Businesses are today competing against each other to attain their set goals. These goals can include raising the levels of profit and increasing their market share, which are facilitated by marketing the goods and services being offered. However, small businesses find it hard to establish themselves in the market, especially when there are other well-established competing businesses. Scarlet Hospital appears to be facing the same situation considering that the barrier to market entrance has been removed, which will lead to other established health facilities entering the market and affecting its share. The Scarlet Hospital has dominated the market for the past many years through the provision of quality services, and is the largest hospital in the region enjoying monopoly, but the situation might change.
According to the management of Scarlet Hospital, the facility was prepared to compete with the developments in Salem even before the project of constructing the highway to join the two towns forced them to increase competition. The hospital’s strategy of continually striving for excellence had ensured that the buildings in addition to the facilities in place were up to date (Fortenberry, 2011). Additionally, the facility had employed the best physicians to ensure that the quality of services availed to the patients was not compromised. This approach was key to ensuring the clients were attracted. Therefore, the facility did not need to carry out major upgrades to be at the same level with its competitors in Salem; hence, the only area it needed to concentrate on being marketed. The construction of the highway would have resulted in the facility incurring a lot of expenses in upgrading its facility. Additionally, the hospital would have been forced to restructure in such a way that operations are carried out efficiently to be at par with their competitors.
A large number of hospitals feel contented about the facilities they have and the level of services being offered, especially those that are located in secluded areas where there is less competition. However, with the advancement in technology, the accessibility to these areas is getting easier as bypasses are being constructed in addition to the introduction of faster means of transport, such as electric trains. Such developments are attracting other investors who are in search of new markets as a way of increasing their market size, which may pose competition to the contended health facility (Berry & Bendapudi, 2007). The situation may worsen when well-developed hospitals find their way into such markets because they will attract a large number of customers through their quality services facilitated by high-tech equipment and qualified physicians. Therefore, health institutions need to be at par with their competitors by continuously upgrading their facilities and ensuring that they offer quality services encourage customer loyalty.
A health organization needs to be aware of its abilities to carve a viable portion of the market by carrying out a SWOT analysis, but the benefits can only be maximized through understanding the environment in which it operates via Michael Porter’s Five Forces. The five forces model is designed in such a way that an organization is able to tackle its competitors by taking the opportunities and eliminating threats that may exist within the environment that the firm operates as shown in the figure below:
Figure 1: Michael Porter’s Five Forces model
Swot analysis will also help the health facility to identify the opportunities existing that can be utilized to earn a competitive edge in addition to the weakness that will need to be addressed. The combination of the two strategies will help the facility to identify its rivals in the market and to formulate the best strategy to assist in retaining its market share, especially at a time when the threat to new entry appears high (Chaniotakis & Lymperopoulos, 2009).
A balance scorecard is referred to as a strategic planning tool that organizations use to align the operations of the firm towards the set goals, enhance the firm’s interior and exterior communication, and streamline the company’s performance towards the strategic objectives. The diagram below shows the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard that managers need to use in developing metrics, collecting data and analysing it.
Figure 2: The scorecard
According to the scorecard above, managers need to view the firm according to the learning and development side that entails training employees and corporate culture, which will help Scarlet Hospital to ensure that it has the best workforce compared to its competitors. The business process perspective will make it possible for the management to know how the operations are being conducted and whether the services are aligned with the clients need while the customer perspective will ensure strategies to maximize customer satisfaction are put in place. The financial perspective will ensure that the management is updated regarding the firm’s financial position through financial reports as this will make sure that Scarlet is able to implement its strategies on time (Kotler, 2011).
Offensive marketing is a strategy that aims to counter competition in a market through targeting the flaws of the competitors while emphasizing on the strengths of the firm in comparison to win over consumers. During an offensive marketing, firms do not target to contest their competitor's strong points because they would end up playing right into their defensive strategy; hence, the sought after point is their weakness. Therefore, in coming up with an offensive strategy, Scarlet hospital needs to identify the weaknesses of its competitors and out of those selected, the management needs to pick one that it can challenge by posing it as its strength. Accessibility at the time of emergencies is one of the areas that Scarlet is strong while its competitors a weak because the building of the highway still makes it the closest especially during emergencies (Naidu, 2009). Hence, Scarlet hospital needs to brand itself as the hospital that can easily be accessed at all times, especially during emergency and that clients will receive the best care and can easily be monitored. Creating such a brand will make patients consider the issue of being monitored after being discharged in addition to the hospital being easy to access especially at nights when there is an emergency. The same message should be passed to the patients that it will be challenging for the hospitals located in Salem to monitor their progress after being released in addition to the fact that accessing the hospital in times of emergency being impossible.
In conclusion, the management of Scarlet Hospital was equipped to compete with the developments in Salem even before the project of constructing the highway to join the two towns started. However, it has been forced to strategize anew to retain its market share. By coming up with an offensive strategy, Scarlet hospital will be able to build on the weaknesses of its competitors while branding itself as the best in terms of accessibility during emergencies. The case helps ensure the institution is at par with others by continuously upgrading its amenities and providing quality services.
References
Berry, L. L., & Bendapudi, N. (2007). Health care a fertile field for service research. Journal of Service Research, 10(2), 111-122.
Chaniotakis, I. E., & Lymperopoulos, C. (2009). Service quality effect on satisfaction and word of mouth in the health care industry. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 19(2), 229-242.
Fortenberry, J. L. (2011). Cases in health care marketing. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Kotler, P. (2011). Reinventing marketing to manage the environmental imperative. Journal of Marketing, 75(4), 132-135.
Naidu, A. (2009). Factors affecting patient satisfaction and healthcare quality. International journal of health care quality assurance, 22(4), 366-381.
