Marketing Plan Analysis: Bupa Emergency and Acute Medical Units Report

This report presents a comprehensive marketing plan for Bupa's Emergency and Acute Medical (BEAM) units in the UK healthcare industry. It begins with an introduction to marketing and Bupa's objectives, followed by an outline of the marketing planning process, including market orientation, business vision and mission, market research, and competitive analysis. The report then delves into environmental scanning using PESTLE analysis to assess political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors impacting the BEAM units. A SWOT analysis is conducted to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report further explores the extended marketing mix, emphasizing product, place, price, promotion, people, and physical evidence. Market segmentation strategies are discussed, including demographic, geographic, behavioral, and psychographic segmentation for B2C and B2B markets. Targeting methods are also examined. The report concludes with a discussion of the marketing mix in relation to the new concept of Bupa's emergency and acute medical units.

PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
L O 1 &L O 2 ..................................................................................................................................3
a) Marketing planning process. ..................................................................................................3
b) Analysis of macro and micro environment.............................................................................5
c) Outline of Marketing mix.......................................................................................................7
L O 3 ...............................................................................................................................................7
a) Segmentation for new concept................................................................................................7
b) Targeting methods..................................................................................................................9
c) About positioning..................................................................................................................10
L O 4 &5 .......................................................................................................................................10
Analysis of Marketing Mix.......................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the combined process of different activities, it involves the process of
developing, communicating, delivering and providing better quality products and services for the
targeted segment of buyers, customers of business category, partners and for whole community
etc. Acute medical units are a form of department that has different functions. It acts as a
entrance between doctor, and wards of the hospital (Al-Azzam, 2016). The Report is based on
Bupa. It is a private organization and firm belongs to healthcare industry in UK. It is offers the
service of healthcare and going to invest funds to Bupa Emergency and Acute Medical (BEAM)
units. The Report will outline process of marketing planning, environmental scanning with the
help of PESTLE and SWOT analysis. It will also describe segmentation ,targeting and
positioning process for the new concept, detail analysis of marketing mix that will include
various product, place, price, promotion, people and physical evidence related with the new
concept of Bupa etc.
MAIN BODY
L O 1 &L O 2
a) Marketing planning process.
Introduction -
Bupa is a private organization that is offering various types of healthcare services to
various groups of customers. The firm is providing healthcare services from past few years in
UK. Day by day competition between healthcare organizations in hospitality industry of UK is
increasing and to remain competitive, Bupa has planned to invest significant amount of funds as
an investment in Small Acute Medical Units that will be established in various cities such as
London, Cambridge, Manchester and Birmingham etc. The investment in small acute medical
units will offer an opportunity to Bupa to gain competitive advantage over other competitors
such as NHS.
Marketing planning -
Marketing planning refers to the procedure for defining the aims and objectives of an
organization, and it also helps the business to develop strategies and actions for achieving the
marketing objectives. It defines target market of the firm, analysis of competitors, channels for

distribution and budget etc. Marketing plan is a part of overall plan of the business. It is a written
document that outlines the marketing aims, marketing mix of the organization (Cebeci, 2018).
Process of Marketing planning – It refers to the process that involves different steps for
accomplishing the marketing aims and objectives of the firm. The Marketing Manager of Bupa
will follow the following process for Marketing of Small Acute Medical Units. This is as follows
Marketing Orientation Approach – It refers to the approach that firm follows for identifying
the needs of customers and on the basis of which organization try to satisfy those needs. Bupa
will focus on the needs and demands of targeted segment of personal and corporate customers
for delivering the services of Bupa Emergency and Acute Medical (BEAM) units.
Business Vision – To transform the lives of people through innovation, caring, safety etc.
Business Mission – The Mission of Bupa is to provide better quality healthcare services to
targeted segment of customers.
Marketing objectives –
There are various objectives of Bupa behind marketing of new Bupa Emergency and
Acute Medical (BEAM) units such as -
 To increase the present market share in Hospitality Industry of UK.
 To gain competitive advantage over other organizations that are offering healthcare
services.
Market Research -
Bupa will conduct market research for analysing various segments of customers to which
Acute medical units will offer its services. Marketing Manager of healthcare organization will
conduct research for identifying the needs of customers in respect of services of acute medical
units.
Analysis of competition -
Marketing planning will help Bupa to analyse its present competitors that are also
offering the services through acute medical units. Such as London Bridge Hospital,
Addenbrooke's Hospital etc (Dafny, Ho, K. and Lee, 2016).
Marketing strategy -
Bupa will adopt various strategies for marketing of services that it will offer to customers
through Bupa Emergency and Acute Medical (BEAM) units. It will use strategies for attracting
targeted segment of customers through print advertising, social media etc.

Monitoring and Controlling -
Healthcare Organization will use various tools and techniques for monitoring the
performance of marketing activities for BEAM units. For monitoring the progress of marketing
of new units, Bupa will appoint staff for communicating with customers through survey.
Organization will also use tracking tools for controlling the marketing activities.
b) Analysis of macro and micro environment.
Macro Environment –
It refers to the external environment that exists outside an organization. These factors
indirectly affects the operations and business of the company. Firm cannot fully control the
impact of macro factors on the business.
PESTLE analysis –
PESTLE analysis is a tool that helps the firm to determine external factors that can
impact the performance of the organization. Bupa will use this model for evaluating the factors
that can indirectly affect the new BEAM concept in positive or negative way (Delawska-Elliott,
Grinstead, C. and Martin, 2015).
Political -
There are various political factors that may impact the services of BEAM are the changes
in legislations of Government of UK, rules and regulations related with safety of patients etc.
will negatively impact the services of Acute Medical Units.
Economical-
There are various political factors that can affect the operations of new BEAM units is
the cost of labour because these units cannot work without skilled professionals. The process of
service delivery of the units should be effective that will help Bupa to maintain more patients in
less time.
Social -
Healthcare organization should consider changes in needs and demands of targeted
segment of customers that is personal and business groups. Bupa should conduct extensive
research to determine the trend of changing lifestyle of the customers. Firm should consider the
number of ageing population in UK. This will affect the operations of new BEAM units.
Technological -

Healthcare sector is experiencing fast changes in the technology for offering services to
patients. Therefore, to remain competitive, Bupa should implement new tools and technology for
offering services to customers. Firm should use new technology for tracking the patients through
computer system.
Legal -
There are various legal rules and regulations of the Government that firm have to follow
while providing services of Bupa Emergency and Medical units. It will have to comply
regulations related with quality of services, laws related with safety of patients etc (Eastman,
2017).
Environmental -
There are various regulations that every organization have to follow for protection of
environment. Bupa should ensure that, the type of equipments and tools that will be used in
Acute Medical Units will not harm the environment.
Micro Environment – Micro environment consists of those factors that directly impacts the
operations of an organization. Firm can control the impact of these factors on its operations.
SWOT analysis – Bupa will conduct SWOT analysis for determining the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats to new BEAM units.
Strengths-
 BEAM units will mainly focuses on improving the quality of services.
 Personnels are highly trained and skilled.
Weaknesses-
 Lack of adequate resources for implementing new technology.
 Insufficient training to medical staff.
Opportunities-
 Opportunity to develop programmes for attracting large number of personal and business
customers.
Threats-
 There are various competitors of Bupa that are already providing services of Acute
Medical Units in UK. Such as National Health Scheme is already operating three Acute
Medical Units. It will give a tough competition to new BEAM units of Bupa (Fortenberry
Jr, J.L. and McGoldrick, 2016).

c) Outline of Marketing mix.
Extended Marketing Mix –
It refers to all those factors that helps the business to attract customers to buy the product
or to avail the services of the organization. It is known as extended marketing mix because three
elements are added later in existing traditional marketing mix will play an important role in
developing an effective marketing plan for new Bupa Emergency and Medical units.
Importance -
 Elements of marketing mix that are product, people, price etc. helps an organization to
remain competitive and to gain competitive advantage over competitors. Marketing mix
will help Bupa to develop effective strategies regarding product, process etc. for offering
the services of new BEAM units to targeted segment of customers (Fine, 2017).
 It will also help to improve ROI of business by investing in small acute medical units
located at various cities in UK.
 All the elements of marketing mix will help to improve the present level of services of
Bupa.
L O 3
a) Segmentation for new concept.
Segmentation –
Market segmentation refers to the process of dividing the whole market into various
homogeneous groups of customers on the basis of various factors. The customers of these
segments will have similar interest, location or demands. Research team of Bupa will conduct
extensive survey for segmenting the whole market of hospitality industry in UK to offer facility
of new BEAM units to targeted segment of people (Gilligan, C. and Lowe, 2018). Segmenting
the whole market will help Bupa to develop marketing strategy for a particular group of
customers that will help to attract large number of customers to avail the services of new BEAM
units.
B 2 C segmentation -
It refers to segmenting the market to offer the services directly to targeted segment of
clients of the business. This will help to provide facilities of Acute Medical Units to new as well

as already existing patients of Bupa. There are various approaches that Bupa will use for
segmenting B 2 C market for new BEAM units. These are as follows -
Demographic Segmentation -
Healthcare organization will segment the whole market of UK on the basis of
demographic factors of the people. This will include factors such as age of the patients,
occupation, purchasing power etc.
Geographic Segmentation -
Bupa will also adopt the method of geographic segmentation for segmenting the whole
market on the basis of geographic locations where customers are residing.
Behavioral segmentation -
It refers to dividing the whole market on the basis of behaviour of the customers. Another
approach that healthcare organization will use for segmenting the market for new Bupa
Emergency and Medical unit is behavioural segmentation (Zhang, P. and Meng, 2015).
Psychographic Segmentation -
Another approach of segmentation that company will use for segmenting the whole
market is Psychographic segmentation. Under this approach, Bupa will divide the market on the
basis of lifestyle, personality and values of the customers.
B 2 B segmentation -
It refers to segmenting the whole market for offering the products or services of the
organization to other business firms. There are various approaches that Bupa will use for
segmenting B2B Market for offering its services of new BEAM units in various cities in UK.
These are as follows
Firmographics segmentation -
Company may segment the market on the basis of information available regarding
various companies such as size of business etc.
Segmentation on the basis of value -
Bupa may also segment the market on the basis of the value the customers will present
for the healthcare organization.
Segmentation on the basis of needs -
Another method that organization can adopt for segmenting the market for providing
services of new BEAM units is need based segmentation. Under this, Bupa will segment the

market on the basis of need and demands of customers for the services of Acute Medical Units
(Jones, 2016).
b) Targeting methods.
Targeting -
Targeting refers to the second step of process of STP. Under this, firm select a particular
target market for offering its products or services to satisfy the needs and demands of the
customers.
Targeting methods that will be used for B 2 C market -
An organization can adopt different methods for targeting a particular market segment.
Targeting methods that Bupa will use for offering the facilities of new BEAM units are as
follows -
Demographics -
One of the most common method of targeting the customers that Bupa will use is on the
basis of demographic factors such as income, age of the patients. Healthcare organization will
target middle and higher income group customers that are having income between £20,000 to
£50,000 per annum. One the basis of age, organization will target customers of 15-50 age group
(Sullivan, P. and Bell, 2017).
Behavioural -
This method is widely used by companies operating in hospitality industry. Another
method Bupa will use for targeting the customers is on the basis of behaviour. Under this,
organization will target the patients on the basis of their loyalty, their awareness towards the
services of healthcare organization.
On the basis of benefits -
Bupa will also adopt the method of targeting customers on the basis of the benefits of the
services to the customers. The company will target the customers on the basis of the advantage
they will obtain due to the valuable services that will be provided by new Bupa Emergency and
Medical unit.
Lifestyle -
An organization can also target the customers on the basis of their lifestyle. This method
of targeting customers will help to improve patient engagement in new BEAM units.

c) About positioning.
Positioning –
It refers to the strategy of establishing the image of the brand in the minds of targeted
segment of customers. So that, it will help to gain competitive advantage over the competitors.
Bupa will use different strategies for developing brand image of the new concept that is Bupa
Emergency and Medical (BEAM) units (Scheffler, R.M. and Arnold, 2017). It will use pricing,
promotion, product strategies so that, firm can position the brand image of new BEAM units as
well as its services in the minds of targeted segment of patients.
L O 4 &5
Analysis of Marketing Mix.
Marketing Mix -
It refers to all those actions that a firm adopts for promoting its products, services or
brand to targeted segment of customers.
Figure 1 : 7 P's of Marketing Mix
Source : (7 P's of Marketing Mix, 2018)

Product -
Bupa has planned to invest funds in small acute medical centres that are located in
different cities in UK such as London etc. Bupa Emergency and Medical (BEAM) units will
provide various facilities to the patients. Such as directing the patients that are having acute
disease from emergency departments. Care and treatment will be provided between 24-72 hours
(Palmatier, R.W. and Crecelius, 2019).
Place -
Bupa Emergency and Medical (BEAM) units will offer its services to targeted segment of
personal and business customers at various places. These units are located at various cities of
United Kingdom such as London, Cambridge, Manchester etc. These units are located at such a
place that can be accessible easily by the patients with the help of different means of
transportation. There are various ambulances, teams that will help the units to provide care to
patients.
Price -
Here, price refers to the fees that BEAM units will charge from personal and business
customers for providing its services. Unit will provide its services with the help of advanced
technology and equipments. Bupa will use premium pricing for the services it will offer through
BEAM units. Healthcare organization will charge premium price that is higher price for its
services as compared to the price other healthcare organization are charging for providing the
services. Bupa is using premium pricing to establish brand image in the minds of targeted
customers.
Promotion -
Promotion of new BEAM units is essential to make customers aware regarding new
services that Bupa is offering through these units. Healthcare organization will use different tools
for promoting the services such as it will appoint sales person to explain the benefits of new
services to customers (Lewis, M.S. and Pflum, 2017). Bupa will also advertise the services of
BEAM units through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter because large number of
people are using social media nowadays.
People -
Staff of the organization plays an important role in marketing on services. Bupa will
appoint new staff for promoting the services of BEAM units to promote the brand image.

Organisation will recruit talented and skilled professionals to take care of patient. It includes
medical staff, nurses, non-consultant staff, healthcare professionals for allied activities etc.
Physical evidence -
Physical facilities also plays an important role in attracting patients to avail the services
of the organization. Various facilities will be provided in Bupa Emergency and Medical (BEAM)
units.
It will include good ambience, facility of ambulance etc. There will be proper facility of drinking
water, ventilation, sewerage facility etc.
Process -
There will be facility of OPD system in BEAM units. This will help the customers to
book the appointment with general practitioner and doctors. It will also assist the patients to
access medical history etc. This will help to improve satisfaction level of the patients (Jones,
2016).

CONCLUSION
The above Report has outlined the term marketing, Acute medical units etc. The Report
has described the various stages in process of developing marketing plan. Bupa will use
Marketing Orientation Approach for marketing of new BEAM units. Further, the Report has
explained various factors of macro and micro environment that will affect new BEAM concept in
positive or negative way. Marketing mix plays a major role in gaining competitive advantage
over other companies. Moreover, the Report has outlined market segmentation and methods of
targeting and positioning brand image for personal and business customers for BEAM units.
Marketing mix of new concept includes strategies related with product, price, place and other
factors.

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