Heal a Cell Strategic Plan, Marketing Plan Example

Executive Summary

There is sickle cell anemia epidemic crisis that is affecting the African American people. The sickle cell anemia disease continues to kill more patients every day. The primary diseases that receive a plethora of awareness are Diabetes, AIDS, and HIV because they have more government and private support in providing educational information and resources.

Strategic Objectives

The community outreach is the primary strategic objectives that will bring the resources to the Africa American communities. The outreach initiatives will be strategically design to be at community centers, grocery stores, parks, and public schools. The Heal a Cell Inc. programs will provide services to the African American underserved areas that are not receiving or gain access to these resources and testing. A primary objective of the outreach is to provide safe alternative options to the African American community to receive the information with no pressure.

Products or Services

The services for the African American community will be take advantage of the new technology platforms that has become the preference of this generation. The Internet and smartphones will be integrated with program reminders, community information, and referrals to the proper agencies for SCD testing and educational information. There several studies that found that patients are spending more time access Internet resources and 65% of those study participants indicated they use the online support groups (Lu, 2013). The customers will be African American families that have children from the ages of four and under need to be tested early for sickle cell anemia. The research shows that children do not show any signs of sickle cell anemia until the age of four (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. (2012).

Resources Needed

The resources that will be needed to deliver resources to the African American community will be social networking platform, educational and clinical partners, counseling agencies and testing partners. The partnership resources are the most important because the healthcare seminars, community events, and local agencies programs are impact. The Heal a Cell Inc. approach is accessing the resources that have a presence in the community. These important relationships provide the platform to have access to the African American community and families.

Projected Outcomes

The project outcomes will be measured based on new surveys from African American families to ensure they are receiving the services they need. The anonymous survey will provide the most honest answers because they will not be identified and completely confidential. The project outcomes for the African American will be the access to educational information, important testing vendors, and what agencies can provide support for moral, educational, and financial support for the family.

Product, Place/Distribution, Promotion, and Price Strategies

The product is community resources that are resolving a service needed in the African American community. Heal a Cell products have the right features that are provide the confidentiality and education necessary for SDC families. The social networking product is an easy to use for the families to ask, share and request information in complete privacy. The social networking site will be well packaged with the immediate product confidentiality statement “This information will not be shared with outside parties unless they have permission of the patient.”

Product Descriptions and Product/Service Mix Strategies

The product description is part of the marketing plan to make the products enticing, available, and confidential. The Heal a Cell educational products mixed with Internet, community events and agencies programs that will make it easier for the African American community to receive the educational resources. The African American population has resources that are provide by different social agencies however, they social networking platform is the preferred communication channel for patients with sickle cell anemia.

Product/Service Determinants

The demand for the services will have seasons each year because the African American community has different events at the local community centers, churches, and local agencies. The goal is to create a cycle that adapts to the African American events each quarter during the year. The first three months of the year, many of the events will rotate from agencies to open events.

Creating a Brand Image

Our vision statement will be our brand, which is “educating “families are the most important link in the community including the protection of your privacy.” The vision for Heal a Cell Inc. will be utilized to emphasize the family. The African American community has many different organizations with different products. Our branding message wants to represent the emotions concerning the SCD.

Maintaining Brand Image

The project for maintaining the brand will continue to ensure the brand is different and can be recognize by the community. The brand will be saturated in the community with free flyers, educational booklets, and SCD information with our brand on the materials. In addition, we will have pens, pencils, umbrellas, and t-shirts with our logo to keep our brand in the community’s eyes.

Branding Concerns

The branding concerns are the similar brands that may be confused as another organization. In addition, the Heal a Cell Inc. services are not like a cereal product that can be different from competitors. The branding must constantly be adapted to how we can stand out from the crowd. The branding strategy is based on a proven branding technique used by Arm & Hammer baking soda. The same premise indicating that our brand is working at finding solutions to SCD.

Distribution Strategies

The distribution strategies will be using vendors to distribute our materials or allow us to stock our materials new the free advertising racks. The local merchants have free advertising for new products and services. This is an untouched advertising market because most of the services in the booklets are for food, clothing, or discount products. The selective placement of the Heal a Cell Inc. products and services will allow the African American community to received information that is distributed weekly.

Channels, Mass, Selective, Exclusive

The best marketing channel is critical for Heal a cell because the geographical area of the African American community has to be serviced. Vendors that already have a presence with a massive customer base will complete the mass distribution of the products and services. The Pennysaver has a direct distribution channel to customers that can be delivered in any specific geographical area. The secondary channel will be health insurance companies that look for partners to participate in Wellness campaigns.

Promotion/Integrated Marketing Communication

The promotion and integrated marketing communication channel will utilize the social networking Facebook and Twitter accounts to allow the African American community o received educational information and testing from various channels such as the Internet, IPhone, Smartphones, and other devices connected to the laptop and PC.

Advertising Strategy/Objectives

The advertising will market in the major cities that are New York, Florida and Texas along with need more legislation to bring more funding and support to these three cities. In addition, many patients do not receive necessary testing because they do not have enough counseling resources in the own living vicinity. The strategy will be advertising the available testing locations along with grant assistance to pay for some of the necessary testing. The objective is to advertise to the Africans American families in these cities exclusively.

Push and Pull

The movement of the product will be an integrated relationship between the demands of the African American population, which is the push for the product, and the pull of our vendors and suppliers meeting that need by deliver our educational content. The suppliers can deliver the product to physical locations or by the Internet.

Media Strategy

The media strategy will including using Internet services that release weekly educational information by radio and Internet media platforms. The media exposure will provide newsletters and TV commercial has to reach the African American community. The objective is to saturate the market with information provide a plethora of media advertising to bring the customers to Heal a Cell Inc. for support and education.

Advertising Execution

The adverting execution will be completed in unison with the yearly cancer and cystic fibrosis campaigns. The wheel does not need to be reinvented because the United Way organizations have already set the platform for strategic product placement and execution. The target market will be the African American families therefore the advertising will be catered towards their SCD needs.

Sales Promotion

The sales promotion will be delivered by mail, Internet and in the community. The primary goal so the sales promotion is to ensure African American families that can received financial support for genetic testing. The sales promotions will be put in the weekend deliver of sales promotions to the African American community about the available resources.

Direct Marketing

The direct marketing to the African American community, which one of the Heal a Cell Inc. priorities to ensure families can afford the early testing along with working with pediatrics national wide to include the testing during the children’s physical. The direct marketing to the African American consumer will be sent directly to those that request information or testing services.

Public Relations/Strategies

The public relation strategy will be to release positive review concerning the company each month. The community outreach program will be part of the pubic relation plan to present the image of the company using Internet releases concerning the information and services provided by Heal a Cell Inc. team. The public relation goal is to inform, educate, and present a positive image to the community. The social networking has change the public relations platform by creating hundreds of way to reach the targeted African American population.

Positioning

The Heal a Cell Inc. will be positioned to provide services that can be delivered directly to the African American families with children from the ages of four that need testing for SCD. The research shows that children do not show any signs of sickle cell anemia until the age of four (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. (2012). Heal a Cell Inc. wants to position themselves with hospitals, family physicians and pediatricians to provide testing for all children at the age of four years old. The market has a plethora of African Americans that Heal a Cell Inc. can include in their marketing plans because there are more than 2 million African Americans that have the sickle cell trait. This means the ravaging SCD disease affects one in 12 African American people in the United States (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, 2012).

Dynamic/Static Pricing Strategies

The dynamic pricing will be change based on the season and promoting testing. The first part of the year, the prices will remain the same because of income tax season with disposable income. The children going back to school after the summer vacation will provide discounts on all products during that period. The dynamic pricing strategy for the cost of the genetic testing will change during the year based on applied deductibles at the beginning of the year. The African American families with insurance will need help with payments during January to June. Most families have met their deductibles by June of each year, which they normally pay very little out of pocket for genetic test. The second dynamic price adjustment will come at the end of the year in October to December as family’s budget for the holidays. The pricing strategy is to encourage testing several times per year to decrease the financial burdens of genetic testing for the whole family. The static pricing will be off-season for those that looking for a small to medium discount for the genetic services. These customers want to make sure they are not being overcharged for the services and they are price consensus. The customers wants to be satisfied with the purchase of testing while overcharging my lose the customer forever (Carvin,2007).

References

Carvin,B.(2007). What is the best pricing model – Dynamic or static? Retrieved from http://nobscot.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-is-best-pricing-model-dynamic-or.html

Lu, Y. (2013). Automatic topic identification of health-related messages in online health community using text classification. SpringerPlus, 2, 309. doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-309

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2010). Report of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council Subcommittee Review of the NHLBI Sickle Cell Disease Program. Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/resources/docs/scd_program.htm

Sicklecelldisease.com. (2015).About: Sickle cell anemia. Retrieved from http://www.sicklecelldisease.org/index.cfm?page=legislative-initiatives

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2010). Sickle Cell Anemia Disease Awareness.Education Strategy Development Workshop Report. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Publication No. 56-205N