Plan to Health Care Organization, Term Paper Example

Introduction

My organization is Kaiser Permanente, which markets a wide range of health care products/ services, but none of them have been exclusively branded Kaiser Permanente because the  two functional entities operate as for profit and non-profit supportive of each other. The organization was founded in 1945 under the intuition of an industrialist, Henry Kaiser. He had no medical skills, but teamed up with persons who had them to execute the business. This organization is a managed care consortium. Products and services marketed include health plans and hospital services (Hendricks, 2003).

However, true branding encompasses assigning a specific name, symbol, design or term to a product/service that distinguishes it from similar services and other products in the industry or company. There are two important concepts associated with branding. These refer to  awareness and elements. Elements are the features that determine whether a company is truly branded or not. They include apart from name and logo a brand identity contained in its appearance. When the elements are evaluated it could be detected that to some extent Kaiser Permanente has a brand product and service, but it could be upgraded to an exclusive product such as the health plans, which have been marketed over the years (Cushing, 2012).

Plan

My goal is to extend the Kaiser Permanente Kaiser foundation Health Plan, Inc brand line to make it more marketable. As it is presently, there is a logo and name, but specificities of the product is not engraved for customers to recognize its exclusivity, distinct from other health care plans on the market and products/services marketed by the organization. A customer even though recognizing the logo would become more aware of the health plan product if it contained an element distinguishing it from other Kaiser Foundation services.

Consequently, my first objective would be developing a brand that distinctly shows the differences among Kaiser Permanente; Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals’ entities. More importantly, my focus is branding the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan so that it could be an exclusive product in the organizations as it is now bundled among services offered by Kaiser Permanente. Next, it would re-designing a logo for the health plan section, which is multimedia compatible. This means that it must match the letter head used by Kaiser Permanente, business cards and website presence. For example, the latest brands dis played seem to have no consistency neither multimedia features that can improve customers’ awareness (James, 2003).

Further, a brand will be made for each product line within the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. This is significant in the brand awareness process. Clients/customers must be sensitized as to the different type of plans and how they can individually meet their specific health needs. For example, the organization markets individual plans; family health plans; dental; vision; students; business; children along with Medicare advantage plans. Currently there are 8.9 million health plans circulating within this industry. Precisely, in expanding the niche using the same brand equity will maintain the integrity of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (Hendricks, 2003).

Already Kaiser Health plans have a very high rating among customers across the nation. As such, besides quality, it must be recognized that, branding consists of a total package embracing a unique advertising product technique embodying company’ name, logo, tagline among other relevant features; detail regarding product must be clear and visual enough for customers to understand. These relate to e-mails, website, and telephone calls. Therefore in my plan the message for each health plan product line must be obvious ensuring that the specifics about the brand are communicated accurately (James, 2003).

Finally, an attempt will be made to communicate some degree of a definite promise to the customer. This pertains to a quality that can be reinforced or missing from similar products

For example, in some states children are not eligible for public health care, but still need a supplemental plan due to a particular illness. The trend in most states is that children get public health care through Medicaid and their supporting insurance. In cases whereby parents buy health plans for children the prediction is that there is a condition preventing them from obtaining it from regular sources. The brand ought to subtly communicate this niche with a deep degree of assurance (James, 2003).

My company’s responsibility is to main the brand image in every aspect of its operations. Even though the process becomes uncomplicated once intelligent planning goes before implementation attention must be given to the process and expert advice solicited before the blueprint is established because branding is a valuable market strategy ( Giesler, 2012).

Conclusion (appropriateness of branding)

A branding that is professionally executed opens opportunities for improvements in sales since it is a market strategy in itself. While Kaiser Health Plans have a very unique and high customer rating. In my opinion it does not reach a wide cross America and across the worldwide web. Therefore, expanding the health plan product line brand towards website accessibility would accomplish this goal and increase sales.

References

Cushing, L. (2012). Latest Kaiser Permanente Signature hoisted to the heights.  Retrieved on March 14^th, 2014 from http://kaiserpermanentehistory.org/tag/kaiser-permanente-brand-identity/

Giesler, M. (2012), How Doppelgänger Brand Images Influence the Market Creation Process: Longitudinal Insights from the Rise of Botox Cosmetic.  Journal of Marketing.

Hendricks, R. (2003). A Model for National Health Care: The History of Kaiser Permanente. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press

James, G. (2003). Best of Branding: Best Practices in Corporate Branding. McGraw-Hill