Capturing an Emerging Market The growing racial and ethnic diversity of the US p

Question

Capturing an Emerging Market

The growing racial and ethnic diversity of the US population seems to
overwhelm some healthcare providers. Health systems that are used to
providing one-size-fits-all care are now faced with patient populations
that are increasingly heterogeneous and whose members often have
perspectives on healthcare different from those of the providers. However,

if a provider can adapt to the needs of this growing market, a lot of
opportunities will present themselves.
    For example, promoting the opening of a birthing center to a community

is challenging enough, but it becomes even more daunting when
the residents speak 40 different languages.One hospital in an urban
midwestern community not only took on this challenge but also turned
it into one of the hospital's greatest marketing successes.
    Thirteen hospitals within a ten-mile radius of the primary service
area provided obstetrics services to the community. An estimated
24,274 women of childbearing age lived in the primary service area.
Another 134,055 women of childbearing age lived in the secondary
service area. A service area analysis identified the following ethnic
breakdown for the population: 72.2 percent white (including 18.9 per
cent Hispanic),11.2 percent Asian or Pacific lslander, 9.1 percent other,
7.0 percent African American, and 0.5 percent American Indian.The
percentage of Asians in the service area was quadruple the state and
national averages, and the percentage of Hispanics was double the
state and national figures.The racial and ethnic breakdown, however,
failed to convey the unique features of the service area. Among the
white population, recent immigrants from the Middle East and Eastern
Europe supplemented the Hispanic population.The Asian immigrants
came predominantly from Korea, Pakistan, India, and the Philippines.
    To more narrowly define the major ethnic breakdown of the childbearing market, obstetrics discharge data by physician were reviewed.
Physicians were asked to identify the major ethnic and cultural groups
of their patients.The following major groups using obstetrics services

were identified: Indian, Pakistani, and Middle Eastern (29 percent);
Korean(23 percent); Hispanic (13 percent); and Assyrian (6 percent).
Research into cultural considerations for these groups identified a
significant subgroup of Indian, Pakistani, and Middle Eastern patients
who were Mustim. On the basis of this information, four target ethnic

markets were defined: Korean, Middle Eastern, Muslim (Middle Eastern, Pakistani, and Indian), and Hispanic (Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban).
    To increase market share for obstetrics services at the hospital,
marketing strategies were developed to raise awareness of the new
family birthing center within these ethnic communities. To achieve
this goal in a highly competitive market, the following objectives were
adopted:
1. Differentiate services from those of competitors by means of
· graphic images and color coding for directional signage in the facility;
· multilingual and multicultural physicians (men and women), nursing staff,

cultural liaisons, and interpreters;

· culturally diverse artwork throughout the facility;
· large state-of-the-art labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum rooms with hot tubs

and space for family members;
· ethnic menus, along with microwaves and refrigerators for patient use
· childbirth preparation classes taught in Spanish, Korean, Arabic, and Hindi by

native speakers;
· a family-centered program of care;
· superior quality measures.

2. Enhance the hospital's marketing presence through
· creating a new maternity services brand for the hospital, featuring the graphic   

image of infant footprints;
· aggressively marketing and promoting the new features and benefits of the

hospital's maternity services; and
· reinforcing the hospital's unique position as a provider of culturally sensitive,

family-centered maternity care.

3. On the basis of these objectives, the following marketing initiatives were

identified for the hospital:

· Tailor market research to build knowledge and understanding
of each ethnic group.

· Implement culturally appropriate advertising campaigns for
each targeted group, including native-language posters/fliers,
newspaper ads, billboards, and radio ads.

· Develop a comprehensive guide to hospital services in
Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, and Korean.

· Launch aggressive media-relations efforts to promote the
hospital's unique commitment to meeting the needs of its
“neighborhood of nations.”

· Implement a comprehensive community-relations program.

· Tailor a series of grand-opening events to each ethnic market,
with ethnic menus, appropriate dignitaries, and entertainment.

· Develop a strong community presence for customized ethnic
maternity services, with photos of the physical space and
amenities in the hospital newsletter distributed to 125,000
households in the primary and secondary service areas.

· Distribute fliers to the religious institutions in the target market.

Source: Adapted from Noonan and Savolaine (2001).

Case Study Discussion Questions
1. What changes taking place in American society make a one-size-
  fits-all healthcare system obsolete?
2. What particular challenge did the community hospital face?
3. What marketing techniques were used to address the needs of a
diverse population?
4. In what ways did the hospital disseminate its message to the
  community(rather than relying on impersonal advertising)?
5. What indicators could the hospital have used to evaluate the
  impact of these marketing efforts?

Explanation / Answer

1. ANS: Healthcare and especially the high end treatments & medical procedures, are extremely expensive in America and it is also proven that, these high end treatments provide either no better or slightly better healthcare than the less expensive alternatives available in the system. The One-Size-Fits-All approach to the health care insurance coverage system in USA was a part of the Obama Govt's, plan to make available, the same Medicaid and Medicare to all the citizens of US, not differentiating to what income brackets did they belong and what their medical care needs are. In principle it sounds a very good and democratic system of providing health care to one and all. But it had its inherent flaws and the new Federal Govt. as well as the state Govts are opting for other more affordable alternatives of Healthcare in America.

Such high end treatments may not even be required by some people but the available health care insurance plans cover all these treatments also. Such limitations of the insurance plans make the One-size-Fit-All system of medical insurance unaffordable for many.

The medical insurance coverage attracts Income Tax benefits to individuals, but here also people in the higher income brackets get more benefited than the people in the less income brackets. The employing companies force all their employees to buy the same medical insurance coverage plan, as they had finalized, without caring for the varying needs of their employees..

This system was also hurting the R&D in the field of Medicare as the R&D is largely funded by the Federak & state Govts.

As an offshoot to this issue, some of the hospitals started offering Step Therapy for the treatments, these calls for administering first the low cost alternatives of medicines and treatments, wait for the patient's response and if required as a next step only, go for high cost medicines and treatments. This also did not prove to be a logical and viable option as the illness and as a result the treatment periods started becoming long.

The cost of Healthcare Insurance as a result of this apporach was very high and also some people found it not required or affordable, as it would have been better for buying healthcare plans which suit to their requirements better. Moreover people in low income brackets who are not privileged enough to have sufficient dollars for buying health care insurance and would like more to invest some of these dollars in home buying ad education of their children, found this system not good for them.

The Govts also would like to have all their people well covered under proper health insurance so that medical care is available to all, when needed.

These are some of the reasons and arguements against the One-Size-Fit-All system of medicare.

2. ANS: community hospital faced Particular challenges:

1. Lower discounts on supplies.
2. Lack of economies of scale.

3. Lack of negotiating clout with managed care

4. Increasing compliance costs
5. Lack of high-end service lines to drive profits
6. Limited access to financing

3. ANS:

The people who have different ideologies, expectations, needs, requirements, and who are heterogeneous on nature. One thing is sure, i.e. there is no single or set of tools to attracted customers diversified in nature. To attract and to entertain these customers, the firms must follow differentiated and diversified strategies. in this regards, diversity marketing focus and involves acknowledging that marketing and advertising must offer alternative ways of communicating to these diverse groups and, diversity marketers aim to develop a mix of different communication methods, in order to reach people in each of the diverse groups present in the market.

to diversify the marketing techniques the firms must do:

Expand the scope and coverage of the firm: when you divided the market into sub segments, then you can design programs to attract the kind of customers

Communicate the diversify plans to the target customers successfully, without any fail.

Choose your diversified customers by interacting with employees and sales force. both your workforce and sales force should include members from the unique markets you are looking to attract customers from different markets. These employees need to be able to identify and respond to the cultural nuances that shape global business meetings.

Please remind this note: Answering to many questions is against to CHEGG RULE,

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