Principles of Marketing - Research Paper Example

?It can be difficult to determine the specific example that epitomizes exceptional business marketing. Many fields and industries excel at marketing,but few truly personify the multiple dimensions of marketing required to not only survive a global financial crisis, but can also manage to excel in the mitts of one. The best example was found in the least likely place, buried deeply in an industry failing in hard economic times; skilled nursing facilities in the United States. Within this industry exists Life Care Centers of America, a skilled nursing corporation of more than 200 nationwide facilities that has found success in the most difficult economic times due the nature in which their marketing directors engage their individual communities. The marketing director is responsible for the development, implementation, and management of the marketing plans of their perspective facilities. The aspect that makes these marketing directors unique is the multifaceted and extremely progressive approach they take towards the marketing of their individual facilities. They are individually responsible for the entire marketing plan, responsible for both the internal and external programs for the facility, lead the marketing team and develops new marketing initiatives in order to enhance facility census. For these reasons, it is an incredibly dynamic marketing position where the single individual has a deep and profound impact on the success and or failure of a given facility. Census development plan The marketing director develops the Marketing Plan and subsequent Census Development Plan by assessing the specific needs of a given regional market. The marketing director accomplishes this by considering political factors of a community, the social aspects, and the ethical issues within the concentration of products and services offered to his/her region. The Census Development Plan is the fluid, working version of the larger strategic marketing plan. The Census Develop Plan is a tool designed with the sole purpose of maintaining and increasing inpatient and if equipped, outpatient census in a given skilled nursing facility. To enact the plan, the marketing director creates a marketing team comprised of the directors of other departments that are key in terms of customer relations. The executive director, admissions director, nursing services, rehabilitation services (if applicable), nutrition management, social work, and activities departments are typically members of the marketing team. Having a strong marketing team in place allows the marketer the freedom to build census and thus increase revenue for the facility by direct external community marketing. Unique approach From an external marketing perspective, the Life Care Centers of America Marketing Director possesses a novel approach. Because skilled nursing facilities are more aptly referred to as “nursing homes” which has a negative connotation, this particular marketer has adjusted his initial delivery. When people think of a nursing home, it is a final stop for a loved before they pass away. (Winston, 1984) The news that a 72 year old mother, wife, husband or father must go to a nursing home after suffering a fractured hip is as emotionally devastating for the family as the injury is physically devastating to the loved one. In his/her external marketing capacity, the marketing director has developed tool to not only excel in spite of this difficulty, but also close the sale immediately. The process centers on discussing the discharge first. The first thing the marketing director wants to do is dispel the thoughts he knows are running through the minds of the concerned family. He then, with painstaking detail explains the rehabilitation services offered at the facility that will make future discharge possible while emphasizing the optimal levels of function the patient will require before returning home. After his initial visit to the patient and family at the hospital, the family is taken for a tour of the facility and introduced directly to the directors and team members that will be responsible for the care of the family member. This is a process that has its own and very impressive sub-process. Coordinating the tour is the admissions director. Upon arrival, the family is introduced to the admissions director who carries a colored folder. The colored folder is an indicator to the staff that the admissions director is conducting a tour. The staff stops to greet the tour, shake hands with strong eye contact, and introduce themselves by first name whenever the opportunity presents itself. This instills a sense of belonging and warmth to those whom are on the tour, which in turn aids in increasing the close rate. By embracing the family and their concerns very openly while presenting the intent of Life Care to return the patient home motivates family support that in turn aids in the recovery process. Life Care Center of America’s competition in the marketplace focuses largely on getting the patients into their facilities. Treating the patients as dollar signs alone has crippled their business models. Life Care Centers of America was founded on the premise of returning residents home; not admitting them. This is a responsibility delegated directly to the marketing director. This is appropriate because the marketing director serves as the Life Care’s first direct contact with the potential customer. Enhancing the profits The marketing director is also responsible for ensuring the financial efficacy of existing marketing programs, newly launched programs and programs that are in various stages of development. One such newly launched program for the Life Care Center of Sierra Vista, Arizona Paul Johnson, the director of marketing launched the Veterans Outreach Program. While conducting the market analysis for Sierra Vista, Arizona, Johnson noted that the regions contained the single largest population of military retirees in the state. Upon further investigation, Johnson revealed that few of the long-term care residents were in contact with the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs. Johnson initiated the program by setting up a meeting with the Department of Veteran Affairs in Phoenix, Arizona with himself and the social services director. He used the meeting to pitch the facility’s services directly to the highest levels of the state’s Veteran Affairs personnel knowing their awareness of Sierra Vista’s veteran population. Being a retired veteran himself, he then joined the department’s various veteran support groups, which in turn generated not only a new and very large referral source, but also gained additional resources for his residents. The program was then featured in the facility’s radio, newspaper, and newsletter campaigns. The cost analysis was quite impressive. Johnson allotted $1,257.52 out of his annual budget to the program. After six months, the program yielded six new rehabilitation residents per month and nine new long-term residents with a net facility profit of more than $36,000.00. The program also enabled four residents to enroll under Veteran Affairs health benefits programs, which authorized rehabilitation services previously denied by various private insurance carriers. The program has been so successful it has been adopted by several other Life Care facilities across the nation. Marketing relationship management The Life Care marketing director is responsible for the developing and nurturing profitable referral source relationships in accordance company training requirements as established by thorough research. (Singh, 2010) In their external marketing capacity, the marketer personally visits local physician offices, assisted and independent living centers, community centers, and civil organizations. The marketer schedules, tracks and logs these visits as “sales calls.” The sales call log in used track the number of referrals obtained from each individual source compared to the hours spent acquiring referrals to determine the efficacy and profitability of the individual relationships. This audit of external marketing efforts is presented in the marketing team meeting, the team decides how best to increase referrals. (Winston, 1984) Often it is determined that a slightly different approach is needed, or it may be determined that a different director conduct a sales call on a specific organization. In doing this, the marketer is able to assign marketing responsibilities to other directors who may be better suited for a given client. Paul Johnson was kind of enough to make himself available for interview via social networking media. “Here in Arizona we have a number of Nurse Practitioners that operate out of individual offices. Nurses like to deal with other nurses. In these cases we like to assign nurses to these marketing tasks.” Johnson stated. “It allows us flexibility and frees up my time to travel to places where I can be much more productive. Marketers like to think they have the key to every relationship, but it is important to be humble and allow others to help the team while you keep them focused on marketing in areas where they are better suited. Marketing is not a one person job, it is a collective team effort, and when the entire team is involved success follows.” Johnson is not only incredibly knowledgeable in marketing, but also humble in his understanding of how best to lead a marketing team to success. This is a crucial element to the overall success of an organization in that if the marketer insists upon himself too strongly, they can be a hindrance to the overall success of the marketing program. Empowering team members expands the marketing program and allows for far greater market penetration by those best suited to perform the task. Marketing mix The marketing mix can pose a challenge for many marketers that do not have control of pricing. Such is the case with Life Care Centers of America. Again, the innovative nature of the marketer has found a way around the conundrum. The marketer looks to his admissions director to not find “better pricing” per se, but to best match the potential resident’s insurance resources to maximize available care options. While price may be an issue, price can also be mitigated by utilizing the right insurance assets at the right time. Here again we can look to Veteran Affairs. While it is a common practice for military veterans to carry private insurance, Veteran Affairs often allows for better treatment options and lower co-pays. The marketer discusses these options with the admissions director and then proposes a comparative care plan pitting their private insurance against military related health care benefits. In doing so, the marketer can demonstrate that despite the expense of skilled nursing care; proper management of insurance resources can create treatment and access to care options previously thought not to exist. Not only is the price objection thwarted, it develops a better care plan that increases consumer confidence in the facility. Generally, Life Care Centers are located close to hospitals. This allows the marketer the opportunity to convert initial visits into tours where the team can begin to build the confidence of the consumer with the previously stated tour techniques. The strategic placement of facilities ties directly into promotion initiatives where it is common to find “… hospital, located just blocks away.” in Life Care marketing materials. (Hunter, Beecher, n.d.) With concerns of health, hospital proximity is very important to the family member. Knowing the hospital is in close proximity provides a level of comfort that many competing organization cannot provide. Taking this concern a step further, Life Care Centers of America have begun adding physicians to the staff to ensure the maximum medical support is available for their residents. (Hunter, Beecher, n.d.) Life Care Centers of America tailor their products to their communities. Several facilities have developed specialized care units to accommodate health needs in a given geographic region. It is common to find a “stroke recovery program” and other specialized care concentrations, though one will not find the same specialized care programs in all Life Care Centers. This ensures each individual Life care Center is fully accommodating the medical needs inherent to a geographical region while further enhancing the marketing mix. (Fortenberry, 2011) The contrast Life Care Centers of America has placed tremendous amounts of responsibility of the shoulders of their marketers. A marketing support system provides support for these responsibilities. Acting as a mentor and advisor to the marketing director is a regional marketing director supported by the divisional vice president of marketing. The divisional vice president and regional marketer conduct quarterly group training for the marketing directors. In between the quarterly training sessions, the regional marketer visits each facility to ensure the marketing directors have the support they need to aggressively market in their communities. As an added benefit, the regional marketer is able to take success stories like the Veterans Outreach Program to other facilities and begin implementing them in a very short period. Marketing in Life Care Centers of America is a very dynamic and well-supported process backed by multiple levels of the organization. One could say it is marketing done right. However, it is interesting to note that Life Care’s competition is not following their lead. Kindred Health Care is a like organization with many facilities located within a mile of Life Care Centers. While they also have a heavy concentration in rehabilitation, their emphasis is not on returning their residents home. As Life Care Centers excel and begin absorbing market shares, Kindred’s response was simply to add an additional marketer; not change marketing philosophy. Another interesting difference between the two is the belief that all members share a common role in marketing. One can argue that this is the key difference between the facilities. The state of Arizona has levied heavy fines against Kindred Health Care attributed directly to staff’s treatment of patients and residents. (Innes, 2010) In contrast, U.S. News and World Report awarded “Best Nursing Homes” 27 Life Care Centers in 17 states. (Hunter, Beecher, n.d.) Life Care excels in this area because it trains its staff to embrace the marketing concepts from the first time they encounter family members on initial tours of the facility. Summary What Life Care Centers of America has done in terms of marketing is nothing less than a true marketing success story. One could suggest that having a strong marketer is all that is required, but such a suggestion would understate key elements that make a strong marketer a truly successful marketer. The organization must support the marketing mission from its highest echelons to its entry-level positions. The marketer plays a critical role in the success of an organization. They must analyze their market and evaluate the nuances of the ethical, social, and political environment that currently exists while further ensuring the marketing approach and programs maintain suitable profitability. Life Care Centers of America has clearly mastered the marketing process. Because their clientele are older and middle aged, their approach remains conservative devoid of the gimmickry commonly associated with marketing campaigns. Their direct delivery of marketing encompass elements ranging from strong, well detailed and documented external marketing to building and maintaining profitable relationships to empowering their staff at all levels to ambassador marketing efforts. Cited works Fortenberry, J. L. (2011). Cases in Health Care Marketing. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Hunter, Beecher. (n.d.). Life Care News. Retrieved 04 30, 2011, from LCCA.com: http://www.lcca.com/article.php?id=1713 Hunter, Beecher. (n.d.). Life Care News. Retrieved 04 28, 2011, from LCCA.com: http://www.lcca.com/article.php?id=1673 Innes, S. (2010, 08 21). State fines nursing home Villa Campana. Retrieved 04 30, 2011, from AZStarnet.com: http://azstarnet.com/news/science/health-med-fit/article_d31dd104-618c-5a45-9af7-6217afb1b4b5.html Singh, D. A. (2010). Effective Management of Long Term Care Facilities. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Winston, W. J. (1984). Marketing Long-Term and Senior Care Services. 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