Developing a Marketing Plan

The steps for designing a marketing plan consist of the following:

• Define the Audiences
• Define the "Price" of the change
• Design the "Product" or the message
• Create the Promotion strategy

The audiences related to this change of the process are:

• external users: patients of the service, particularly the most seriously ill
• internal audience: the registry and nursing personnel who have to start working before administrative personnel and doctors
• providers: since this involves changing the administrative procedures, provincial or national authorities may have to give their approval

In changing the schedule of the service, each audience will have the following advantages and disadvantages:

• External users:
  • advantages: more security in being attended the same day, less of a line
  • disadvantages: getting up earlier and waiting in the dark
• Internal users:
  • The registration and nursing personnel have to begin work earlier, but can leave earlier. In addition, they will not have to hurry so much.
  • The administrative personnel have to set schedules in a different way but can attend to more users (productivity increases).
  • The doctors attend more people and see them sooner, increase their professional satisfaction, and decrease complications.
• Providers:
  • The Provincial Office loses the power of setting norms, but the productivity of the personnel increases, and resistance is diminished as the efficacy of policy making at the local level becomes clear.

The message has to emphasize the benefits of the change to the different groups:

• the external users will be interested in the possibility of being taken care of more rapidly;
• the registry personnel will gain increased responsibility and status within the community;
• the nursing personnel will not have to hurry as much;
• the providers will have increased sale of medicines;
• the provincial personnel will have increased coverage;
• the politicians will have the image of more efficient public service and skilled strategic planning.

Based on their analysis, Mrs. Alvarez and the team design the following promotion strategy:

• For external users, mass communication can be used to communicate the advantages of the new schedule (pamphlets and posters). The pamphlets will be given out in the community and will be available in the waiting room, and the posters will be displayed in public places.

• For personnel, personal communication (seminars and training) will be used. Before applying the new schedule, personnel will be trained. During these training sessions, the benefits of the new schedule will be emphasized.

• For authorities, Mrs. Alvarez will prepare written communication and meet informally throughout the process.