environment”. They further state that the features and goals of service science align perfectly with the themes of globalization and “informatization”, which promises a brighter view. Since the inception of the concept of service science in 2005 by International Business Machines (IBM), it has been taken up as a major part of strategic planning by governments across the globe. In the U.S., National Innovation Plan and National Competitiveness Investment Act have been formulated to stress more on the service science. The launch of EU Framework Program by the European Union further affirms the effectiveness and importance of service science (Huo and Hong, 2013, p. 47). Apart from being a part of national strategy, service science is increasingly being utilized by commercial organizations as well. Wal-Mart, one of the giants of supermarkets in the world, utilizes service science to enhance customer satisfaction by focusing more on services than products.
Although service science as a discipline has been successful in drawing the attention of many national governments and international companies, it is yet to be implemented properly (Wan & Jones, 2013). In the service providing sector in particular, service science has not been fully implemented. However, it is imperative to state that most organizations have realized its importance and are developing new ways to incorporate it within their systems.
One of the foremost reasons for incomplete implementation of service science by service providing companies is that it is still in a shaping stage (Lusch & Nambisan, 2015). A lack of clear explanation and classification of the concept also poses a challenge for companies to implement it. The use of ‘science’ and ‘service’ also confuses people who are in the business of service providing as both the words are interpreted differently by different people. As pointed out by Alter (2012), “many basic ideas about service science are still in flux and significant disagreements about definitions and implications of basic concepts” (Zeugner-Roth et al., 2015).
Despite all that, service science has been a driving force behind companies making decisions on increased training and development of staff regarding the service they provide to the customers. With Oceania Healthcare being a leading provider of aged care services, it has also shown interest in and focus on service science providing training to staff on the science of dealing with elderly people. The company boasts of gerontology specialists who maintain a secure and continuing clinical training program countrywide. However, it is important for the company to integrate service science extensively into its various programs. As explained in the above sections, service science although in its formative stage has the potential to enhance the services provided by the company.
Complex business structure that this organisation follows, have combination of goods and service that relates to the business to business market. Despite the fact that this organisation mainly focuses on the institutional markets or non- business market, it applies in the marketing to the institutional buyers. This organisation as following B2B method of marketing mainly provide the knowledge to the customers regarding solutions and product suitability, credentials and decision support. This organisation abides by the ANZSIC scheme and satisfies the elastic demands of the country’s healthcare market (Gómez-Suárez et al., 2017). The institutional markets have low budget as well as captive patrons hence this organization has only focused on the old age care division so that it can meet the needs and special characteristics of these institutional buyers. This B2B marketing creates scopes for the influencers to participate in the decision-making process which often affect the individual factors like the clients’ attitude towards the risks, their income and their service buying style. The organization as operating in a highly competitive market of New Zealand, need to follow some measures so that it can reach more clients and provide successful service to them.
Firstly, it needs to measure and evaluate the wants of the patients through identifying the methods like tracking, call for information, website hits and procedure volumes of the patients. After having ample knowledge, the institution can reach more clients and improve the service capacity.
Referral Marketing: A continuing yet reliable stream of inward bound patient recommendations from the other medical professional sources can be a good promotional strategy for the service providers. Despite the fact that the health care provider provides good service it often gets the doctor referrals. Therefore, success demands a written plan as well as a reliable system for preserving and growing the flow of the professional referrals.
Internet Marketing: in this digital era, Oceania healthcare needs to utilize its websites along with social media tools, their patient portals, mobile apps as the online marketing has become a conventional channel of marketing, advertise and the public relations (refer to appendices 1 and 2). Proper way of using internet marketing can be highly efficient and profitable.
Branding: through this method the organization can stand differently from the crowd in the highly concentrated market of New Zealand. Through a powerful yet differentiating brand for the healthcare business is the main feature of earning reputation (Wen et al., 2014). Only though deliberate effort for shaping as well as expressing the appropriate message at right time can help to build a meaningful and effective branding.
Internal Marketing: This is the method of communicating with the people both the previous as well as current patients who already are familiarized with the service of the institution. Depending upon the style of practice of the organization or the situation, these influential audience may be the rich resources for referrals, testimonials additional services, and word-of-mouth direct advertising.
External Marketing: through the method of advertising in the newspapers, television, billboards and the current social media the organization can easily target its audience and convey messages about their service satisfying healthcare need. There is a little margin for the error in the external media budget which is expected for the production of a measurable return on investment.
Public Relations: This is one of the most important method of promoting the offering of the health care organization. This includes planning as well as generating an effective healthcare publicity along with free press exposure through newspaper articles and broadcast interviews in the social media or television. The results of this method of promotion can have a positive as well as powerful influence. However, this needs a careful planning, a good timing to convey clear message with deliberate effort.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that gaining proper knowledge about the marketing processes of the products and services directly connects the operation and sales of the companies or organisations. The chief marketing theories are included such as the segmentation, targeting and positioning theory, marketing mix or 7Ps theory and branding positioning theory. Through analysing these theories, the Oceania Healthcare can properly understand its condition in the healthcare market of New Zealand. For aptly strategies the marketing process and identify the process of satisfying the customers’ needs, knowledge of service system and innovation are important which has been referred through social science method. In order to make the service more appropriate, new strategies are needed to be followed which will help the organisation to reach the targeted consumers.
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