HCS 472 Week 3 Selecting a Marketing Strategy: The Four Ps Example

The Same Midwife From First Visit to First Feeding: A Positioning Strategy and Four-Ps Marketing Mix for a Birth Center's Second-Birth Families

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

HCS/472: Marketing in the Health Care Industry

Week 3 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The birth center, its prices and its partners are composites written for a model paper; research findings come from the sources listed.

Last week, the founders of a composite nonprofit birth center settled on whom to reach first: parents pregnant again whose earlier hospital delivery left them wanting a quieter, more personal birth, with families covered by Medicaid as a mission-driven secondary target. This week they must choose a marketing strategy and set the marketing mix. This paper compares three strategies, selects one, writes a positioning statement and makes decisions for each of the four Ps.

Three Strategic Options

The first option was broad awareness: advertise widely that birth centers exist and let families decide. It would help the whole field but cost more than the center can spend and would not distinguish it from any other option. The second was price: compete as the lower-cost choice. Birth center care often costs payers less than hospital birth, but most insured families pay similar out-of-pocket amounts in either setting, so price does not move their choice much. The third was differentiation: compete on something the target values that hospitals find hard to offer.

Choosing Differentiation

The second-birth families interviewed during research described the same complaint about their first births: they met a new clinician at almost every visit and during labor. Continuity of care, the same small team from pregnancy through the early weeks after birth, is something a large hospital with rotating shifts cannot easily match. Kotler and Levy (1969) argued that nonprofit organizations should design their offerings around the needs of the people they serve, and continuity is the need these families named most often.

Positioning Statement

For families expecting a baby who want to know the people caring for them, the birth center offers care from the same small team of midwives from the first prenatal visit through six weeks after birth, in a home-like setting nine minutes from a partner hospital.

Product

The product is an episode of care, not a birth. It includes prenatal visits with one of four midwives, group prenatal classes, labor and birth in a private suite with a tub, a home visit within 48 hours after birth, lactation support and a six-week postpartum visit. Part of the product is what happens if plans change: a written transfer agreement with the partner hospital and its midwives, who can continue care there. Stapleton et al. (2013) reported that most transfers from birth centers were nonemergent, and the center will explain the transfer process at the first visit rather than hide it. For a family choosing a birth center, the transfer plan is part of the product, not fine print.

Price

Price is shaped mostly by payers. The center has in-network contracts with Medicaid managed care plans and two of the three large commercial plans in the county, and is negotiating with the third. For insured families, the center will publish a simple estimate of typical out-of-pocket costs under common plan designs. For self-pay families, a single package price covers prenatal, birth and postpartum care, with a payment plan. Transparent pricing is itself a differentiator in a market where families often cannot learn hospital costs in advance.

Place

The site, a renovated house on a main road, is nine minutes from the partner hospital and near a bus line. Prenatal visits are offered two evenings a week and on Saturday mornings to fit working parents. Some prenatal check-ins and all lactation follow-ups can be done by video. Spanish-language visits are available with a bilingual midwife and interpreter, serving the secondary target.

Promotion

Promotion follows how the target decides. Second-birth families trust friends and pediatric offices, so the center will build referral relationships with six pediatric practices and host monthly tours with an open question session. Because families read reviews, the center will invite every family to review it after the postpartum visit. Hanauer et al. (2014) found that about six in ten people considered online physician ratings at least somewhat important in choosing a doctor, which suggests reviews will matter as much as any advertisement. Search advertising will target phrases families use when researching birth after a previous hospital birth.

How the Mix Fits Together

The four decisions reinforce one another. Continuity is the product, so promotion shows the four midwives by name and photograph rather than stock images of babies. Transparent pricing supports the honest tone of the positioning. Evening and Saturday hours make continuity practical for working parents, since a family that must take time off for every visit may drift back to a hospital clinic with longer hours. And the tours double as product and promotion: families meet the midwife who may attend their birth. If any one P contradicted the positioning, for instance a promotional campaign built around the tub rather than the people, the strategy would weaken.

The Secondary Target

For Medicaid-covered families, promotion runs through partners: the health department's prenatal program, a community health center and a Spanish-language community radio program. Materials explain in plain language that Medicaid covers birth center care.

Comparison With a Competitor

The larger hospital's maternity marketing emphasizes private rooms, a newborn intensive care unit and a well-known brand. The center will not compete on those features. Its mix emphasizes knowing your midwife, a home-like setting, transparent costs and an honest transfer plan.

Ethical Limits

All claims will be tied to published outcomes and the center's own data once available. No marketing will suggest birth center care is right for every pregnancy or imply that hospital birth is unsafe. Testimonials will follow privacy and advertising rules, with written consent.

Budget and Measures

The first-year marketing budget is $48,000, most of it for the website, search advertising, tour events and printed materials for partners. Success will be measured by tours booked, the share of tours that become enrolled families, referrals by source and online rating.

Conclusion

A differentiation strategy built on continuity of care fits a small center facing large hospital competitors and a target market that named continuity as its greatest need. The positioning statement guides every P: an episode of care with an honest transfer plan, transparent pricing within payer contracts, convenient hours and virtual follow-up and promotion through referrals, reviews and search. Next week, the promotion plan will be developed in detail.

References

Hanauer, D. A., Zheng, K., Singer, D. C., Gebremariam, A., & Davis, M. M. (2014). Public awareness, perception, and use of online physician rating sites. JAMA, 311(7), 734-735. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.283194

Kotler, P., & Levy, S. J. (1969). Broadening the concept of marketing. Journal of Marketing, 33(1), 10-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224296903300103

Stapleton, S. R., Osborne, C., & Illuzzi, J. (2013). Outcomes of care in birth centers: Demonstration of a durable model. Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, 58(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.12003