Marketing forms an essential part of the distribution channel for goods and services. As a result, entrepreneurship competencies and skills must be supported by an effective marketing plan (Thomas, 2005). The critical evaluation of the marketing activity for the Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA) focuses on the effectiveness of particular marketing activities within the marketing department (Balleisen, 2003). The critical evaluation will be followed by a sound justification of the decisions supported by examples or evidence from the marketing plan. The report has three parts, the first part provides a critical evaluation of the marketing activity for HCA, the second part provides a conclusion addressing the shortcomings of HCA marketing strategy, and finally, the third task provides recommendations based on the findings and how the marketing department can improve the marketing strategy.
Task 1: Critical Evaluation of HCA Marketing Activity
HCA Healthcare, Inc. is one of the leading companies providing health care services in the United States. In 2019, the company operated 184 hospitals consisting of 179 acute care hospitals and two hospitals for rehabilitation (Haadsma, 2016). The company also manages 123 freestanding centers for surgery. One of the facilities out of the 21 facilities in the 21 states considered in the critical evaluation is in Nashville, TN.
Concept and Importance of Marketing
A major concept taken into consideration during marketing is to identify the rising consumer needs for healthcare consumption. The first step is to understand the consumers to meet their demands. Marketing at the organization allows the management to respond to the rising expectations of the consumers in America (Goen, 2019). The technique used by HCA is to develop campaigns that promptly respond to consumer preference. HCA increases the satisfaction of the patients through enhancing consumer awareness and increasing brand satisfaction. HCA has a nationwide presence in the US due to the fast-moving range of services provided to the clients. The primary marketing strategy lies in the vision to provide exceptional quality and improved healthcare services to the people. HCA has lately positioned itself as a winner in the highly competitive healthcare industry. The marketing strategy ensures that hospitals in their states target their unique states and constituencies. The marketing applies a marketing team into various states, intending to understand the marketing dynamics of the contemporary hospitals’ systems (Young, 2013). One of the most significant resources used by HCA in marketing is through adverts in the newspapers, business magazines, and journals that are published to contain data that is important for marketing research. Another essential resource is the time allocated for the marketing projects by the hospital. The hospital uses its own time intending to decrease the cost of the marketing projects. The hospital supply significant time to the project planning to reduce the unnecessary expense that can be incurred due to improper management.
The effect of Internal, Macro, and Microenvironment for HCA
Usually, different markets have different practices or standards of the environments in which they operate. A business often has both internal and external environment that influences its operations (Yaghoubi, and Guthrie, n.d). HCA healthcare is affected by the different laws in the various states where the hospitals are located. In Texas and Florida, the liability clauses are different since, in these states, the taxes applied are not healthy to the business. The cost of advertisements is expensive in certain states, and this adversely influences the marketing strategy (Moseley 2017). Internally lack of skills for the marketing team highly affects information delivered to the target markets. Sometimes the marketing team is not supported by the management during their projects, and this adversely impacts the success of the projects.
Two components of the external environment influence the marketing strategy for HCA, and they encompass micro and macro. The micro and macro environment are beyond the control of the marketing team, but they still affect decision making during the development of a marketing strategy. An essential element of the microenvironment that influences marketing at HCA is the customers (Kuttner, 1996). The characteristics and the preferences of the customers, together with the reason for buying highly influences the marketing approach deployed by the HCA marketing team. Competition is another micro factor that changes how marketers do market differentiation (Huang and Chang, 2014). The services for HCA are differentiated uniquely to meet the expectations of the clients in various states, and they are designed to be different from the other services in the healthcare industry. Marketing through social media is affected by the demographic population as a major macro factor.
Social media marketing is used regularly, but there is a specific demographic of the population like the elderly who rarely visit social media. Sometimes the hospital marketing department is obliged to use minimal social media marketing, and the effort is also divided to meet the needs of the elderly within the different states in America (Schlesinger, and Gray, 1998). Innovation is one of the internal environments that affect marketing at HCA. The healthcare industry is becoming highly innovative, and this forces the marketing team to perform proper research of marketing through the use of contemporary technology. The team observes the marketing trend and tries to be innovative in terms of meeting the healthcare demands of the entire target market.