Bupa's BEAM Project: A PESTEL Analysis and Marketing Mix Evaluation

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Principles of Marketing
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Executive Summary
The report is based on the principle of marketing with reference to Bupa that is a provider of
healthcare. The planning process has been explained in the report along with the analysis of
environment of marketing. The concept of targeting, segmentation and marketing has been
explained in the report with respect to the concept of BEAM (Bupa Emergency and Acute
Medical) along with the analysis of marketing mix. In order to improve the marketing of
Bupa the measures that need to be taken have been illustrated in the report.
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Table of Contents
Section 1 – Marketing Environment and Planning Process.......................................................4
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.
................................................................................................................................................4
b) Carry out an environmental audit in the form of a PESTEL analysis for the BEAM
concept ensuring that you detail specific market/organisational 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.................................................................................................................6
Table 1: SWOT Anlysis.........................................................................................................7
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...................................................................................................................................7
Section 2 – Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning..................................................................9
a) Explain how the market for the new BEAM concept could and should be segmented for
consumer (B2C) AND business (B2B) markets....................................................................9
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......................................................................10
c) Explain what is meant by the term ‘positioning’ and suggest how the new BEAM
concept would be positioned in the consumer OR business market....................................11
Section 3 – Marketing Mix Analysis.......................................................................................13
Reference List..........................................................................................................................16
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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 provider of healthcare services that wants to expand its branches in the market that
is competitive. The prime locations are Birmingham, London, Leeds, Cambridge and
Manchester that are most suitable for making investments with respect to the organisation
Bupa. The organisation Bupa wants to establish its units named BEAM (Bupa Emergency
and Acute Medical) in the locations mentioned above that would provide medical services to
the customers who are registered at nominal rates. The team in the units of BEAM would
comprise of skilled medical professionals. BEAM is an ape of NHS AMU (Acute Medical
Units) and A&E (Accident and Emergency) such that it emerges successful in providing good
medical services to people as and when required.
Marketing orientation is about the decisions that are made that involving marketing
intelligence, behaviour, strategies and the satisfaction derived by the customers. The various
components of planning processes of marketing are as follows:
 Market Research: Researching the market is of prime importance with respect to the
plans or strategies that are devised pertaining to marketing. In order to expand Bupa it is
required that the organisation researches the market so that it can provide services to the
consumers as per their requirement and can earn profit. The perspective of market
intelligence, strategy and customer orientation has to be incorporated so that the needs
of people can be figured-out and services can be provided to people accordingly
(Chernev, 2015).
 Target Market: Bupa must identify its target customers in order to convert leads into
sales. This will aid the organisation Bupa to target people with respect to its units BEAM.
This involves segmentation or division of the customers such that that they can be
converted into users of its services. This involves the perspective of decision-making and
behaviour of the customers of marketing orientation such that right customers can be
targeted at the right time as per their needs and requirement.
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 Positioning: The marketing plan of Bupa must be in accordance with respect to the
position that it wants to achieve in the market. The messages of marketing that the
organisation drafts must be in accordance with the way it wants its brand to be perceived
by the customers. The marketing orientation of decision-making and behaviour of the
customers must be taken into account by Bupa in order to promote its units BEAM.
 Competitive Analysis: It is necessary that the organisation Bupa and the units it wants to
establish must be analysed as per the competition it faces from its competitors in the
market. This will aid the organisation to position itself in the market. The biggest
competitor of the organisation Bupa is NHS in the UK market that has to be taken care of
by analysing the perspectives of market orientation namely decision-making and market
intelligence (Schulz et al., 2017). This will aid the organisation to establish itself as a
brand name in the market.
 Market Strategy: The strategy pertaining to marketing aids to set goals with respect to
sales of an organisation. The strategies might include organising events, seminars,
webinars and others along with the use of direct mail, couponing, social media, content
strategy and emails such that consumers can be reached adequately (Ha, 2016). The
organisation Bupa must create an appropriate market strategy such that customers can be
targeted aptly. The perspectives of market orientation that the organisation Bupa must
apply is market intelligence, strategic and decision-making such that it can achieve its
objectives can be achieved.
 Budget: It is necessary that the organisation Bupa develops a schedule of its expenditure
on marketing on a monthly basis. It will aid the organisation to stop making more
investments if proper ROI is not generated. The organisation Bupa has to incorporate the
perspectives of strategy and decision making of marketing orientation to be successful
in its endeavours.
 Metrics: The success in marketing that Bupa has achieved can be tracked by using
Google Analytics in terms of its conversions for its website along with Excel sheet such
that its ROI can be compared against the budget that has been ascertained. The
perspective of marketing intelligence that is a part of marketing orientation can be
applied in this case so that the marketing plan of Bupa can emerge successful (Chow et
al., 2015).
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b) Carry out an environmental audit in the form of a PESTEL analysis for the BEAM
concept ensuring that you detail specific market/organisational 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.
The environmental audit with respect to BEAM has been explained below:
Political Factors: The United Kingdom is a politically a strong country however its exit from
the European Law has affected the country’s stability. It is expected that Brexit will reduce
the productivity of the organisations based in UK thus the same can be expected from Bupa
as well. It might happen that the sales of Bupa is reduced and cost is increased thus it
required that proper strategies must be devised by Bupa in order to deal with the issue.
Economic Factors: Economically the country UK is very strong however its rate of
economic progression has decreased since 2016 due to Brexit. The results might not be in
favour of Bupa’s expansion however in order to reduce the negative impact of Brexit on the
organisation proper steps needs to be taken.
Social Factors: The market in the United Kingdom is huge however the number of old
people in the country is on rise (Arcgis.com, 2019). As a result, need of healthcare services
have increased in the market that might prove to be favourable for BEAM if it takes apt steps.
Technological Factors: The field of technology is continuously developing and UK has
always taken an initiative in this aspect. Therefore, BEAM will be favoured in this aspect as
it will be successful in providing proper and enhanced services to the consumers.
Environmental Factors: The environment of the United Kingdom has been degrading sue to
increase in pollution. This has resulted in several adverse effects on the health of people in
the country however with respect to the organisation BEAM the demand of its services is
rising thus favouring the organisation in terms of its profitability
(Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019).
Legal Factors: The legislations of employment and others will affect the operation of the
organisation Bupa and its units. It is required that the organisation adhere to the legislation so
that the organisation can operate effectively.
The micro environmental factors of BEAM have been explained below in the table:
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Customers: Bupa has 15.7 million customers for its health insurance, has 15 million ptaeints
in its hospitals, clinics and dental centres. The villages and care homes of the organisation has
23000 residents.
Competitors: The competition in the healthcare industry is tough as the organisations like
AXA, Aviva, Imagine Health and MS Amlin. The competitors of the organisation have been
successful in creating their brand name in the market by providing satisfactory services to the
customers.
Employees: Bupa has about 84000 employees as per the records obtained in 2016.
Shareholders: The management, board of directors, employees, CEO and the consumers are
the shareholders of Bupa.
Strengths Weaknesses
 The organisation Bupa is a brand name in the
healthcare industry in the United Kingdom
(Bupa.com, 2019).
 The organisation has an innovative culture and its
approach is focussed on customers.
 The rate at which the
organisation provides its
services is high.
 Its online presence is static.
Opportunities Threats
 Its strong brand name is the key for its further
development.
 Its strategies of expansion aid it to grow.
 Brexit has made it difficult for
the organisation to grow.
Table 1: SWOT Anlysis
(Source: Created by the learner)
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.
The extended marketing mix includes product, price, place, promotion, people, physical
evidence and process. The 7Ps of marketing can help in devising plans of marketing the new
concept of Bupa as people will aid the organisation to hire the right employees so that proper
services can be provided to its customers. Product will aid the organisation to make sure that
its services are of good quality. Place will aid the organisation to decide the locations where
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it will provide its services. Promotion will aid the organisation to reach a mass of people so
that sales can be generated. Price will aid the organisation to provide discounts and fix its
prices such that it is affordable by its customers (Fan et al., 2015). Physical evidence will aid
the organisation to design its services in a way that is liked by its people. Process will aid the
organisation to decide the level up to which its customers can be involved in its activities.
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Section 2 – Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning
a) Explain how the market for the new BEAM concept could and should be segmented
for consumer (B2C) AND business (B2B) markets.
The process that BEAM must use in order to segment its B2C consumers have been
discussed below:
Geographic segmentation: BEAM must fragment its clients based on the locations where it
is willing to expand (Zimmerman and Ng, 2015).
Demographic Segmentation: BEAM must use different plans of services with respect to the
customers of different gender, age, marital status, and stable income, this will make sure that
the organisation is able to provide proper services to people that it targets.
Psychographic Segmentation: BEAM must segment its customers based on the lifestyle and
personality of the customers so that the organisation can widen its customer base and target
them.
Behavioural Segmentation: Based on the knowledge and awareness of people by interacting
with them on social media the patterns of purchasing of customers can be determined. This
will aid the units of Bupa, BEAM must segment its customers based on their behaviour so
that it can increase its customer base and increase its sales (Hollensen and Opresnik, 2019).
The process that BEAM must use in order to segment its B2B markets have been discussed
below:
Firmographics or Priori segmentation: The size of BEAM in the healthcare industry and the
reach of other related information is a part of priori segmentation.
Value based Segmentation: BEAM will divide its customers based on their economic value
that is its potential as well as completed sales so that its high value customers can be
identified and its sales can be enhanced (Weinstein and Johnson, 2016).
Needs-based Segmentation: The segmentation or division of customers based on their needs
such that they can be targeted efficiently is important with respect to BEAM so that its sales
and profitability can be increased (Hall, 2017).
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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.
The targeting methods that the BEAM concept of Bupa could use for B2C market have been
discussed below:
 Audience: BEAM must promote its services among the citizens of the United Kingdom
irrespective of their age, gender and other factors so that its customer base can be
widened.
 Behavioural: BEAM must analyse the activities of its customers on its website so that
their likes and dislikes or their interests can be evaluated properly so that proper services
can be provided to them accordingly (Yang, 2018).
 Retargeting: In order to target its customers, BEAM must use retargeting so that its
advertisements can follow its customers everywhere and its leads can be converted into
sales and revenue.
 Cross device: BEAM must customise its advertisements so that it can reach its customers
appropriately across various devices thereby aiding the organisation to retarget its
services to the customers who have visited its website (Feng et al., 2019).
 Contextual: BEAM must emphasise on the content its customers like read or are
interested in so that they can be targeted effectively by placing the advertisements beside
the content the customers like to read.
The B2C customers that the concept BEAM will target have been described below:
Demographics: People of all age groups and gender will be targeted by the BEAM concept.
However, people who will be targeted must have stable income and occupation.
Behavioural: BEAM will target its customers with respect to the knowledge and awareness
they have with respect to health insurance so that they can be interacted through social media
platforms.
Psychographic: BEAM will aid the customers to take care of their health and make sure that
they lead a good and a healthy lifestyle. The new concept of Bupa, BEAM will segment its
customers based on their perception of healthy lifestyle so that they can enjoy the benefits of
the insurance.
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High Quality
Low Quality
High PriceLow Price
Geographic: BEAM must segment its customers with respect to the locations where it is
willing to expand like Birmingham, London, Leeds, Cambridge and Manchester.
The B2B customers that the concept BEAM will target have been described below:
Firmographics or Priori segmentation: The information related to the company will be made
available to public so that they can trust the organisation and make transactions with it.
Value based Segmentation: The completed sales of BEAM that is about 70% of the revenue
it earns is its economic value such that the sales team can spend more time and efforts on
customers of high value.
Needs-based Segmentation: BEAM will make its services available to customers based on
their needs so that the customers are satisfied with the consumption or utilisation of the
services it provides.
c) Explain what is meant by the term ‘positioning’ and suggest how the new BEAM
concept would be positioned in the consumer OR business market.
The term “positioning” refers to the perception the customers have with respect to a particular
organisation in comparison with its competitors in the market (Neirotti et al., 2016). The
competitors of BEAM are AXA, Aviva, Imagine Health, and MS Amlin that provide
competitive services to the customers.
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The positioning map signifies that the new concept BEAM of Bupa it will be in the quadrant
of high price and high quality that is lower than the position of AXA and higher than the
position of MS Amlin in the same quadrant. The other organisation Aviva will be positioned
in low quality and high price quadrant while Imagine Health will be positioned in low price
and low quality quadrant.
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