Marketing is a key driver for sales and profitability in organizations. As in the case with other products, there is a need to market healthcare products to potential customers. The success of any marketing endeavor will depend on the plans set forth by the organization to foster the marketing efforts. Marketing plans offer healthcare leaders with common objectives and goals for the products and services provided by the healthcare institution (McLain & Kefallonitis, 2016). More importantly, marketing plans have become a key strategic tool for most organizations, hence acting as a major determinant for an organization’s ability to achieve its set objectives (Baron, Warnaby & Hunter‐Jones, 2014). So as to make this a success, the marketing objectives must be aligned to the overall mission and vision of an organization. The global healthcare landscape is fast changing. With the demand for better and faster healthcare, healthcare organizations are integrating information technology in their healthcare delivery. The current project develops a marketing plan for Philip Healthcare’s HealthSuite Digital Platform.
Company and Product Background
Royal Philips ‘Philips’ is a Netherlands based-company founded in 1891. The three sectors that make up the company include; healthcare, consumer lifestyle and lighting. As of 2014, Philips had a workforce of more than 105,000 employees globally (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). 35% of this workforce worked in the healthcare sector. The company’s healthcare sector produces devices and equipment which are sold to clinics and hospitals. Examples of such devices include imaging devices and equipment for hospital-to-home monitoring. Philips announced the creation of its HealthSuite digital platform (HSDP) in 2014. The product is a cloud-based platform that supports collection of healthcare data. Through the use of Philips HSDP, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are able to effectively integrate and analyze patient and other related data. The information obtained from the health data collected through the use of HSDP assists healthcare professionals to make informed decisions. Decision making is of crucial importance in healthcare setting. With proper information, healthcare professionals are able to minimize medical errors hence improving the overall healthcare provision. HSDP fosters healthcare in hospitals and other healthcare institutions by offering healthcare facilities to patients along the entire continuum of healthcare (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). Philips HSDP ensures this is achieved by fostering healthy living, helping in prevention of diseases, ensuring right diagnosis of diseases, enabling effective medical therapy and supporting recovery of patients at homes.
Marketing Assumptions
In the creation of the Philips marketing plan, a number of strategic assumptions have been made. Since organizations and markets portray unique features, there lacks universally accepted set of assumptions that should be included in a marketing plan. The assumptions developed here are based on the prevailing market and consumer trends. Ideally, the following assumptions have been made when developing the marketing plan for Philips. First, it has been assumed that there is a possibility of an emergence of new healthcare technologies which may pose significant competition to Philips product (McLain & Kefallonitis, 2016). However, such technologies are not expected to occur within a period of less than two years. It is therefore assumed that Philips will enjoy the advantage of new entrants in the market. Due to technological advancements in the healthcare industry, it is expected that Philips product will be advanced from time to time so as to integrate new features which can easily address the demand of users (Crowther, 2014). It is, therefore, assumed that Philips will be using its innovativeness to enhance the product.
It is also assumed that the market size for IT health products will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. The main rationale behind this assumption is that healthcare providers are quickly shifting their focus to integrate technology in their health provision endeavors (Sonntag & Gelissen, 2015). It has also been assumed that Philips competes in a perfect market. The implication of this is that the demand for the products offered by the company is purely influenced by market forces such as price and marketing efforts. Due to heavy investments in research and development, it is expected that the industry will be dominated by just few players. With regard to workforce, the company assumes that it already has the needed skill-set in place hence there will be no need for new set of workforce.
Initial Information
The profound market trends in the healthcare industry are driving opportunities in HealthTech industry. The changing landscape in the digital health is fundamentally steering a whole different approach in healthcare provision. Population healthcare management is being enabled though the use of HealthTech facilities. Healthcare organizations are making this possible through the use of different platforms such as promotion of disease prevention and healthy living (Roman & Conlee, 2015). HealthTech institutions are also enabling accurate diagnosis of diseases by improving the decision making process in healthcare institutions. Further, healthcare organizations are able to create healthcare solutions which are patient-centered. One of the major milestones created by HealthTech is the ability to integrate healthcare data from different points in hospitals and patient-homes. Healthcare professionals are also able to get hold of actionable and sensitive information that can really help healthcare professional in disseminating quality healthcare service to clients.
Prior to the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Philips’ sales force sold HealthTech devices to specific departments within hospital settings. These included departments such as radiology (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). However, after the act was passed, many organizations centralized their procurement decisions. Due to its extensive knowledge in clinical landscape, portfolio of devices, outstanding track record in FDA approval and credibility of doctors, Philips believed that competitors would not easily replicate its products. In particular, HSDP was itself designed to outdo most of the Philips’ competitors. The product integrated some key features which were unique in the industry. Some of these features included open systems; supporting private and secure storage, retrieval and usage of healthcare data; and extensive library of clinical data.
Key competitors who were expected to significantly challenge the product offered by Philips included General Electric (GE), Electronic Medical Record (EMR) providers and general IT companies such as the International Business Machine (IBM) and Oracle. As at 2014, General Electric was the global leader in the manufacture of medical devices (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). For over a decade, most hospitals, clinics and other healthcare institutions were using the services of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) to store health data records. Some of the most common EMR providers include Cerner and Epic. Most healthcare professionals were, however, complaining of the fact that platforms provided by the EMRs were not easy to access. Healthcare professionals also argued that the EMR data platforms were not easy to use. Healthcare providers were also having a difficult time in connecting the EMR databases with the hospitals’ information systems. The implications of these limitations meant that the product developed by Philips stood a higher chance of gaining acceptability in hospitals and other care provision centers.
Market Audit
External Environment Audit
Since its inception, Philips Healthcare has been seeking to improve the lives of people through meaningful innovations. The company is committed to making the world healthier by innovating healthcare devices and equipment which improve diagnosis of diseases, reduce medical errors and help patients in recovery process. Philip’s goal is to improve the lives of more than 3 billion people come the year 2015. Through its ‘sense and simplicity’ slogan, Philips has been able to position itself in the market. In its bid to market its products to healthcare institutions, Philips faces a number of challenges, which emanate from both the internal and external factors. The PEST analysis model can be used to analyze Philips’ external environment by diagnosing the political, social, economic and technological environment in which it operates (McLain & Kefallonitis, 2016).
With regard to political environment, Philips’s operations could be impacted negatively by political instabilities in different parts of the world such as in the Middle East. Unfavorable political factors as well as unexpected unfavorable regulatory and legal changes in foreign countries may negatively impact on the operations of the company. Such legal factors may include nationalization of assets and restrictions with regard to repartition of foreign investment returns. As a result of these uncertainties, Philips may encounter difficulties in the planning and management of key marketing operations (Thomas, 2015). Philips is a global company that has established many subsidiaries in different parts of the country. These subsidiaries are exposed to different governmental regulations. Political uncertainties in these countries may significant limit the realization of Philips organizational goals and objectives. Increased focus on health and medical care may increase its exposure to international markets which are highly regulated (Crowther, 2014). The impact of such exposure may increase difficulties in obtaining approvals or clearances for marketing its HealthTech products in different parts of the world.
Economically, the global recession has continued to negatively impact Philips sales in consumer markets. Economic downtowns in different parts of the world is expected to further reduce Philips’ sales. Philips lifestyle category is expected to suffer the highest blow as a result of economic recession. Increased economic downtown may, however, reduce sales in the healthcare sector as well (Thomas, 2015). Economic downtown may significantly hinder the ability of customers to pay for diagnostic services in hospitals. The implication of this is that the demand for equipment and healthcare devices may reduce significantly hence reducing Philips sales. So as to maintain sales, Philips may be forced to cut prices off these devices and equipment, a fact that may significantly impact the company’s profitability.
The demand for Philips HealthSuite Digital Platform is largely influenced by the demographic and social trends. For instance, increasing demand for better and faster healthcare provision is driving healthcare providers to invest in technologies such as Electronic Medical health records for data collection, analysis and dissemination. Consumer empowerment in different parts of the world has also contributed towards increasing Philips’ product sales. The impact of such empowerments is that patients can easily pay for services such as advanced scans and diagnosis. The rise in demand for innovative healthcare products is an opportunity for Philips to increase sales on its products.
The success of Philips operations is heavily determined by its ability to adapt to the existing technological developments. For a long period of time, Philips has continued to invest heavily in technological advancements so as to improve its existing products while at the same time developing new products that can effectively address the needs of consumers. As the technological environment continues to advance, customers are becoming more educated on what to expect from healthcare providers. Fast changing technology increases the competition in the market as competitors such as General electric may soon develop products which have similar features to Philips’ HSDP. Another impact of rapid technological changes is reduced life-cycle of products (McLain & Kefallonitis, 2016). Philips products may become obsolete very fast due to development of new and more superior products. Short life-cycle of Philips products require the company to come up with ways of effectively managing its prices, which in most cases may demand reduction in prices. Philips has to continuously develop its existing products by adding on new features which can address the changing needs of consumers.
Competitive Environment
Philips healthcare faces tough competition from the other players in the industry. Key competitors in the HealthTech industry include General Electric (GE) healthcare and Siemens, and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) providers. GE healthcare offers products which are similar to Philip Healthcare. GE healthcare and Philips healthcare also compete directly for the same market. Additionally, GE offers EMR services to healthcare providers hence further intensifying the competition. Siemens offers products which are similar to those offered by Philips health. However, Siemens offers fewer products hence giving Philips some competitive advantage over the competitor. Siemens does not offer EMR products hence further reducing the threat it poses to Philip healthcare.
In the recent past, most healthcare providers have understood the importance of using electronic medical records. As a result, most healthcare providers opted to use EMR services for data collection, analysis and retrieval. Some of the most vibrant EMR companies include Cerner and Epic. Apart from the EMR providers, the company Philips healthcare also faces competition from the traditional Information Technology companies such as Oracle and IBM. The competition from EMRs is, however, decreasing due to a number of factors. For instance, a large number of healthcare professionals argued that the available EMRs were not serving the needs effectively. For instance, most healthcare professionals argued that the platforms created by EMR providers were not easily accessible and were not easy to use. Additionally, most of the EMR providers were not able to provide services that could easily adapt to care and acute care sites outside the hospital setting. According to Philips, companies such as Google and Apple do not face significant competition to the company.
Internal Environment Audit
Philips’ internal environment impacts its ability to foster successful marketing campaigns. SWOT analysis is a powerful tool that can be used to analyze Philips’ internal environment. The SWOT analysis identifies the company strengths, opportunities, threats and weaknesses.
Philips healthcare can take advantage of its key strengths in its endeavor market the HSDP product. One of the key strengths of Philips Health is strong brand. Through its innovativeness, Philips has been able to focus on its ‘sense and simplicity’ slogan to grow its brand. Significant amount of the company’s sales can be attributed directly to its strong brand. Philips also enjoys a wide product range, a fact that makes marketing efforts quite easy. Some of the key products that are manufactured by Philips include X-ray devices, MRI, clinical software, patient monitoring devices, CT scan machines, respiratory care machine and medical suppliers (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). The HSDP adds on the wide range of Philips products. Another strength of Philips healthcare emanates from its wide expertise. As at 2014, the company had a workforce of 105,000 employees globally. Further, the company makes refurbished medical devices and equipment to hospitals. The impact of this is reduced strain on health care organizations (McIntosh & Bouteri, 2017). Increased affordability of healthcare products increases the demand for Philips products. Philips also enjoys a wide locality, with its operations running in over sixty countries. Through this wide locality, distribution of Philips HSDP is significantly boosted.
The major weakness of Philips healthcare emanates from its broad line of products. Philips offers many product lines which are offered under three major categories; healthcare, consumer lifestyle and lighting (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). The company’s commitment to all these product lines may compromise its quality of products hence negatively impacting its marketing efforts.
There are a number of opportunities which Philips can leverage on. The biggest opportunity to Philips emanates from the challenges facing healthcare institutions in provision of healthcare services. As noted earlier, the demand for safer and better healthcare is challenging healthcare professionals to integrate technology in service provision (Roman & Conlee, 2015). Philips HSDP comes at the right moment when such technology is required so as to improve service delivery in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Development of electronic medical records also presents a god opportunity for Philips to advance its HSDP product.
Despite its strengths and opportunities, Philips faces significant threats which may significantly and adversely affect its operations. Philips must therefore deal with these threats so as to minimize the impacts of the threats to the lowest level possible. Some of the threats facing Philips healthcare include; rising cost of healthcare hence making healthcare providers to become hesitant in the purchase of medical equipment. Philips also faces the threat of unfavorable regulations and restrictions from the government. It is worth noting that the healthcare industry is heavily regulated in most countries. Governments try to keep healthcare costs as low as possible. So as to regulate costs, such governments may cap the spending by healthcare organizations hence limiting their ability to purchase Philips products including HSDP. Competition from companies such as GE healthcare, Siemens and EMR providers offers significant threat to Philips HSDP.
Marketing Strategy and Business Communication Standards to be used
So as to reach a wider client base, Philips healthcare plans to use an interplay of a number of marketing strategies to market its HealthSuite Digital Platform. First, the company plans to leverage the use of its competent and large sales force to market the product to hospitals and other healthcare providers. For a long period, Philips healthcare has used its sales force to market its products to customers where they have made very useful contacts. Philips targets to use these contacts to market the platform to the pharmacies and other healthcare institutions. The advantage of using the sales force to market the product is that consumers are able to get first-hand information from the sales team hence creating more persuasion which may lead to more acceptance of the product by the customers (Toledo et al., 2014). Sales force will majorly be used in novel areas where the company thinks that acceptance of the product might be a challenge either due to lack of information or due to intense competition.
Philips healthcare also plans to make use of digital marketing platforms so as to increase its awareness among potential customers. Digital marketing is quite extensive and it is therefore expected to reach a large population globally (Crowther, 2014). Digital marketing takes different forms ranging from the use social platforms to the use of paid advertisements in televisions and radios. Social media presents a good marketing opportunity that can be used by Philips healthcare to reach a huge global population within a short time. Specifically, Philips healthcare plans to use Facebook, Promoted Twitter ads, Google ads and YouTube adverts market the HealthSuite digital platform to potential users. The messages passed through these platforms will mainly address the importance of the digital platform and the benefits that healthcare institutions stand to benefit from its adoption (Roman & Conlee, 2015). Promoted Twitter and YouTube videos will demonstrate how the HSDP works.
Another digital platform that Philips healthcare seeks to leverage on so as to increase the awareness and hence sales of its HSDP product is through the use of its website. In this connection, Philips website will be updated from time to time to capture information that is geared towards educating potential users on the advantages of using the digital platform in streamlining healthcare operations. Philips will also sponsor paid advertisements in televisions as a way of reaching more people to increase the awareness of the HealthSuite digital platform. The choice of a particular marketing strategy to employ in a given area will depend on a couple of factors; the most significant ones being the existing regulations with regard to marketing of healthcare products, and the nature of the potential market (McIntosh & Bouteri, 2017).
In pursuing the marketing strategy, Philips seeks to stick to the best business communication practices. Particularly, the company seeks to adhere to different communication standards; First, Philips healthcare ensures that all marketing communications are done in an ethical manner (Bacile, Ye & Swilley, 2014). In this regard, no communications will be made with the aim of illegally and unethically tainting the name of our competitors. Additionally, the company does not intent to issue any information that is misleading to our customers. Only truthful information will be contained in our marketing messages at all times. Philips also pursues openness in its marketing communications. In regard to this, Philips healthcare seeks to ensure that the customers and other stakeholders do not feel uninvolved and isolated in the marketing decisions.
Assessment of Due Diligence
In its marketing endeavors, Philips Healthcare will need resources to undertake all marketing activities smoothly and successfully. Most of these resources will be financial. Since the company has a large pool of human resource expertise, the company will not need to add human capital. Financial resources will be needed to finance the marketing campaigns on TVs and other media platforms such as sponsoring Ads on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google (Kaur, 2016). Considering the fact that the product being marketed is a technological product, there need significant efforts to continuously innovate so as to add new features to match future needs of clients. As a result, the company will need significant amounts of investments in its research and development (R&D) department. Without such innovations, the marketing plans may be a futility as clients may shift to new products offered by the company’s competitors. It is estimated that Philips Healthcare will require $500, 000 to undertake all these activities for the first six months after the product launch.
The marketing activities which will involve sales staff going out to meet hospital managers and other clients personally will not need new staff as the company already has an extensive sales team that has the needed expertise. Currently, the company has 105,000 staff, who the company believes that are able to undertake their duties effectively (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). With regard to marketing activities which will involve upgrading the company’s website to capture information on the new product, no new staff will be required. Currently, Philips Healthcare has a qualified IT and marketing team that can effectively take care of telemarketing through the website. In areas of extreme need, the services of third-parties will be sought through advertising. In terms of operations, changes to be made will be few, if any. The reason behind this decision is that Philips believes that the company has developed a strong operational structure that is effective for steering marketing activities for its products. The structure of the human resource team will remain as it is.
Marketing Objectives and Goals
The marketing activities set out in this marketing plan seeks to achieve well thought objective and goals. These objectives have been set in full consideration of the company’s strategic goals. It is therefore believed that the marketing objectives are strategic and as a result, they will play an important role in helping Philips healthcare to meet its strategic objectives. All the objectives and goals are SMART, meaning that they are specific, they can be measured, and they are achievable, realistic and most importantly, they can be achieved within the set timelines (Bardiau et al., 2014). The general goals of the marketing plan are; to increase Philips HSDP sales, hence profitability, and to reach new customer base. The long-term success metric for Philips HSDP would be the number of patient lives that have been improved through the digital platform. The specific objectives that this marketing plan seeks to achieve include the following;
- To increase the HealthSuite Digital Platform sales by 25-30% within the first six months of its launch
- To reach new client base of 100,000 customers within the first six months of the product launch
- Increase the company’s market share by 10 % within the next one year.
- Through the marketing activities outlined in this marketing plan, the company aims at achieving a 15% increase in profitability in this financial year
- To increase market penetration rate by 6% within the next 12 months
- Through its support services offered by the Philips’ sales team, the company wishes to increase the customer satisfaction rate by 10% within the next six months
Benchmark from Competitors and Industries
Due to the changing and continued demands by the public to get fast, reliable, safe and quality healthcare, healthcare organizations are in continuous search for devices and equipment which can help them deliver the high expectations of their customers. The implication of this is that Philips healthcare must always keep its self on top of things by ensuring that its products address the current needs of the customers (Roman & Conlee, 2015). The fact that the area of Information Technology in hospitals and other healthcare organizations is fast changing implies that there are many competitors who may come up with similar products which may compete fiercely with Philips HSDP.
So as to make sure the product is not outdone by competitors, Philips Healthcare seeks to benchmark the actions of its closest competitors. It is, however, worth noting that Philips does not intend to copy the actions of any actions. Further, Philips healthcare does not intend to use the actions of its competitors to advance unethical marketing behaviors such as giving false information about the product of our competitors. However, the main reason as to why Philips Healthcare will closely monitor the actions of our competitors and that of other relevant industries is to ensure that we keep Philips Healthcare and its products at the same pace with industry changes. The competitors whose actions will be closely monitored and benchmarked by Philips Healthcare are General Electric (GE), Siemens and EMR companies such as Epic (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). The pharmaceutical industry will be closely benchmarked as its actions can significantly affect how services are provided in hospitals and clinics.
Prioritization of Marketing Objectives
The set marketing objectives have been prioritized in terms of urgency, importance, and risk associated with them. However, all the six objectives will be pursued as they are critical to the achievement of the company’s strategic goals. The main reason as to why the marketing objectives of Philips Healthcare have been prioritized is to ensure that resources are allocated objectively and correctly. The objective that has been ranked at the top of Philips plan is increasing the company’s sales for the HSDP product. In the first six months of its launch, Philips healthcare targets to increase HSDP sales by 25-30%. So as to achieve this objective, Philips healthcare believes that it is important to increase its market base by entering into new markets.
Through its push to enter new markets, Philips healthcare will increase its market share. Philips healthcare seeks to increase its market share by 10%. Through the combination of the first three objectives, increasing sales, reaching new clients and improving market share, the company’s strategic goal of increasing its profitability by 15% in the current financial year will be achieved. Profitability is a function of revenue and hence increasing sales will play an important role in achieving the strategic goal. So as to increase market penetration rate, the Philips healthcare will use its dedicated sales force.
Marketing Actions
Marketing Mix for Philips Healthcare
The marketing mix strategy for Philips healthcare discusses how the company plans to offer its product to the market, the kind of distribution channels it will use, the promotional strategy to be adopted and the prices that will be charged to customers.
Product
Philips healthcare offers a wide array of medical devices and equipment as well as the related software. Due to its extensive portfolio, the company had already gained a strong market share in the healthcare technology sector. The HealthSuite Digital Platform (HSDP) provides a whole new front for Philips Healthcare to increase its market share by better addressing the needs of its clients. The HSDP houses healthcare data as well as enabling applications which are used by healthcare professionals and their patients so as to improve decision making (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). The digital platform uses applications which allow healthcare organizations such as hospitals and clinics to integrate patient data as hence providing an avenue to improve the patient healthcare delivery through informed, accurate and faster decisions. The first two apps used in the platform were created in-house by the company’s technology experts. These included the eCareCompanion and the eCareCordinator. However, the company also plans to engage third-party developers who will assist Philips Healthcare in developing apps that are healthcare-focused.
Pricing
The pricing strategy adopted by Philips Healthcare in marketing its HealthSuite digital platform is competitive pricing. In competitive pricing, prices are set depending on the prices offered by the closest competitors (Schmidt, Spann & Zeithammer, 2014). Penetrative pricing, where the product will be offered at relatively lower prices, will be used for new markets where the product is quite novel. However, after the product has adapted to a given market, the prices will be changed to match those of our competitors. Since the technological landscape in the healthcare sector is changing very fast, it is expected that other players in the industry such as GE will start offering quite similar products. Therefore, the prices adopted for Philips Healthcare products will be set in close comparison to what other competitors are offering. The decision to use a competitive pricing strategy has been adopted to ensure that clients do not perceive Philips healthcare products as being inferior as compared to our competitors. At the same time, the company wants to ensure that customers do not run away due to extremely high prices as compared to other competitors.
Place/Distribution Strategy
The distribution strategy for Philips healthcare is quite simple in the sense that its HealthSuite digital platform is only used by hospitals and patients (Quelch & Rodriguez, 2015). The main target for the product is, therefore, healthcare facilities majorly hospitals and clinics. Considering the fact that the suite is a digital platform, there will be no need for extended supply chain for the product. However, high level of support to the clients will be required. As a result, Philips healthcare will offer support services from all support centers which exist in the major cities where the company is currently operating.
Promotional Strategy
So as to reach the targeted market, Philips HealthSuite digital platform will need to be promoted effectively. In its promotional endeavors, Philips Healthcare will use an integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategy (Šerić, Gil-Saura & Ruiz-Molina, 2014). The following promotional activities will be undertaken; advertising through television platforms; personal selling through the use of Philips sales team; Social Media where the company will place ads on the major social sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google; and sales promotions where the Philips healthcare will sponsor activities aimed at improving the lives of patients. Major activities to be sponsored include health walks and cancer prevention programs.
Global Marketing Issues in Philips Healthcare Marketing Plan
The healthcare sector around the globe is changing rapidly. As a result, Philips Health marketing plan acknowledges that there are global marketing issues that need to be addressed. Most of these concerns arise from rampant changes in technology and changes in customer expectations. The following are the key global marketing issues that Philips Healthcare will be addressed; First, disruptive technologies are likely to impact on Philips HSDP marketing plan (Griffith & Hoppner, 2013). For instance, changes in social media, as well as mobile apps, place hurdles on planned marketing activities which target the existing media platform such as Twitter, Facebook. YouTube and Google. Philips healthcare will, therefore, be keeping an eye on all the changes in social proliferation. The company is prepared to integrate any changes in technology into its marketing plan and its HSDP product. Secondly, globally connected customers may significantly impact Philips marketing plan. In the recent times, the world has been transformed into a global village, largely as a result of the ever advancing technology. Hospitals will, therefore, be in a better position to share information on the performance of hospital technological equipment and devices.
Another global marketing issue that Philips Healthcare may face in its implementation of the proposed marketing plan is price transparency. Price transparency is largely attributed to the advances in technology where sharing of information has become very fast (Griffith & Hoppner, 2013). The impact of price transparency is that it may become quite hard for Philips to differentiate its products. Philips healthcare may, therefore, be forced to sell HSDP at the same price globally. The point-to-point transaction, which will allow easier transactions, may eliminate the need for some of the proposed distribution channels in future. For instance, the need for travel agents may be eliminated in some countries as a result of eased transactions.
Limitations to the Implementation of the Marketing Plan
In the implementation of the marketing plan, Philips healthcare may be limited in some aspects. However, the company does not expect these limitations to have serious negative impacts on the marketing activities as they will be managed accordingly. Key limitations that are expected during the implementation of the marketing plan include the following; first, securing enough budget may pose a serious challenge to the marketing department. Considering the fact that a total of approximately $500,000 will be needed to push the marketing campaigns, securing the total budget may be a challenge.
Internal resistance to some of the marketing plans may also limit the planned marketing activities. The success of the marketing plan will largely depend on its buy-in from all staff and the management (Nemis-White et al., 2014). As a result, any resistance from the staff members or the management team may negatively impact on the achievement of the set objectives in the marketing plan. Rapid technological changes may pose significant challenges to Philips healthcare staff. Such challenges may significantly hinder successful implementation of the marketing plan. Such technological changes may necessitate training requirements to the staff so as to adapt to new requirements which may arise.
Conclusion
The healthcare landscape is significantly changing, a fact majorly attributed to increasing demands by patients to have better, faster and accurate health care. As a result, healthcare organizations have been striving to integrate technology into their operations. Philips healthcare took this opportunity to develop a HealthSuite digital platform (HSDP) that can allow healthcare professionals and patients to easily integrate healthcare data hence enabling faster and accurate decision making in hospitals and clinics. So as to achieve the desired level of success, the product need and the healthcare organization need to be marketed. The marketing plan has presented the strategy that Philips healthcare will adopt in its marketing endeavor. Key competitors in the industry include GE Healthcare, Siemens and EMR companies such as Epic. The competitive pricing strategy has been adopted in the marketing plan. Key global concerns which may influence the activities of the marketing plan include; rapid changes in technology, changes in customer expectations and global price transparency which may make price differentiation difficult.
References
Bacile, T. J., Ye, C., & Swilley, E. (2014). From firm-controlled to consumer-contributed: Consumer co-production of personal media marketing communication. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28(2), 117-133.Baron, S., Warnaby, G., & Hunter‐Jones, P. (2014). Service (s) marketing research: developments and directions. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(2), 150-171.
Bardiau, R., Seguran, M., Senart, A., & Osman, A. M. T. (2014). A Recommendation System for Specifying and Achieving SMART Goals. In WEBIST (2) (pp. 322-327).
Crowther, E. R. (2014). A comparison of quality and satisfaction experiences of patients attending chiropractic and physician offices in Ontario. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 58(1), 24.
Griffith, D. A., & Hoppner, J. J. (2013). Global marketing managers: Improving global marketing strategy through soft skill development. International Marketing Review, 30(1), 21-41.
Kaur, G. (2016). Social Media Marketing. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 4(7).
McIntosh, B., & Bouteri, S. (2017). Healthcare marketing: Does marketing strategy address essential markets?. British Journal of Healthcare Management, 23(9), 433-437.
McLain, D. L., & Kefallonitis, E. G. (2016). Safety, Comfort, and the Reduction of Fear: Healthcare Messaging and Marketing. Safety, 3(01).
Nemis-White, J., Torr, E., Gogovor, A., Marshall, L., Ahmed, S., Aylen, J., & Montague, T. (2014). Stakeholder surveys of Canadian healthcare performance: what are they telling us? Who should be listening? Who should be acting, and how?. Healthcare quarterly (Toronto, Ont.), 17(4), 22-27.
Quelch, J. A., & Rodriguez, M. L. (2015b). Philips Healthcare: Marketing the HealthSuite Digital Platform. Retrieved from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/pl/67645553/67645557/4957787c8bbc60c344c313b540c612db
Roman, D. H., & Conlee, K. D. (2015). The Digital Revolution comes to US Healthcare. Goldman Sachs (June 29, 2015), available at http://www. scbio. Org/resources/Documents/Internet of Things.
Schmidt, K. M., Spann, M., & Zeithammer, R. (2014). Pay what you want as a marketing strategy in monopolistic and competitive markets. Management Science, 61(6), 1217-1236.
Šerić, M., Gil-Saura, I., & Ruiz-Molina, M. E. (2014). How can integrated marketing communications and advanced technology influence the creation of customer-based brand equity? Evidence from the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 39, 144-156.
Sonntag, D., & Gelissen, J. (2015). A Paradigm Shift in Healthcare Provision. KI-Künstliche Intelligenz, 29(2), 203-205.
Thomas, R. K. (2015). Marketing health services (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.
Toledo, L. A., Madeira, A. B., de Farias Shiraishi, G., & Garber, M. (2014). Structure of Marketing Planning: A Reflective Analysis. Future Studies Research Journal: Trends and Strategies, 6(2), 48-73.