Deck 16: Marketing in Strategic Planning

Question 1

Why does marketing seem to have a special interest in strategic planning and unique contributions to make to the process?

Answer 1

$\bullet$ The marketing department usually will be that part of the organization in closest touch with the external environment, particularly customers and how they are grouped into market segments and competing organizations that pose the most direct threats. As a result, it will have substantial information and informed opinions about both customers and competitors.
$\bullet$ Marketing's regular contribution to strategy formulation begins with the assessment of the organization's external environment. Of all the business functions, it probably is the most outward looking, the one most attuned to forces and entities outside the organization.

Question 2

Describe three traditional non-strategic activities that the marketing function might perform for a pharmaceutical company and for a multi-specialty physician group practice. (Total of six activities.)

Answer 2

$\bullet$ A pharmaceutical company provides free samples of a new effective yet expensive drug to physicians for distribution to needy patients.
$\bullet$ A pharmaceutical company launches a series of television ads promoting its drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
$\bullet$ A pharmaceutical company schedules "drug representatives" (i.e., sales people) to visit physicians and describe its drug products.
$\bullet$ A specialty physician group practice cultivates social relationships with primary care physicians who might be a source of referrals.
$\bullet$ A specialty physician group practice promotes, through local media, its new expanded evening and weekend office hours.
$\bullet$ A specialty physician group practice sends staff members to a health fair sponsored by a large area employer.

Question 3

One of the most significant contributions to the strategic planning process that the marketing function can make is an understanding of the world in which it competes. That understanding is the result of several activities: customer analysis, market analysis, competitor analysis, and product/service analysis. Pick one of these and explain how you would carry out the analysis.

Answer 3

$\bullet$ Customer analysis
$\bullet$ Market analysis
$\bullet$ Competitor analysis
$\bullet$ Product/service analysis

Question 4

On the basis of what the marketing department learns through its analyses (customer, market, competitor, and product/service), what are three specific, practical strategies that it might propose to its health-related organization?

Question 5

The book describes a progression of mental states through which a consumer may pass before deciding to purchase a product or service (e.g., Hierarchy of Effects Model). One of the purposes of marketing is to move consumers through that sequence as rapidly as possible. Describe (informally, in your own words) the steps in that progression.

Question 6

What is the function of marketing in a non-profit organization? Do such entities need a marketing department?