Marketing strategy for satellite office expansion

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Overview
New City Home Care is an established company, looking to expand its services into a
neighboring community. Although the population of the community is much smaller than the 55,000
in the current location, the aging population is experiencing tremendous growth. In addition, no other
home health companies exist. New City has an opportunity to take advantage of being the first to
enter the new market. However, to do so effectively, research on the current market is necessary.
Opening a satellite office will require staffing with customer service/scheduling staff and health care
professionals. The level of demand for services will likely determine how the office is staffed, how much
office space in required, and how the organization will market its services in the new community. The
marketing plan, once complete, will take into account many aspects of the current business, as well as
the new market.
Historical Trends and Strategic Plan
Historical trends will include demand, usage, and costs for administering care to home health
care consumers. These types of data are important in developing a marketing plan, because marketing
efforts must not only target the right market segments, but target them with the types of services and
care they expect. The demand for various types of services can be elastic. In other words, it can change
seasonally, can change as population demographics change, and can depend on price. In this instance
price would likely be pre-determined by the third party payers, where they exist. Distribution of services
is critical to success of the new satellite office (Kumar, Sunder, & Sharma, 2015). The company's current
market is likely to be somewhat elastic, in terms of demand. Therefore, it can be assumed the new
market will come with such elasticity in demand.
Costs are a critical factor, in providing home health care services. They influence the types of
services offered, and decisions made about the extent of services. Many seniors want to know which
services are available. For example, they may be interested in basic care, nursing care, IV care, physical
therapy, or occupational therapy. Without enough demand, some of these services will not be cost-
effective, due to costs of hiring and staffing health care workers, who are skilled and certified in each of
these areas. The organization must explore the current market and try to predict which services will be
in higher demand in the new market, so the right services can be marketed. In addition, co-branding, or
referring consumers to additional services like therapy, can become a mutually beneficial arrangement.
The organization may need to establish referral protocols, for specific organizations offering the
additional services. Both companies benefit because, even though patients may only receive
nursing care through the home health care company, they will feel like the company is going out of
it's way to arrange additional services. The additional services must then be marketed in a way that
lets consumers know how the process for referrals works and what types of referrals are offered.
The summary needs to explain how the following will used in your team's marketing plan:
Demographic Data
Demographic data is important in determining how to market services. Marketing includes
research and development, as well as advertising and promotions. To understand the level of demand
for each service, the home health company must be able to break down consumers into categories, or
market segments, because demographics influence behavior and decision making (Talib & Ramhan,
2013). For instance, consumers in older age brackets are more likely to want services to maintain
the home and keep up on daily activities, which they are unable to complete themselves. For such
consumers, they will likely need home health aide services, as well as Nursing services.
Demographic data within a certain market will determine the balance of services offered and
Decision making about how to provide those services. A home health organization may decide to
Hire home health aides at a higher rate than Nurses, especially if the largest segment of aging adults
struggles with daily activities. On the other hand, if the aging (just reaching retirement age) segment
is higher, demand for Nursing care may be higher than for home health aides. These demographics
help the home health care company make decisions about hiring, whether it is cost effective to provide
in-house training, and how many positions will need to be filled.
Quality ...