Health Services for Young Adults - Essay Example

Health Services for Young Adults The present paper analyses the prospects and potentials of implementing a health service program in the Brisbane campus of the Griffith University. The paper aims at providing a feasible marketing proposal for the health services offered in the university campus for the benefits of the students and staff of the university. As per the researches conducted on the students and staff members of the Griffith University it has been found that the students aged between 18 and 25 years suffer from the smoking, alcoholism and other addiction problems the most. They also suffer from obesity and other psychological problems owing to their stressful and irregular lifestyle (Birden and Page, 2007). The market segmentation process takes into account the demographic characteristics, disease categories and geographic location (Zuckerman and Johnson, 2002). In this case the geographic characteristics of the students cover the entire segment of students residing in Brisbane and attending the Griffith University classes either on regular basis or in disengaged manner. This segment will include students from all genders, ethnicities and socio-economic groups irrespective of their income level in order to help reach the services to most of the students suffering from various addiction problems and health implications as discussed above. The potential market for the health services can be found in the growing number of overseas students visiting Australia for higher studies since 1985 (Linacre, 2007). In present context the foreign students from India, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Norway, Sweden, etc. account for about 17% of the total students studying in Griffith University (“Griffith University, Brisbane”, 2008). While considering the positioning of the services it is seen that due to positioning in the campus of the university it can enjoy monopolistic market with some competition from the family doctors. The health centre is found to have advantage over family doctors owing to its good location in the university campus where the students can reach the centre during their visit to the university. The transportation facility along with high quality service at a cheaper price will be able to generate interest among them. In addition to all these, the students are able to have 24 hour phone services and online access to the services while enjoying more privacy compared to the family doctor’s chamber. The two dimensional perceptual map considered in this regard showed the consumer perception of available health services according to the quality and prices offered. The positioning of Griffith health centre closest to the mid point of the map at the side of low price and mostly in the low quality area with a small portion on the high quality segment explains the consumer perception of the centre to offer low price but not so good quality service. The challenge of the marketing strategy lies here only to convince the consumers, i.e. the university students about the good quality of the services offered by the health centre at a low cost.  Under these circumstances the objectives of the marketing strategy are to make 50% of the target market to be aware of the services offered by the health centre and to increase about 10% of sales of the services. The health centre is designed to provide advanced, comprehensive, integrated quality health services to the students through lifestyle classes, safety workshops and fitness centres with the help of highly educated and professional staff along with retired doctors and nurses from outside the university. The fitness centres available at the health centre can help students to cope with physical problems and provide them with exercising options. The lifestyle classes are aimed to improve the lifestyle and habits of the students related to drinking, smoking, drugs or over eating and to help them in their educational life. The safety workshops help them deal with various practical problems they might face in day to day life including safe driving habits or health care techniques. Thus the services are designed for overall improvement of the lives of the students. The entire offerings of the health centre can be expressed in just one phrase, “GET SMARTER, GET HEALTHIER”, which is the slogan of the health centre to be found in all its promotional campaigns. They can be something like the campaign given below which highlights the new services as well as demonstrates their availability on campus:  For the marketing of the health centre the 4p’s strategy involving the decision related to the products, price, place and promotion has been considered as a simple marketing mix framework (“The marketing mix”, 2007). Keeping in mind the services offered by the health centre the promotional will target the university students and staff followed by students from other universities and people outside the sector. The employees of the health centre as well as the volunteers and consultants will be involved in the campaign procedure. They will be the sources of supplying information paper or brochure to the students and others both inside and outside the university campus. The access of the health centre employees to the other staff of the university will be helpful to spread information about the services offered in the centre. Public relation of the consultants can also be used in this regard. The push strategy is used here for promotion of the services. For sales promotion an area will be set up for advance sales and the students will be encouraged to experience the facilities available. They will be encouraged to visit the health centre and will be provided with all information they ask for. Participation in health activities of the university will also help in advertising and making public relation. The demonstration of the services directly to the consumers through personal selling will be helpful to generate attention and response of the consumers. Internet can be used as a great medium for advertising and information sharing for the promotional purpose. The website of the health centre can provide information as well as involve students through BBS. Advertisement through other internet sites including that of the university itself can act as a good promotional strategy. Regarding the pricing strategy, the services will be offered at a discounted low cost targeting the low-income university students. The prices can be increased for long-term purchase request. The prices of the offerings and the promotional activities can be controlled through the use of university building and cooperation with the university or other companies. Inviting sponsors for the website of the health centre, i.e., advertising their products on the website can generate considerable amount of fund to run the centre. This entire service and promotions can be limited to the university campus only during the initiation. The campus has a large population, which can generate considerable amount of income for the health centre to survive and flourish, and with income generation they can think of spreading outside the university campus. For the time being no special emphasis needs be given to the population outside the campus and the centre should be content with whatever small promotions have been done by the students or staff voluntarily outside the campus. Thus using the marketing strategy discussed above the health centre at Griffith University campus can expect to start its work. References Birden, H. and Page, S., (2007). 21st century medical education, Australia Health Review 2007, 31 (3): 341-350. Griffith University, Brisbane, (2008). Study World, available at: http://www.studyworld.nl/pages/Universiteit/Studyworld-nl-Universiteit-toonUniversiteitDetails/719586-Griffith-University--Brisbane.asp (accessed on 16 September 2008). Linacre, S., (2007). International students in Australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics, available at: http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/66E07209141CE61FCA25732F001C9B8D/$File/41020_International%20students%20in%20Australia_2007.pdf (accessed on 16 September 2008). The marketing mix, (2007). Net MBA, available at: http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/ (accessed on 16 September 2008). Zuckerman, A.M. and Johnson, T.K., (2002). Market Segmentation. Health Progress, available at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3859/is_200203/ai_n9034438 (accessed on 16 September 2008). Read More