Scarlet Hospital Case Study

INTRODUCTION

Scarlet Hospital is a not for profit medical and surgical institution which provides surgical services, situated in Walnut Grove and Salem The paper will be aimed at determining whether Scarlet Hospital was prepared to compete with the establishment in Salem even before the highway improvement mandated such an upgrade in delivery health care services or not Additionally, the paper will emphasize on highlighting the value of Michael Porter's Five Forces analysis and SWOT Analysis for effective decision making Therefore, the paper will conclude with a representation of a Balanced Scorecard model in its ability to help Scarlet Hospital executives reinforce its defensive marketing strategy

• Marketing Strategy and Stopping Out-shopping Complacency

The dilemma for the hospital was that, an interstate highway was being extended from Salem to Walnut Grove. Walnut Gove is a small community in the Mountain region of United States whereas Salem is a large metropolitan area located in to the east Walnut Grove approximately The opening of the highway resulted in competitors efforts to promote their institutions extensively however, the travel time between Salem and Walnut Grove would be reduced, thus increasing accessibility to Walnut Grove Most of the people repudiate to attain hospital services at the first place, and did not give much preference to the advertisements that may recognize an upcoming medical need Health care marketers promoted a service which was costly, complex and intimidating Therefore, the competition, profitable challenges, customer retention, quality medical care and market dominancy resulted in hospitals executing marketing strategies The Scarlet hospital was supposed to incorporate strategic essentials into their plans through deepening and strengthening relationship with current customers, targeted segment and channel of distribution. Reinforcing marketing and sales strategies by expanding customer base; targeting each market segments.

SWOT analysis:

Strength-

• It is committed to provide quality services to patients.
• Only big hospital with 350 patient beds in walnut grove within 50 miles radius

Weakness-

• Lack of aggressive marketing
• Competes with other several medical practitioners available in the same area
• Lacks out-patient care service which is not provided by the hospital

Opportunities-

• Introduction of Outpatient care accessibility
• Need more aggressive marketing strategy and innovation in their way of delivering patients care services
• Introduction of new customer services.

Threats-

• New competitors will begin to penetrate the market after highway construction.
• There are chances of losing customers  not enjoying the facilities of the scarlet hospital due to lack of innovation and having perception that city hospitals are better in providing good care.
• Negative advertisements published by the competitors about scarlet hospitals to enter the market can affect the market position.
• With entry of new competitors there will be chances of chances of supplier bargaining.

Porter’s five forces model analysis:

Competition is multidimensional, and its vastness must be clearly understood if marketing success is to be achieved. The critical task of accurately identifying the competitive elements in a market is greatly facilitated by Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model which provides useful insights into the multifaceted nature of competition. According to Porter, the nature of competition in any industry is based on five forces: existing competitors, potential entrants, substitutes, suppliers, and buyers.