Pros and Cons of Billboard’s Posting by Crestview Hospital
Firstly, the advantages and drawbacks of the billboard’s postings have to be evaluated, as they determine the position of the institution on the market and define the perceptions of its services in the society. In this case, the billboard panels, which were aimed at the enhancement of the hospital’s image, were available for Briarwood Medical Center (Fortenberry, 2010). Nonetheless, the Briarwood Medical Center was facing a vehement competition from Crestview Hospital, as these medical institutions were located on the same street (Fortenberry, 2010).
Furthermore, the Briarwood Medical Center lost its market share due to the inability to introduce efficient marketing campaigns and struggled to perform sufficient management. Lastly, the Briarwood Medical Center failed to forfeit the billboard opportunity, and Crestview Hospital took advantage of the situation.
In this instance, the pros should be defined from the perspective of Crestview Hospital. One of them is to modify the perception of the customers by stating that it has more reliable services than Briarwood Medical Center. In turn, Crestview Hospital located its billboards advertisement close to its competitors (Fortenberry, 2010). In this case, the presence of the banner adjacent to the location of Briarwood Medical Center contributes to the understatement of the historical value of the medical center and underlines the advantages of the hospital. Furthermore, the billboard provides the hospital with the opportunity to establish a consistent brand image while building its market share and cultivating trusting relationships with the customers.
Nonetheless, the cons tend to be present due to the absence of the cost-efficiency of this advertising campaign. One of them is the fact that the utilization of the billboards might be expensive (Hoxie, 2011). Additionally, it might require extended time to deliver the desired message to potential customers (Hoxie, 2011).
Finally, the assessment of the pros and cons analysis defines the efficiency of the application of the billboard’s postings in the contexts of the hospitals. In turn, this matter provides customers the opportunity to select the best medical entity due to the location of the competitors on the same street. As for the other community stakeholders, it attracts the attention to the new medical establishment and determines the possibility of the creation of the partnerships with a novel medical entity.
Competitive Marketing Entry Strategy for Briarwood Medical Center
In turn, the competitive marketing entry strategy has to be suggested and developed for the sufficient functioning of the Briarwood Medical Center in the market due to the presence of the highly intensified competition. It could be said that the price maintenance is essential to remain competitive in the market, as it contributes to the understanding of the ability to attract the customers by utilizing this entry strategy and preserve the costs of advertising on the same level (Alter & Rigbi, 2015). In this instance, the company should research the prices of the competitors and minimize its own. Nonetheless, the prices have to be reduced carefully, as it might affect the ability of the company to maximize its profits.
Another strategy is the capability to emphasize the high quality of the services and enhance service delivery (Craciun, 2013). It has a beneficial influence on the perception of the services and increase of the market share. In this case, the hospital has to set the particular KPIs and advertise its ability to pay high attention to the perceived service quality. Furthermore, this approach has to be promoted actively on the website, and the percentage of satisfaction has to be maintained at a high level.
Lastly, the company might engage the customers in the advertising campaigns while penetrating and entering the market. This approach will contribute to building trusting relationships with the customers while increasing the market share. In this instance, the online customer engagement is the most appropriate tactic, as it implies sharing the stories related to the company in the social networks and organization’s website (Hammedi, Kandampully, Zhang, & Bouquiaux, 2015). In this instance, the medical center should focus on the presence in social media and encourage the customers to leave positive feedback about the services.
In the end, it remains evident that selecting the right competitive strategy will assist in the formation of the relevant image in the market as a factual perspective will be established. Nonetheless, the medical center has to enhance features such as affordability of the price and high quality of the services to create an understanding of being superior to the competitors among consumers. Furthermore, the medical entity has to devote substantial attention to the attitudes of the customers and encourage engagement in increasing the clients’ satisfaction.
Marketing Communication Strategies for Crestview and Briarwood Medical Institutions
It remains apparent that the applicable and suitable marketing communication strategies have to be established for both institutions, as it contributes to the understanding of the ability of the hospital to deliver a relevant marketing message to the targeted audience. In turn, the management of both medical entities has to take a proactive position in the establishment of the marketing campaigns, as the presence of the previous mistakes was a primary reason for the loss of the market share and expensive promotion.
Firstly, Crestview Hospital has to find alternative approaches to billboard advertising due to the high costs of the utilization of this method. In this instance, the medical institution can employ the billboard’s optimization strategy to increase the number of visits and improve message delivery (Sadeh, Nooraie, & Hajikarimi, 2013). In turn, it can use various alternatives such as direction signs to show a route to the medical entity, as it does not need the significant investment of the financial resources into the capability to deliver the message to the potential clients.
In turn, Briarwood Medical Center has to pay attention to the novel and modern ways of promotion. In this instance, social media advertising while developing trusting relationships with potential users is the relevant approach due to the high popularity of the Internet in the modern world. In turn, the engagement of the customers in the online interactions will contribute to building a customer-friendly base for communication (Hammedi et al., 2015).
In this case, the company will be competitive in the market and will increase its market share due to the inimitability of the selected approach or the requirement of the high investment of the financial resources in the imitation of the marketing strategy. In the end, the optimization of the marketing strategies is an obligation, as it defines the institutions’ abilities to maintain their market shares.
Assessment of the Value of Marketing Research Tools for Crestview and Briarwood Hospitals
Lastly, the role of the marketing research instruments cannot be underestimated since it contributes to the discovery of the marketing trends, which will have an advantageous influence on the functioning of both institutions. In turn, a combination of the utilization of the marketing instruments and tools is vital for the development of the relevant marketing mix and sufficient marketing strategy. Finally, the depicted instruments can be utilized in the contexts of Crestview Hospital and Briarwood Medical Center.
In this case, the online market research can be considered as appropriate due to the low cost of the application and the involvement of the potential patients and clients in the marketing process and activities (Comley & Beaumont, 2011). In this instance, the employment of this feature will encourage the customers’ participation in the social networks and contribute to the formation of the positive image of the institution among the competitors. It remains evident that this approach is suitable for both entities. However, it will assist in reaching a better performance of Briarwood Medical Center due to the necessity to seek the promotion alternatives.
In turn, the medical entities can gather information about the patients by utilizing the databases and conducting direct interviews with the customers. Furthermore, the mobile and tablet applications to collect information about the clients and gather data about the potential expansion of the services (McCartney, 2015). Lastly, this tactic will have a suitable influence on the ability to determine whether the usage of billboards is the relevant approach in terms of the capability to deliver the desired message to the customers.
References
Alter, I., & Rigbi, O. (2015). Price control and advertising in franchising chains. Strategic Management Journal, 36(1), 148-158. Web.
Comley, P., & Beaumont, J. (2011). Online market research: Methods, benefits, and issues. Journal of Direct, Data, and Digital Marketing Practice, 12(4), 315-327. Web.
Craciun, C. (2013). The improvement of service quality. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(1), 408-414. Web.
Fortenberry, J. (2010). Cases and healthcare marketing. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Web.
Hammedi, W., Kandampully, J., Zhang, T., & Bouquiaux, L. (2015). Online customer engagement. Journal of Service Management, 26(5), 777-806. Web.
Hoxie, M. (2011). 90 days to success marketing and advertising your small business. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Web.
McCartney, P. (2015). mHealth and collecting research data from patients with mobile tablet apps. The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 40(6), 376. Web.
Sadeh, D., Nooraie, M., & Hajikarimi, B. (2013). Billboard advertising optimization by using imperialist competitive algorithm. African Journal of Business Management, 7(36), 3706. Web.