Week 6 - Marketing Plan

Team’s Service

The team’s product is to provide cancer screening clinic that would facilitate the treatment of cancer and regular checkups for those people with cancer. More specifically we are planning to procure the chemotherapy drugs and facilities to treat cancer.

To be detailed, we are planning to incorporate the main chemotherapy drugs and equipment which include;

1. Cannula – which is the small tube that inserted into the arm’s veins on the day of treatment and removed when each treatment cycle ends

2. Oral chemotherapy – these are the drugs which are provided as tablets. (Sui & Wang, 2013)

Problems to be solved

The service is new in the market and it’s expected to solve the problem of the residents of Oregon from having to travel far to seek such services. We are planning to bring a chemotherapy treatment cancer which is expected to serve the large population Oregon of 19,249 people. Instead of the cancer victims going far out of the state to seek cancer medication, we are planning to induce chemotherapy treatment of cancer within the region. This would involve prescription of the drugs necessary for cancer treatment. After the patient is scanned with cancer and prescribed with the necessary drugs, we would be able to administer the chemotherapy drugs that would help in treating the cancer.

Organizational Structure

The service is part of a newly formed healthcare organization. In our healthcare organization, we are planning to initiate a section for our organization unit that would deal with cancer treatment. We had plans to initiate the urgent healthcare clinic that would deal with such treatments apart from other general treatments. We are planning to specialize in a given region within Oregon to provide the health services that are need for chemical therapy of cancer patients. The integration of chemotherapy treatment of cancer with other healthcare services ensures diversification and reduced operational cost since cancer patients are not many as such patients with other health complications. Hence, the other services would supplement the healthcare service based on chemotherapy treatment and hence ensure that the clinic is able to run normally without financial constraints. This would help to maximize also on resources.

Target Market Analysis

The target market is the people of Oregon (19,249 in population). We are targeting all the people who have been screened with cancer both males and females for most types of cancers that would be treatable through chemotherapy.

National Cancer Institute health variable demographics shows that for every 100, 000 people, 454.8 people would report cancer cases. Hence, taking this proportion, we would have the following estimated number of cancer cases for the population of Oregon;

Cancer case for Oregon = 454.8/100000 * 19, 249

= 87.5 per year

This is an appreciable number of cancer cases to be dealt with in the Oregon region with an average cases of 7.3 cases per month. The estimate takes into consideration the fact that there are no healthcare centers that offer cancer treatment and hence the service we are offering would get the whole market advantage until another cancer treatment clinic opens for competition.

Market Size

The size of the market is large enough to offer a yearly cancer case treatment of a maximum of 87.5 cases per year and an average of 7.3 case per month. The market size is obtained from the calculations performed previously. The ratio of the current cases out of the total population was used to determine the predictable number of cancer cases in the state of Oregon. Taking the National Cancer Institute predicted ratio of the number of cancer cases to the sample population and multiplying it with the total population of the Oregon state would give the estimated number of cases yearly at Oregon State. In turn, dividing this figure by 12 months gives the average number of cancer cases that may be reportable per month.

Specific Needs of the Market.

The specific need of the market concerning the service is to get chemotherapy treatments to cancer at a nearer proximity. Out of the 25 healthcare organization, there is 0 organization that offers cancer treatment which causes the patients to travel far away from Oregon to seek cancer treatments. However, with the opening of the clinic that would offer chemotherapy treatment, the consumers would benefit from reduced traveling cost since cancer would be treatable within the Oregon state.

External Environment Influence

1. Economic effect would impact the proposed product or service. Since the number of expected cancer treatments is small – not all cancer cases must be reported to the clinic – we may experience a high operational cost than the return. Hence, we are ready to expect any overhead operational costs after the deployment of the clinic. However, we look forward to diversify by offering other services to supplement cancer treatment.

2. Technological advancement in chemotherapy such as the use of cannula tubes among other new technologies would enhance the services we provide

3. Regulatory and legal agencies may be interested in assessing our services and we may receive approvals and incentives to continue our services.

SQWOT Analysis

1. Strengths – no competitors. There are no healthcare centers in Oregon that provide treatment of cancer.

2. Weaknesses – thin profit margin for the operational cost. The estimated number of patients is small and at the beginning, it would be quite challenging to run the clinic during the first months before the clinic becomes popular.

3. Opportunities - likely support from the government and NGOs affiliated with cancer treatment. We expect more people to be aware of our services and the clinic would become a recommended center of cancer treatment.

4. Threats – new market competitors may flood the market. Other health care centers may be challenged and begin cancer treatment services which would flood the market and the little number of cancer cases would be redistributed among the competitors and hence resulting to thin margins.

Anticipated Competitors

Currently, there are no competitors but the 25 health care centers pose a big threat to competition. They have enough resources including financial capability to start a chemotherapy cancer treatment. However, they wouldn’t have the experience we currently have in treating cancer through chemotherapy and be the time they start, we would have gain the largest market share.

References

National Cancer Institute. (n.d). Cancer Statistics. Retrieved August 08, 2017, from https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics

Sui, X., & Wang, Z. (2013). Autophagy and chemotherapy resistance: a promising therapeutic target for cancer treatment. Cell death & disease, 4(10), e838.