Introduction
Ashford Children’s Clinic will be located in Houston municipality to focus on providing immunizations and screenings for conditions such as lead poisoning, developmental delays, and hearing or vision problems. Ensuring all children in Houston receive recommended immunizations and screenings is vital to protecting their health and well-being. Immunizations and screenings are some of the common ways used to prevent children’s deaths. People need to know about the new clinic; therefore, some of the available marketing strategies include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, and public relations. Ashford Children’s Clinic is a health organization that will be marketed to provide healthcare services to minimize children’s deaths.
Background
City Profile
Houston is the fourth most populous city in the United States, with a population of 2.3 million, and it is growing rapidly. The city is racially and ethnically diverse, with more than one hundred and fifty languages spoken; roughly forty percent of Houstonians are foreign-born (Ellickson et al., 2020). A few factors contribute to the lack of accessible healthcare in Houston. First, Houston has a large population of low-income residents who may not have the resources or transportation necessary to get to clinics (Haidar et al., 2021). Second, many healthcare facilities in Houston are understaffed and underfunded, making it difficult for them to provide adequate care to all patients.
Services Profile
Ashford Children’s Clinic will focus on providing children immunization services in the Houston municipality. Immunization of children refers to administering vaccines to young children to build up their immunity against infections and diseases (Martin et al., 2017). A screening is a process or test used to identify individuals with a particular disease or characteristic. Screenings are important because they allow for the early detection of health conditions and diseases in children.
Immunizations are one of the most effective ways to protect children from diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), varicella (chickenpox) and rotavirus. Similarly, the clinic will likewise provide other preventive care services, such as screenings. The screenings will include lead poisoning, anemia, tuberculosis, immunization status, and hearing and vision screenings. It will be important to screen children for these conditions as they can all lead to serious health problems if left untreated.
Competitive Landscape
There is stiff competition among clinics that provide immunization and screening services for children in Houston. Many parents are extremely diligent in finding the best possible care for their children and are willing to travel significant distances and incur costs to make sure their children are getting the best care available. It can be challenging to stand out in such a competitive landscape; Ashford Children’s Clinic will manage to differentiate itself by providing outstanding customer service and building relationships with parents and families. Similarly, it will offer a wider range of services such as immunization and screening since most hospitals are majoring in one service line. Indirect competitors offer substituted products that satisfy the same need, while direct competitors offer competing products for the same purpose (Downing et al., 2019). The clinic will have some direct and indirect competitors in the Houston area. Some of its direct competitors are Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, and Methodist Hospital. Conversely, its indirect competitors will include clinics such as Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, and Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital.
Additionally, there are many immunization and screening services substitutes in Houston. Children in Houston have access to a variety of immunization and screening services through the local health department, as well as through private providers. The Harris County Health Department offers immunizations for children and adults, as well as screenings for tuberculosis and other communicable diseases; the department likewise provides health education and outreach services. Private providers alternatively offer a variety of immunizations and screenings for children. Major healthcare providers such as Methodist Hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital offer children a wide range of services, including immunizations and screenings.
Marketing Communications Mix Recommendations
Advertising
Advertising is the process of marketing and promoting a product or service to potential consumers. For marketing communication, I recommend advertising for Ashford Children’s Clinic services to the Houston residents. Advertising will help to create awareness of the clinic and its services. This will be important because many people may not be aware of the clinic or its offerings unless they see advertising for it. Similarly, advertising can aid in generating interest in the clinic and its services to bring in new patients and families who may not have otherwise considered using the clinic. The four media houses that could be used for advertising in Texas are the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle Media Group, the Dallas Morning News, and The Texas Tribune. In terms of advertisement implementation, the clinic can sponsor children’s sporting events or other community-based activities to connect with parents and promote their services.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is the process of creating and building relationships with potential and current customers to persuade them to buy a product or service. There are a few reasons why I do not recommend personal selling as a marketing strategy for Ashford Children’s Clinic services. First, it can be very time-consuming to build relationships with potential customers one-on-one in the entire Houston. Second, it can be difficult to scale a personal selling operation as the organization grows. Third, the institution may have difficulty reaching potential customers who are not in its immediate network, or it may force the institution to employ many agents, which will increase its expenses.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is an important marketing tool to increase consumer demand, drive product awareness and encourage purchase. There are many different methods of sales promotion, but some of the most common include discounts, free services, and premium offers. By offering sales promotions, Ashford Children’s Clinic will increase brand awareness and drive traffic to its products or services. Additionally, sales promotion can stimulate customer demand and help overcome any hesitations potential customers may have about purchasing a product or service. In the implementation details, the discounts technique includes offering a percentage off of services or providing a set amount of money off services for a limited time. Another technique is using loyalty programs which will involve rewarding customers for their patronage by giving them incentives each time they visit the clinic. Finally, another common technique is providing free trials of services; this allows potential customers to try out the clinic’s services before committing to becoming regular patients.
Public Relations
Public relations are the strategic communication management between an organization and its public. I recommend Public relations because it will assist the clinic in building trust with its customers and shaping its image in a favorable light. There are several avenues the clinic can pursue regarding public relations. Traditional methods such as print, radio, and television advertising can generate awareness of the clinic and its services. A more modern approach would be to utilize social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (Key et al., 2017). In the implementation, these public relations platforms will inform the public about the cost-effective and efficient clinic packages offered by the clinic. The platforms will entail individuals testifying about their positive experiences with the clinic. The company will also hire bloggers to inform and answer online questions asked by potential or regular clients to ensure they get the clinic’s and instruction health information right. This online communication will similarly give Ashford Children’s Clinic an edge over its competitors due to quicker response and easier consultation online.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on tackling marketing goals through directly communicating with target customers rather than using indirect channels such as mass media. This communication can take many forms, including mail, telephone, email, and face-to-face meetings (Key et al., 2017). I do not recommend this type of marketing because it may be annoying to some of the email recipients who may not be interested in the company’s services. Similarly, some of the recipients may decide to ignore the marketing messages, while some may block the emails from Ashford Children’s Clinic company.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Ashford Children’s Clinic will be aiming at ensuring better healthcare in Houston. Indeed, the clinic has reasonable goals of boosting healthcare provision among children, but the company still has to market itself so that potential clients can beware of its services. As the marketing director, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations are my recommended marketing strategies. These three activities work well in the cycle to create a comprehensive marketing strategy. Advertising can introduce people to the clinic services; sales promotion drives them to purchase the services, and public relations can keep them coming back for more. By using all three of these activities together, the organization can effectively reach its target markets and achieve its desired results. Direct marketing and personal selling are not recommendable since they are cumbersome and slow in reaching the entire Houston residents.
References
Downing, S. T., Kang, J. S., & Markman, G. D. (2019). What you don’t see can hurt you: Awareness cues to profile indirect competitors.Academy of Management Journal, 62(6), 1872-1900.
Ellickson, R. C., Been, V. L., Hills, R. M., & Serkin, C. (2020). Land use controls: Cases and materials. Aspen Publishers.
Haidar, A., Khoei, A., Alex, S. E., Blick, C., Lopez, E., Wendt, S., Ghanta, R., Almohamad, M., Cousins, S., Noyola, J., Tien, J., Markham, C., & Sharma, S. V. (2021). Community-academic partnerships to promote health literacy and address social needs among low-income families during COVID-19.Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 53(1), 75-78.
Key, T. M., & Czaplewski, A. J. (2017). Upstream social marketing strategy: An integrated marketing communications approach.Business Horizons, 60(3), 325-333.
Martin, A. C., Bell, D. A., Brett, T., & Watts, G. F. (2017). Beyond cascade screening: Detection of familial hypercholesterolaemia at childhood immunization and other strategies.Current Opinion in Lipidology, 28(4), 321-327.