Abstract
Enhancing the potential of soldiers is currently one of the key goals of the U.S. military. There is no need to stress the fact that soldiers are exposed to an array of factors that drain their physical potential. For instance, they are supposed to carry significant weight, therefore affecting their osseous system and facing the threat of sustaining an injury. Furthermore, the excessive amounts of walking that constitute a part of the soldiers’ experience also have a tangible impact on their physical abilities, strength, and stamina. Exhausting themselves and exposing themselves to the threat of developing health issues related to their skeletal system, soldiers need the tools that could provide support and address the issues related to the physical challenges. Furthermore, the necessity to carry a heavy load, which tends to increase as new tools are introduced into the environment of the U.S. military, is likely to trigger severe back injuries in soldiers as well as numerous complications that will reduce their quality of life and eventually lead to the necessity to use a wheelchair as the main mode of transportation.
Current Situation: An Overview
The introduction of exoskeletons is bound to have a prominently positive effect on the current situation. By helping to reduce the physical challenges that U.S. soldiers are exposed to in the military setting, the identified devices are bound to make a difference in the target realm. The first and the most obvious is that exoskeletons help soldiers carry significant weight for an increased amount of time without feeling tired. In other words, the threat of a spinal injury or the development of chronic issues related to the osseous system can be successfully prevented (Bender, 2011).
Objectives and Issues
The objective of the study is to draw up a viable marketing plan that will help attract attention to the issue of exoskeleton usage. For understandable reasons, the innovation is taken with a grain of salt at present by the U.S. military authorities. However, in a long-term perspective, the use of exoskeletons is likely to help save a substantial amount of financial resources. Indeed, by providing the foundation for helping soldiers remain healthy during the course of their service, fewer veterans will require financial assistance as they will have fewer health issues as a result of their service.
In other words, the reduction in the expenses that the U.S. military incurs on a regular basis because of the unreasonable use of its human and financial resources can be viewed as the primary goal. Furthermore, the focus on the quality of life of the U.S. soldiers in general and the prevention of developing health problems in particular can be considered an important objective.
Thus, the promotion of exoskeletons as the primary means of reducing health-related threats in the environment of the U.S. military and preventing health issues development among the American soldiers should be considered the primary goal of the project. Although the device proposed as the solution to the associated problems is admittedly expensive, in the long run, it is bound to become a cost-efficient tool that will help reduce the expenses of the U.S. Military Department. Therefore, all parties involved, including the soldiers, the military authorities, and the related organizations, will benefit from the introduction of the concept of an exoskeleton into the array of tools used to complete the routine actions of an American soldier (Bender, 2011).
Target Market, Customer Analysis, and Positioning
Healthcare companies providing services to soldiers working in the U.S. military organizations are the primary focus of the marketing plan. Specifically, the U.S. military and its private partners should be viewed as the key people to whom the plan will be pitched. For instance, apart from the U.S. Army, which already includes a rather broad audience, commands such as the United States Special Operations Command will be viewed as the target audiences.
Analyzing the target market, one must mention that it is already represented by a range of rather strong companies, such as Ekso Bionics, Sarcos, Lockheed Martin, etc. (Marinov, 2016). The market environment, however, cannot be deemed as saturated since the product is comparatively new and the number of organizations that the market is represented by is quite low. Therefore, an active expansion of the target environment is expected soon, according to a recent report:
The Worldwide Exoskeleton Market is set to grow 75.5% to reach $3.75 billion in 2021 from an estimated $225.3 million in 2016, according to Arcluster, in the first-of-its-kind market report on Exoskeletons. The highest growth will come from medical exoskeletons, which is projected to grow 69.2 percent between 2016 and 2021. Revenues from commercial and industrial exoskeletons is set to grow more than 20x between 2016 and 2021. (Arcluster Media, 2016, par. 1)
Therefore, the current market environment can be deemed as rather favorable for introducing exoskeletons as the means of reinforcing the efficacy of the U.S. Army. The customers that the company will appeal to, in turn, can be deemed as rather demanding. However, in light of the fact that exoskeletons are a unique product that is unlikely to be substituted by equally efficient yet cheaper versions, the bargaining power of buyers is comparatively low in the identified market.
Given the large variety of the companies providing similar services to the U.S. military and the associated organizations, the competition is going to be rather stiff. Indeed, exoskeletons as a concept are not new, and they were originally deployed in American healthcare as a means of improving the quality of life among patients quite a while ago (Gopura, Bandara, & Kiguchi, 2016). Therefore, it will be necessary to develop the competitive advantage that will help make the product stand out from the range of similar devices and substitutes. The price issue also needs to be brought up as a significant constraint; because of the substantial amount of financial resources required to cover the expenses, the state authorities may be reluctant to consider the acquisition of the devices as a possibility (Marinov, 2016).
Finally, when considering the positioning of exoskeletons in the identified market, one should put a very heavy emphasis on the long-term benefits that the product will deliver to the customers. For instance, the current strategy could focus on the chances of rearranging the traditional strategy of using resources, thus making it cost efficient and reducing the long-term costs. Another possible marketing strategy that will definitely turn some heads and therefore trick the customers into paying attention concerns the idea of exoskeletons as the tools for building soldiers with nearly superhuman abilities. Although the term itself can be viewed as a bit of a stretch given that the soldiers will not technically gain any extra strength, it will reflect the effects that exoskeletons have on people wearing them. Particularly, the opportunities for increasing the soldiers’ stamina needs to be mentioned.
In a similar way, healthcare organizations striving to provide people that suffer from the issues related to their osseous system need to be mentioned as the possible customers. Increasing the quality of people’s lives is a crucial objective of healthcare companies. Once supplied with exoskeletons, healthcare firms will be able to put exoskeletons into everyday use as the means of reducing the pressure of physical challenges that patients with skeletal system issues or physically challenged people have to face on a regular basis. As possible customers, healthcare services can also be viewed as the buyers with middle to low bargaining power. With the information provided above in mind, one should also consider the idea of positioning the product as the device that will relieve people with certain health problems of their pain (Marinov, 2016).
Marketing Strategy
To promote the product successfully, one will have to put a strong emphasis on the opportunities for increasing the quality of patients’ lives that the product offers. It is essential that the patients should be able to perform essential functions and engage in basic physical activities. Seeing that exoskeletons provide extensive chances for the identified objectives, they need to be marketed as such. In other words, exoskeletons must be viewed as more than prosthetics; instead, they need to be represented as the means of helping people perform the same activities in which they used to participate before the surgery.
As stressed above, a combination of the image of a superhuman and the idea of relieving people of the pain that they are forced to deal with regularly due to their health issues is likely to serve as a perfect foil for branding the product. The brand image will become instantly recognizable and very memorable once the concepts of extra strength and the opportunity to get rid of pain, even though only partially, are incorporated into it. One must keep in mind, though, that the target audience must develop a good understanding of the properties of an exoskeleton and not overestimate it. In case the buyers build excessively high expectations for the product only to find out that it, in fact, does not remove pain completely or give incredible strength, they will be very disappointed after purchasing the product and thus will refuse to have anything to do with the organization ever again. Furthermore, the project may gain a very poor reputation, thus blocking the company’s way from promoting itself in the target market (Dydiw & Lawson, 2015).
Marketing Programs
The marketing programs must target healthcare organizations, including both the ones that provide surgeries and those that support amputees. The programs must be used to brand the company and its product so that the exoskeletons that it creates become an immediately recognizable and valuable product. As explained above, a very strong emphasis must be placed on helping the target members of the U.S. population view exoskeletons as both tools for improving the quality of life of the people that have lost their limbs as well as a means of providing U.S. soldiers with additional opportunities in performing crucial military tasks.
For these purposes, traditional advertisement tools, as well as the latest IT devices, will have to be used. For instance, to draw people’s attention to the problem, advertisements on billboards and in public transportation can be viewed as an option. At the same time, the concept will have to be pitched to the identified organizations and companies by using e-commerce. Finally, setting an event that will draw attention to the product and possibly invite some of the members of the target audience to become business partners should be viewed as a necessary step in advancing the product in not only the home but also the global market.
The program will also involve extensive branding activities, including the creation of a memorable brand image and a profound philosophy behind it. By creating a competitive advantage that will help stand out from a range of similar companies, the leaders of the project will be able to attain success. At present, the focus on expanding the idea of a superhuman, as well as the concept of reducing pain, needs to be used as the foil for the design of the brand image.
Financial and Operational Plans
It is expected that the introduction of exoskeletons into the target market will help the company gain a total profit of $100,000,000 by the end of the year. At present, the organization has $50,000,000 at its disposal to cover the expenses, including any unexpected ones. Although essential principles of sustainability are going to be used to reduce the waste and cost levels, the process of producing the devices, as well as marketing them to the identified organizations, is likely to be rather expensive. Therefore, it is imperative to focus on the strategies that will help manage the available resources in a manner that is as efficient as possible.
For instance, apart from the Lean Management principle mentioned above, the promotion of performance quality improvement could be viewed as a possibility. For this purpose, the concept of the Six Sigma—or, to be more accurate, its DMAIC framework—needs to be introduced into the organization. Used as the tool for enhancing the repeatability and reproducibility of a company, it will help eliminate the chances of having defective items as well as promote motivation among the staff members (Pyzdek & Keller, 2014).
Metrics and Implementation Control
The control over the quality of the end product and the services offered to the target organizations will be carried out by using the DMAIC framework mentioned above. Its control phase will help carry out close supervision of the product’s quality. Simultaneously, the principles of the Total Quality Management (TQM) must be included in the control over the implementation. The TQM tool will serve as the foil for consistent improvement of the exoskeletons so that the product could meet the latest quality standards.
As far as the measurement process is concerned, the product quality will be assessed based on the statistical analysis of defective items produced. Thus, a detailed qualitative analysis with the following forecast of the potential future scenarios will be possible. In addition, customer surveys will be deployed as the means of retrieving feedback and improving the product quality based on the current market demands.
References
Arcluster Media. (2016). Global exoskeleton market projected to reach $3.75 billion in 2021. Web.
Bender, E. (2011). Human exoskeletons – for war and healing. Web.
Dydiw, S., & Lawson, H. (2015). Augmenting United States military efficiency through exoskeleton technology. Web.
Gopura, R. A. R. C., Bandara, G. S. V., & Kiguchi, K. (2016). Developments in hardware systems of active upper-limb exoskeleton robots: A review. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 75(1), 203-220.
Marinov, B. (2016). 19 military exoskeletons into 5 categories. Web.
Pyzdek, T., & Keller, P. (2014). The Six Sigma handbook (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.