United Healthcare Group service segmentation and positioning paper Choose a product or service and define a segmentation strategy. Identify a target market including a demographic and psychographic profile. Prepare a perceptual map and a description of the optimal positioning that has been selected. Segmentation is the process of dividing the desired market into groups based upon important consumer characteristics attributable to the given market (Gorchels, 2001).
In other words, a reasonable marketer in order not to spread resources too thin by randomly searching clients for their goods/services should divide customers into several groups and focus on the groups to market the goods/services to. In the following essay I am going to speak about the medical services of United Healthcare Group, their segmentation and positioning analysis.
The advantages of segmentation strategy over general appeal strategy in my personal opinion are the following: The individual customer needs are better met New Ideas are promoted. Winsome marketing mix strategy is developed. (Baby boomers, echo baby boomers, etc.) Efficient allocation of corporate resources based upon attractiveness of individual segments. The Market segmentation for any product as well as medical services of United Healthcare group can be done based on the following characteristics. Geographic. This strategy focuses on local preferences, nature, and geographic location. For instance if the United Healthcare Group found out that in the South (Florida for instance), where the majority of the USA elderly goes to retire, it is mostly the elderly who need the medical support, then the United Health Group starts to present services for exactly that group, namely Health consulting and medicine plan.
The Term Paper on Segmentation and Target Market 2
The three major players in the soft drink market are PepsiCo, Inc., the Coca-Cola Company, and the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (Change Lab Solutions, n.d.). All of them use effective market segmentation to target specific markets. Effective target marketing requires that marketers, segment the market, by identifying and profiling to find a distinct group of buyers who differ in their wants and needs ...
In the south where people are exposed to sun more frequently and thus have higher rates of skin cancer, United Health Group can and does present skin treatment services to the extent it would do in rainy Washington state. Demographic. This strategy speaks about personal characteristics of age, gender, income, affiliations, etc. In other words, young kids that have less chances of getting a heart attack than a 60-year old man, thus United Health Group focuses on delivering the message through doctors to the 60-year olds that the cardiovascular treatment from United Health Group is the best. Behavioral segmentation strategy for United Health Care group as well as other products is based on buyer behavior in acquiring the product and considers the usage occasions (active cure, or preventive), rates (frequent drug intake), loyalty (what drugs are best accepted by the customer), etc. Psychographics is the strategy directly connected to the Demographic and Behavioral strategies (that were mentioned in this paper for the purpose of making the psychographics strategy more comprehensible) that attempts to answer the question of why customers buy a given good.
There are several answers. Lifestyle. People who travel would prefer fast drug services and active surgeries rather than hospital treatment at United Health Group. People who like eastern medicine should use our chiropractic services, or alternative medicine as provided by United Health Group. Personality. The Users of United Health care Group are self-conscientious, with long-term planning horizons (Berrigan, 2001).
Social Class. Virtually any social class can use at least some services from United Health Group. Decision making. Who makes the decision regarding the drug intake. Is it just the patient, doctor, or his wife and parents? Target Market is the conclusion that can be derived from the segmentation strategies. Formally it represents the most likely buyers of the United Health Group services that we are marketing. From what we have researched regarding the United Health Group services one can say that the target market for such services is rather large and is growing.
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There are various strategies of expanding one’s business. The decision of which strategic move to choose is generally depends on internal conditions of the business in discussion. There are companies that manage to stay in their local markets and continue to harness growth from it, while others discover potential markets in foreign countries that drive them to expand. In the case of business ...
The age group for our various services ranges from 6 to 70 years, middle class people of conscientious nature, who also like active life, health, and freedom (Margust, 2002).
A Perceptual Map is a formal multi-dimensional graphical representation of the perceived brand positions of competing brands, and the ideal positions and sizes of market segments on key product attributes or benefits (Kotler, 2002).
In the United Health Group services market Perceptual Maps can be used to identify: 1) The Market opportunities still not properly served, 2) SWOT analysis of the given brand positioning, 3) Competitor analysis of positioning strategies and threats. In order to prepare a perceptual map one has to consider the competition, our United Health Group, PEST and SWOT analysis and finally select two important dimensions to graph the map. A famous example of perceptual map was a modified BCG Matrix that had cash cows, stars, problem children, and dogs that were plotted on the two dimensional chart with market growth and company market share taken as the most important dimensions. By the same token one can create a map by using the age of the buyers, versus the market share of the company.
By plotting competitors, a marketer can make educated decisions as to what companies focus on what age groups. Positioning equals Segmentation plus Differentiation. In order to successfully market the product one needs to slot the product in the mind of the consumer. The United Health Group services have to possess distinctive quality and affordable price to satisfy the clients from virtually all strata of society not only in the USA but also internationally.
The Essay on Using Perceptual Maps in Marketing Simulation
Using Perceptual Maps in Marketing Simulation Summary The situation consists of me constructing a perceptual map to create a marketing plan for Thorr Motorcycles. The perceptual map will be based off of parameters fundamental to the product and significant to the customer. I am the marketing manager for CruiserThorr. We are trying to use the parameters to market a new and innovative motorcycle to ...
Bibliography:
Gorchels , Linda, The Product Manager’s Handbook : The Complete Product Management Resource, McGraw Publishers, 2001 Dave Sutton, Tom Klein, Enterprise Marketing Management: The New Science of Marketing, Oxford University Press, 2001. Kotler, Philip, Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets, Prentice Hall, 2002. Berrigan,John, et al Segmentation Marketing: New Methods for Capturing Business Markets, McGraw Hill.
2002. Daniel Margust, Marketing Statistics in Health Care goods, Harvard Business Review, July 20th, 2002. http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/news/rel1998/0310 HealthBen.htm http://www.floridahealthinsurance.com/uhcdespose.h tm.
