Marketing Plan Sickle Cell Anemia, Marketing Plan Example

Introduction

Heal a Cell Inc. is company that provides meals, education and care for the young and old with the disease of sickle cell anemia(SCD).. The vision for a Heal a Cell company is to address issues related to sickle cell disease for African American population. In the United States today, there is has approximated that 70,000 to 100,000 people primary African Americans suffer with SCD U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.(2010). There are a number of marketing opportunities based on the current barriers in the African American community and in the area of SCD research.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute(2010), has found there is a need for more SCD research to find aggressive treatment options and approaches to provide the patients that are African Americans with a chance to live a long and productive life. Heal a Cell Inc. will market our services to African Americans with SCD by bring about new platforms of delivering new clinical options, ground breaking research, and establishing the trust of African American families.

Marketing Research

The market research concerning sickle cell anemia for African American found a disturbing problem that may be responsible for the lack of more life-saving alternatives to the market. The market is current dominated by Bristol-Myers Squibb, who is a global giant that combines the pharma and biotechnology industries to address fighting millions of diseases. There are the leaders in the market providing clinical trials for sickle cell anemia in 50 countries, which strengthen their claims on being the leader in solving the sickle cell anemia problem (Bristol-Myers Squibb, 2015).

Primary Research

There is sickle cell anemia crisis among African American people because the disease is needlessly killing 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. Many times in the black community, the sickle cell anemias symptoms are mistaken for allergies such as blurry eyes, sinus problems, and constant fatigue (Jackson, 1999).

Secondary Research

The secondary research is the area of African American families with children under the ages of four. There are children that have the symptoms cold hands and dizziness that represent the start of sickle cell anemia disease. In addition, the children have swelling feet called the hand-foot syndrome (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. (2012). The research found that the need for African American families to test their young children as early as possible because the symptoms may be present prior to the age of four. In the marketing to the African American community, one of the priorities will be ensuring families can afford the early testing along with working with pediatrics national wide to include the testing during the children’s physical.

Consumer Analysis

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. The African American consumer is already using the cell phones, Internet, social networking platforms, and other devices to gather information in the comfort of their homes. The African American consumer will be open to receiving information of testing, new pharma solutions and places that provide support for African American families.

Customer Profile

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). Heal a Cell wants to market to 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).

Continuous Consumer Monitoring & Research

The continuous monitoring of the African American community ensuring they are receiving the educational and social services support needed for their children. In addition, to monitoring the use and access of multiple platforms that provide educational information such as governmental agencies. The city and state has resources that allow the SCD patient to receive help and assistance for the local Department of Health, however more social networking alternative need to be introduce.

Environmental Scanning

One of the external factors that affect the delivery of educational information to sickle cell anemia patients is the embarrassment of having the disease. Many patients with chronic disease tend to shy aware from public educational resources that may help find more resources. In the new electronic era with Social Networking and cell phones, more information needs to be exposed on the information highway. 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 Heal a Cell Inc. can provide a presence on the social network platform that provides the African American SCD patient privacy, security, confidentiality and more information at the convenience of their own homes.

Identify Market, Economic, Technological, Regulatory, Legal, Social, and Ecological Forces

The marketing plan will concentrate on the three states that have the most incidences of sickle cell anemia for African American people. The state of New York is the number one with the most incidents of SCD among African Americans, Florida comes in second, and the state of Texas is the third state with the most African American people that have diagnosed with sickle cell anemia (Brousseau, Panepinto, Nimmer & Hoffman, 2009). According to the SCD website Sicklecelldisease.org (SCDAA) (2015), the is a need for more educational campaigns, genetic testing, counseling and physiological support for individuals and families. These cities have a plethora of legal, social, and economic issues that must be address by the Heal a Cell Inc. to be successful.

Current Opportunities

The current opportunities for addressing sickle cell anemia is the lack of research of African-Americans with sickle cell anemia along with other contributing illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes The research has not been adequate because the SCD has not received the same support as cystic fibrosis. The African American sickle cell anemia lack of research is an opportunity for Heal a Cell Inc. to provide global education and support in this area.

Potential Future Opportunities

The need for early testing for gene carriers that may pass on this disease to their children. The primary barrier is African American community understanding the disease. There is an opportunity to form relationships with physician groups in the community to provide access to new test, procedures, and advance treatments to the African American community The access to these resources will take the collaboration of physicians, state agencies, and advocates to provide the additional testing free for aged schoolchildren early(2009).

Current Threats

One of the current threats found in the African American community is a need for improved leadership at a national level to create awareness of the negative impact of sickle cell disease. The sickle cell industry needs exposure that is more educational across vertical mediums, including healthcare front that needs to expand locally, nationally and globally. The primary reason there is a need for more leadership globally because the primary races affected are races from United States, Africa, Central America, Turkey, Greece, and Saudi Arabia (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2008).

Potential Future Threat

The fight for awareness for the African American community concerning sickle cell anemia does not have a public face attached to the disease. The best example is Michael J. Fox presenting Parkinson disease, Maurice White of Earth Wind and Fire was leader in raising awareness of Parkinson disease and Bill Graham that has brought national attention to the Parkinson disease (Healthline.com, 2013). In the future, the sickle cell anemia disease needs important name that is recognized to bring more attention to the needs of sickle cell anemia.

Target Markets

Heal a Cell Inc. will target African Americans in the state of New York, Florida and Texas, respectively. The state with the highest number sickle cell population is New York(8308, followed by the State of Florida(7539) and the State of Texas(6759) has the most cases of sickle cell( Brousseau,D.C.,Panepinto,J.A.,Nimmer,M.,& Hoffman,R.G.,2009). The African Americans population has 1 out of 500 African Americans have SCD (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2011). In the United States, there are over 100,000 people living in the United States with sickle cell anemia and 3 million that has been diagnosed with the sickle cell traits (Sicklecelldisease.org (SCDAA) (2015).

Psychographics

The African American beliefs concerning sickle cell anemia testing is one of mistrust. The population has concerned about how the information will be used and who has access to this private information. In addition, a group study indicated that African Americans did not trust newborn testing and they were not aware that the testing existed. The study found that 45% of the African American participants was not privy to all the available testing and did not understand the effects of this testing (Long, Thomas, Grubs, Gettig & Krishnamuriti, 2011). The consensus the African American population has not been exposed to early testing therefore they are hesitant to complete early testing because lack of education.

References

Briggs-Myers Squibb. (2015). Clinical trials: Increasing the potential for developing innovative, breakthrough medicines. Retrieved from http://www.bms.com/responsibility/access-to-medicines/Pages/clinical-trials.aspx

Brousseau, D.C., Panepinto, J.A., Nimmer, M., & Hoffman, R.G. (2009).The number of people with sickle cell disease in the United States: National and State estimates. American Journal of  Hematology.Vol. 85, Issue 1, 1-85.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2011).Data & statistics. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/data.html

Healthline.com. (2013).Faces of Parkinson disease. Retrieved from http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/famous-faces-parkinsons#8

Jackson, L. (1999, Jan 27). Sickle cell anemia: A threat to African Americans? Michigan Chronicle. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/390186704?accountid=34899

Long, K, Thomas, S., Grubs, R, Gettig, E., &Krishnamurti, L. (2011).Attitudes and beliefs of African-Americans toward genetics testing and sickle cell anemia disease education and awareness. J Genet Counsel.Doi 10.1007/s10897-011-9388-3

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

Maryland, P. A., Dr. (2009, Jul). Sickle-cell anemia prevalent in the African-American community. Michigan Chronicle Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/390082378?accountid=34899

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

National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. (2012).What are the signs and symptoms of sickle cell anemia? Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sca/signs

Sicklecelldisease.org (SCDAA) (2015).Programs and education. Retrieve from http://www.sicklecelldisease.org/index.cfm?page=programs

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