Bupa Healthcare's BEAM Concept: A Marketing Analysis

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PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Section 1: Marketing Environment and Planning Process..............................................................4
Section 2: Targeting, segmentation, and positioning.....................................................................11
Section 3: Analysis of the marketing mix......................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Reference list.................................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
Marketing principles associated with the medical business segment is characterized by
consideration of humane approaches rather than a business one. The aim of this study lies in the
analysis of the approach undertaken for innovation related with BEAM segment of Bupa
Healthcare. The scope of the study includes the analysis of the marketing mix that would be
implemented against personal and commercial customers. This study will discuss the marketing
environment and planning process by conducting a brief analysis in order to enhance the service
offerings for the registered customers of Bupa related to the healthcare issues of Accident and
Emergency.
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Section 1: Marketing Environment and Planning Process
A. Briefly introduce your idea for Bupa. Explain the components of the marketing
planning process and outline the marketing context for the new concept, with particular
reference to the role/importance of adopting a marketing orientation and its application to
the business.
Bupa is a private healthcare organization of UK that is having headquartered in London and is
found to serve about 32 million customers in about 190 countries. The healthcare is found to
have about 84000 staffs those who are engaged in providing private GP services, Dental services,
and physiotherapy services to the users (Bupa.co.uk, 2019). Currently, the company is planning
to expand its healthcare services in the competitive market for popularising their healthcare
services in small medical units that are located in Manchester, London, Birmingham, and others.
The innovation so produces by the mentioned organization includes extensive ventures into
emergency medicine segment in multiple locations in London. Hence, the components associated
with the marketing would be the identification of the market share of the NHS AMU coupled
with A&E in the accident and emergency market. Additional components would include
management of the price of the individual products, as the organization would be targeting the
premium segment that might have limited sales.
Components of the marketing planning process
Market research: This is the backbone of the marketing plan process as it helps in identifying
the nature of the consumers in the selected location. In the expansion of the Bupa services, and to
mimic the healthcare services offered by NHS AMU and A&E, it is important to analyse the
market share. Based on the information, it has been found that NHS accounts for about 7.4%
GDP on the healthcare of UK (ons.gov.uk, 2019). Hence, it can be said that Bupa needs to invest
more amount for gaining popularity in the UK.
Target market: The main target market for Bupa is London, Manchester, Leeds city centers,
and Cambridge. Hence, Bupa has to develop new marketing campaigns for increasing the
attention of customers in these targeted areas. The innovation idea of Bupa for mimicking the
idea of NHS and A&E by developing a core team in the medical units to offer services to the
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registered customers at premium prices can be successful if they can convince with proper
communication tactics.
Competitive analysis: Based on the analysis, it has been found that Bupa’s competitors in the
targeted areas of the UK are Imagine health, MS Amlin, Aviva, and bridge health Medical.
Hence, it is advised to the healthcare organization to offer the associated healthcare services after
checking the prices of the competitors.
Market strategy: Bupa can use the marketing strategy of consistent branding and continuous
advertisement of new offers for making the registered customers satisfied.
Budget: For marketing the innovative concept, the budget can be set up to £1million in the order
set the resources, providing training to the team, formulating service plan, developing campaigns
and advertisement in the targeted areas.
Outline of market context for the new concept
It is important to adopt marketing orientation in business for increasing the reliability of the plan.
Moreover, in the case of marketing the innovation plan of Bupa, the market orientation would
help in analysing the customer needs and requirements, based on which the medical
professionals can set the prices of healthcare services effectively. Moreover, this is important to
analyse the policies of NHS and A&E in order to bring affordable services for long-term
customers in the located medical units.
B. Carry out an environmental audit in the form of a PESTEL analysis for the BEAM
concept ensuring that you detail specific market/organizational related facts that are fully
referenced where possible. Additionally, you should highlight relevant micro-
environmental aspects such as dominant competitors within the industry and recent
competitor activity.
Pestle analysis
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Figure 1: Pestle analysis
(Source: Frue, 2018)
For marketing the innovation for the mentioned customer segments and locations, PESTEL
analysis would provide the optimum framework for the identification of the acceptance of the
innovation in the BEAM segment (Tesfa et al., 2017).
Factors of pestle Analysis of factors
Political For developing the BEAM concept of Bupa, it
is important to maintain the political rules and
regulations. For example, maintaining the rules
of changes in the taxation policies, consumer
protections, and insurance mandates for setting
the price of healthcare services. This is because
the changes are done by the government can
bring variation in the bills and plans of the
healthcare. Other healthcare organizations in
the UK like Imagine health, MS Amlin, and
Aviva are found to maintain these policies for
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enhancing the effectiveness of services.
Economical The inflation rate in the UK was 2.48% in
2018 (Crafts, 2016). This indicates that the
prices of healthcare services went high.
Therefore, it can create difficulties among
consumers in affording healthcare services.
Additionally, the interest rates are high that
shows people will spend more on medical
insurance. Hence, Bupa can use this point for
designing its services.
Social Bupa needs to be aware of the public values
and changes in demographics (Hartley, 2017).
Moreover, understanding the trends of
customers such as growing threats in obesity
among adults and children can help the
medical professionals in focusing on this issue
while developing the Beam concept.
Technological Technologies such as the internet can help
Bupa in alerting the registered customers about
the new changes done by mimicking the rules
of NHS and A&E. Moreover, customers of the
UK are more attentive towards live chat and
email; hence, the medical professionals can
have a direct conversation with the users.
Legal Bupa requires maintaining health and safety
laws such as the Health and Safety Act 1974
and other rules of NHS for setting the premium
prices of services (Worksmart.org.uk, 2019).
However, if Bupa does not maintain these legal
policies, there is a possibility of shutting down
of the healthcare services.
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Environmental NHS believes that planting trees in the
healthcare units can help in providing a good
environmental atmosphere to the users. Hence,
medical units of Bupa need to take care of this
point in providing services in the selected
localities.
Table 1: Pestle analysis
(Source: Frue, 2018)
Microenvironment aspects for the Beam concept of Bupa healthcare are explained below:
Customers: Bupa healthcare is going to develop the beam concept for growing the profit level
of the organisation. The company would be able to gain customer loyalty by developing a
premium price for the services. The core members of the Beam unit should consult with their
customers mainly aged patients, diabetes service users, cancer users, and other long-term
services users for understanding their likes and dislikes.
Competitors: The competitors of Bupa healthcare are BCWA Healthcare, PruHealth, and AXA
PPP healthcare. Hence, it is important for the Beam unit to develop a competitive advantage to
provide better service facilities to register customers (Adunlin et al., 2015).
Employees: The Company is planning to develop a separate core team in the acute medical unit
of Bupa in London, Leeds city centers, Cambridge and others. It has been found medical
professionals of Bupa are active enough in serving their duty attentively. They work together for
developing the health insurance of the customers.
Competitor activities: Imagine Health and Pruhealth is top competitors of Bupa healthcare.
Imagine Health provides quality services to the customers. Pruhealth is having 600,000 members
in the healthcare segment that shows the company is able to provide affordable medical
insurance services to customers.
C. Outline the extended marketing mix 7Ps and explain how the development of the
extended marketing mix could contribute to effective marketing planning for the new
concept.
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Additionally, the 7P marketing mix would enable the identification of the influence of each of
the marketing mixes. However, in the segment of people, only the personal and commercial
customers would be taken into consideration. The extended marketing mix 7ps is required for
making effective marketing planning for the new concept of Bupa. Each of the elements of 7ps is
explained here that would help in understanding their contribution to marketing planning.
Product: This is the main element of a marketing plan. The medical professionals of Bupa
should first decide the products that they are going to provide to the registered customers.
Developing a product is the first step of market planning that will help in attracting customers
towards the services (Lidstone and MacLennan, 2017).
Price: Pricing is important for branding the marketing strategy of the organization (Dadzie et al.,
2017). Pricing helps the organization to analyse the customer base, such as middle-class
customers or high-class customers. Bupa by using effective pricing strategy can be able to
categorise the business and personal customers.
Place: This serves a specific role in brand a marketing plan. For selling products, the
organization needs to decide a place. As the medical units of Bupa Healthcare located at London,
Manchester, Cambridge, and others are going to develop a core team for developing premium
prices, hence place matters a lot.
Promotion: Promotion is a vital component as this helps in setting new marketing
advertisements, and promotional strategies regarding lucrative offers to increasing the popularity
and sales in the target market (Wu and Li, 2018).
People: This element decides the number of personal those will be entitled to the marketing plan.
Hence, it represents a vital role because, without them, the execution of the marketing plan
cannot occur.
Process: This helps in deciding the process by which the products and services developed will
be delivered to the customers. Bupa Healthcare can decide the process of marketing for gaining
effective results.
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Physical evidence: This helps in analysing the experiences of the customers. Bupa should give
focus on this element for understanding the interests of the registered customers towards the
services.
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Section 2: Targeting, segmentation, and positioning
A. Explain how the market for the new BEAM concept could and should be segmented for
the consumer (B2C) AND business (B2B) markets.
For the B2C market, the BEAM concept should be segmented into the type of accidents and the
degree of emergency (Cortez and Johnston, 2017). However, for the B2B market, it would be
segmented into the blood type and the body type of the individual. This would reduce the aspect
of potential rejection of the medicine due to blood group interference as well as cholesterol or
fatty acids interference.
Consumer (B2C) market
Business to consumer marketing tactics refers to the best practices that are used for promoting
the services directly to the consumers (Tang et al., 2017). The new beam concept planned by
Bupa Healthcare can be segmented by determining the types of accidents and required measures
are taken to recover the accidental issues. Demographic segmentation would help in dividing the
customers into various segments such as gender, age, occupation, and income. This is important
for setting the price of the services effectively. For example, in London, about 2.3 million people
are in poverty and about 1.4 million people are working professionals. Hence, considering these
data are important for setting the price of healthcare services properly. For people in poverty in
the selected areas should be offered more discounts on healthcare services so that they can afford
them easily. On the other hand, standard prices should be kept for the middle and high-income
group of consumers to maintain a balance in the pricing strategies. Acute medical units of Bupa
need to categorize the service prices as per the behavior of customers. For example, the
customers that are regular service users at Bupa should get more facilities other than the
customers that are frequent service users of Bupa.
Business (B2B) market
Business to business marketing is developed using three approaches like firmographics
segmentation, value-based segmentation, and needs-based segmentation. This is conducted
among different companies rather than consumers and company (Vakeel et al., 2017). Bupa
healthcare needs to consult with NHS, AMU, and A&E for developing the offers of services
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effectively. Medical professionals can discuss with these organization for collecting the blood
sample about the individual as well as information about the cholesterol and fatty acids for
ranging the prices of the services. For example, when an accident would occur in the targeted
areas, the BEAM team would consult with NHS to analyse availability of blood group, hence,
according to the price would be set for the customers registered with them.
B. Discuss targeting methods that could be used for EITHER the B2B or B2C market and
who you would primarily target with this new product in terms of characteristics including
demographics, behavioural, benefits sought and lifestyle for B2C and other factors related
to B2B including the size of the organisation.
Targeting methods for B2B and B2C market
Targeting methods would be based on the demographics of the area along with the record of
accomplishment of the area in accident cases over a 10-year period.
For B2B marketing, the company can develop top-of-funnel lists that would help in analysing the
significant organisations for engaging with the best company. The assets that should be
considered by Bupa healthcare are interactive stories, social channels, and Infographic for
developing the core team with medical professionals in the selected units. The healthcare units
can develop innovative contents for building brand recognition and informing the sales team of
the healthcare unit about the decision-making process related to the new prices of services
(Jackson and Ahuja, 2016). BEAM units of Bupa can interact with other healthcare units for
gaining information about the accidental rates in those localities. Hence, this can help in
designing the services according to the terms and conditions of NHS. Size of the organization is
another factor for B2B marketing that helps in placing the new products in the market properly.
For B2C marketing, the company can use the targeting methods like constant assessment and use
of multiple channels for engaging the customers properly (Tang et al., 2017). For example, the
beam concept that is going to be initiated by Bupa healthcare would be communicated with the
customers using traditional and online marketing channel. The concept of the beam can be
regulated in the localities by delivering posters, and leaflets to the customers. The behaviour of
the registered customer should be estimated by communicating using channels of live chats.
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