Marketing plan for homecare organization Carewatch UK - Term Paper Example

? Executive Summary Carewatch UK was founded in the year 1993 and provides homecare services to its s. The company is a world leader in providing homecare services to elderly, or medically unfit people, it also provides a substitute to nursing and residential care and, and is the leading homecare service providers in UK. The company today offers practical, personal and complex care to more than 23,000 clients that also include people with behavioral problems, mental issues, and learning disabilities. The company provides personalized services based on individual needs of the client that deals mainly in personal care, home care and medical care. It has become one of the largest companies in homecare sector across the globe and the company has set its business by focusing upon individual customers and their needs. This paper will study the various marketing aspects of the homecare organization. The paper will make a study on the SWOT and PEST analysis, customer analysis, followed by macro and micro environment analysis for the company. Also the marketing and financial goals of the company are stated briefly. Market Analysis At present, the market analysis for Carewatch seems to be positive. There are a number of prominent benefits to the company in various markets across UK. This section studies the existing marketing scenario for the company.   Increased consumer awareness – with the increase in the awareness of the customer for personal and homecare needs, the company can certainly look forward to increasing number of opportunities. Besides this, the consumer is now more aware on the quality of service they are being provided, (Doyle, 2001). Carewatch have been involved in offering best clinical services to its clients. Enhanced profit margins – with the growing market demands for homecare, both in personal and medical needs, it has been found out that consumers are ready to shell out more money for good and safer clinical service. Certified Carewatch services have received better acknowledgement from the customers and are able to command a better price value in the market than other service companies products from non-certified origins. New Markets – Carewatch’s growing reputation in the markets where it is operational, has promoted the company confidence to enter new markets across the world. The company is looking for new opportunities in order to support the ever increasing demands of its customers.  PR Benefits – Being a leader in homecare services, Carewatch has been able to create loyalty of their customers and in turn attract a new customer base for their business through their existing clients who promote and appreciate the services of the company. At the same time, the company along with its brand value has associated itself with some health groups and doctor associations that increase the credibility of the company by a large extent, (Jacobson, and Aaker, 2000) Moreover, the company with a tag of being the best in the industry has been able to recruit the best people in the industry and thereby generating better results.  Reduced Risks – the company has been able to avoid risks such as unpredictable demand, logistics issues, supply problems, changing customer preferences (faithful customers due to good homecare service quality).  Organization and products Overview The company offers personalized services through care and support workers that assist the consumer in different ways such as practical support with light domestic duties, shopping, washing, getting ready, and cleaning, and companionship. The company also provides complex care services in the wake of illness, nursing (long and short term), hospital discharge, and specialist support for mental health conditions. The company offers person centered services that are designed to give flexibility, choice and control; and assist people who remain at home or are forced to remain at home following poor health conditions, people who need early intervention, and respite care. The practical Support services from the company are as follows – Shopping Kitchen and meal preparation Home cleaning Laundry and ironing Helping with mails and bills Assist in parties or meetings Baby care services Helping with medicines and other exercise routines Dressing and preparing for parties, evenings The company provides complex care services in the event of the following – Recently discharged from hospital, Serious medical condition Long term medical needs in diseases such as dementia Crisis prevention is required to avoid admission to residential or hospital care The company provides specialist support care services for the following - People with learning disabilities, challenging behaviors, complex physical and sensory disabilities, acute mental illness or substance misuse and Autism Aspergers` Syndrome Depression, anxiety and phobias Bipolar disorder Schizophrenia SWOT Analysis Strengths The homecare service company Carewatch deals in offering its services within the home premises which makes it mainly a home based business. Anybody and Everybody can avail the services of Carewatch. Proper training is imparted to staff and caretakers so that they have access to business information and service methods. The company imparts world class training services to its employees. The company maintains good and effective customer relationship management which takes into account regular customer meetings to inform about new services and schemes. World class quality of services helps in maintaining the customer confidence Weakness The main weakness of the company is that the entire business of the company rests on the performance of the caretakers which makes the business critical. Lack of employees and home care providers result in service delivery problems and compromises Lack of proper education background of the staff and employees hired as caretakers Opportunities The company can look forward to setting up new offices in other countries which will reduce the cost of operations and services. The company can look forward to setting up new offices in other parts of UK. Also, as a long term business opportunity, Asia, mainly countries like China and India with increasing economies offer good opportunities With the consistent quality of existing services from Carewatch, the company can also switch over to new brand of family oriented services as they have a good reliable market reputation Threats Shifting demographics including aging population, increasing medical needs and more folks with autism and multi-diagnoses Any change in the policy of the governments of the countries in which the company performs its business may affect its business profits. There are many companies who are looking to adopt the same business type as that of Carewatch Volatile financial conditions may also affect the company business Lack of good employees Customer Demographics Carewatch completely understands the importance of determining a strategy for its business and to identify its customers. If the company is able to understand where to look for potential customers and how to handle then effectively for a long term, then it will become much easier for the company to grow and prosper. The company has segmented the customers into various sections. This is mainly divided as per medical needs and personal requirements of customers, (Doyle, 2001). This helps the company to attend to the needs of particular groups and focus as per customer needs. Personal care, homecare and medical needs are the three main divisions of customer demographics at Carewatch. People who possess sufficient funds with above average paying capacity can be targeted as the customers of the company. Further, the demographics of Carewatch shown in the figure below. Home care Service Urban Area Small Area Rural / Remote Area Autism, Aspergers` Syndrome, Depression, anxiety and phobias, Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia 5 per cent 1 per cent 0.9 per cent Recently discharged from hospital 7 per cent 2 per cent 1 per cent Serious medical condition (near death) 5 per cent 1 per cent 0.9 per cent Long term medical needs in diseases such as dementia 1 per cent 2 per cent 1 per cent Kitchen and meal preparation 35 per cent 25 per cent 5 per cent Home cleaning, Laundry and ironing, Shopping 45 per cent 35 per cent 8 per cent Helping with mails and bills 5 per cent 1 per cent 0.5 per cent Assist in parties or meetings 25 per cent 15 per cent 0.9 per cent Baby care services 55 per cent 20 per cent 2 per cent Section 3 – Environment Analysis Macro Environment Analysis Political factors – this section relates to the policies laid down by the government of countries where the company operates its business and the level of intervention these national policies intend to have on the company business. Abuse of the elderly by the caretaker or vice versa is one of the main issues that are highlighted as strict polices in UK. The company needs to pay strict attention that no such incident occurs without any failure in the regulation of rules in this concern, (Kotler, 2001). Economic factors –These consist of the impacts the various issues like taxation changes, economic growth and other corporate issues, inflation and exchange rates and how they impact the company’s business. At the same time, increased income growth of individuals may boost demand for the company business. Social factors – the variations in the social factors decide the demand for the company homecare services. Moreover, the trend of rising urbanization will mean more people opting to live in cities with better facilities. In that case, the company can look forward to more business. The ageing population will also highly increase the demand of company services. Technological factors – the caretakers are given modern training and how to use modern and sophisticated medical equipment and behavioral management which will new business options and opportunities. It will also lead to reduction of costs by a significant margin and improvement in product quality and efficiency of the entire company, (Sustar, and Sustar, 2005). Micro Environmental Analysis Customers – Carewatch has a wide variety of customers in its business portfolio which vary from high class to middle and low class sections of the society. In any case, customers with good or sound financial background can be a benefit to the company as it helps to increase their sales. Also, changing customer preferences (shifting demographics) might affect the business plans of the company. Competitors – Carewatch faces a number of competitive challenges by various small and big sized companies who offer similar homecare services, thereby reducing the attractiveness of the company’s services. In this case, there is a chance that customer’s switch from the company to other similar products. Also, a number of companies are entering into this segment attracted by the profitability and other economies of scale. Suppliers – the suppliers of Carewatch play a very important role and it is very important to maintain a successful partnership between the company and the suppliers so that both the teams are able to identify the business and service requirements and meet customer expectations. The suppliers for Carewatch supply good candidates to the company, and other necessities like medical equipment’s, employee training courses, and technology. For increased communication between the company and suppliers, Carewatch has also set up a special website that offers up-to-date requirements, guidelines and business intelligence related to the company operations. Section 4 - Marketing Goals and Strategies Marketing goals Short term goals To build loyalty among employees working as caretakers To assist elderly and offer help to regular clients Enhance the company’s reputation as that of a brand and quality conscious company Long Term Goals The long term goals of the company are to promote the services of the company to increase the business. Also, the company needs to develop its work force in an effective manner so that they develop expertise for a variety of service portfolios. In another long term effort, the company can look forward to setting up its office in other parts of UK. Financial Goals The company is targeting a four-fold increase in its business in the next five years by widening its reach and service basket by increasing its marketing activity. Also, the company is looking forward to increase the number of offices in various locations across the globe, and intends to bring in more services under the current service portfolio. Marketing Mix Strategies  1.      Superior Service quality – In the wake of increasing competition, it is very important that the company pays attention to the quality of its homecare services as compared to other services in the market. Superior quality at cost effective price will prove to be a very effective marketing mix strategy for company. 2.      New Branding Techniques – at regular intervals, the company can engage in marketing their services with new brand names, logos, and homecare service awareness programs for customers and general public. This would encourage rapid promotion of the company and its homecare services. The immediate change in the strategy will give way to customer curiosity in the short term and Carewatch brand recognition in the long term, (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 1995)   3. E-commerce – The company is developing an ecommerce portal where all the suppliers, employees, staff, caretakers and clients (patients and regular customers) can log onto the system and share their experiences and feedback. Clinical services consist of a number of sensitive customer information and data that needs to the safely managed.  For effective quality management, safety measures should be implemented to safeguard this information and they should be regularly imposed and effectively monitored with the help of encryption of real time information deliverance systems. Section 5 - Monitor and Control Implementation The company in order to achieve its goals, the company needs to implement its strategies very carefully. A proper plan needs to be charted out and the plan will be carried out in proper phases. Close observation of customer data: Carewatch management has clearly understood the need for speedy recovery of client data, business dealings, and other transaction data etc. for the benefit of the business of the bank. As a result of which, the management has upgraded its data storage and retrieval systems which stores all the past records of patients and customers. Also, the data is carefully guarded and flaws detected in the systems at regular intervals, (Lovelock, 1983) Training of Staff – the business of company rests on the staff and the caretakers who play the most important part, (Shostack,1997). The interpersonal and customer interaction skill sets of the employees of the Carewatch are regularly worked upon by experts. The management understands that until it owns an excellent team of motivated workers, it would not be able to achieve the set targets. References 1. Lovelock, C.H., (1983), “Classifying Services to Gain Strategic Marketing Insights”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 47, Summer, pp. 9-20. 2. Shostack, L.G., (1997), “Breaking Free from Product Marketing”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 41, April, pp. 73-80. 3. Zeithaml, V.A., Parasuraman, A. and Berry, L., (1995), “Problems and Strategies in Services Marketing”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, Spring, pp. 33-46. 4. Doyle, P. (2001). Marketing Management. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 5. Jacobson, R. & Aaker, D.A. (2000). The strategic role of product quality. Journal of Marketing, 8, 31- 44. 6. Kotler, P. (2004). Marketing management: Analysis planning and control (7th ed.). Englewood, Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. 7. Bateman, T.S., & Snell, S.A., (2004). Management: The New Competitive Landscape (6th ed). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Company. 8. Sustar, B. & Sustar. R. (2005). Managing marketing standardization in a global context. Journal of American Academy of Business: Cambridge, 7(1), 302. 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