Positioning and Differentiation Strategies - Essay Example

Positioning and differentiation strategies Introduction Mayo clinic is a nonprofit organization that is engaged in medical research and practice and it deals with community research system. The clinic was founded or established on 30th September 1889 and the chief executive officer of the company is John H Nose worthy. MD Anderson is a cancer centre which is considered or known as one of the three original cancer centre in United States and it has been established with the National cancer Act in 1971. The founder of this cancer centre is Monroe Dunaway Anderson. Positioning strategy is considered as the process for identifying or determining the market problem and the market opportunity. Positioning strategy is influenced by the attributes, the types of the consumers who are involved in this process, application and the object attributes. Differentiation strategy is concerned with developing the unique products and services for different types of customers. Differentiation strategy is considered as one among the three generic marketing strategies. Discussion Positioning strategy adopted by Mayo clinic and MD Anderson. Mayo Clinic has been established for offering the best available services to its patient through the integrated clinical practice and the education and research. For developing the reputation of the clinic it has focused on the positioning strategy. Mayo Clinic in order to attract more of its customers or patient has concentrated on the needs and the requirements of the patients and it has also developed the level of commitment of its staff. In terms of the cost, Mayo clinic have engaged lot of engineers in there clinic who are constantly engaged in improving the efficiency of the science and technology. The clinic has a training centre that guides or assists the staff in the use or the application of the technology for removing or decreasing the waste and therefore it has taken various initiative that will result in the better or suitable outcome that will be safe for the patients and therefore it has focused on providing the better services at a affordable and reasonable cost that will increase the value of the clinic. Mayo clinic has positioned itself as a diagnostic centre. The positioning is considered as an important strategy for developing and increasing the customer base and also the brand equity. The positioning strategies of Mayo clinic is mainly focusing on driving the growth , achieving the goals and the objectives defining the brand, improving the services and understanding the patient and offering the best available services to its patients. Since there are different positioning strategies adopted by various clinic but in case of Mayo clinic it has focused on identifying and occupying the market and adopting niche marketing for positioning of the brand and the services. It has adopted positioning in such a way in order to attract the customers. In order to attract its target customers and better positioning of its clinic it has started providing the clinical testing trials for the use of new drugs, therapies and devices and it has focused on developing new knowledge and then transforming its discoveries into therapies for the development and advancement of the patient care. Mayo clinic is discovering various ways and methods for predicting diagnosing and preventing cancer (Harvard Business School Press, 2005). MD Anderson is a well known cancer centre of Texas and it has focused on the causes and the treatment for curing the cancer patients. Therefore the positioning strategies adopted by MD Anderson is that since MD Anderson is a specialist centre that is focusing on the treatment of the cancer patient therefore it is focusing on identifying the bottleneck problems . The target customers or the patient are different and therefore they are segmented and therefore it is adopting various techniques such as social media for reaching to its target customers or patients. It is focusing on the budget and modifying the traditional budget structure for reaching and targeting all its customers or patients. The clinic is emphasizing on offering comfort and assistance to its cancer patients and also the survivors and their families. The customers can voluntarily take part in clinical trials for diagnosing and undergo treatment for cancer. The key or the positioning strategy that is adopted by MD Anderson is mainly focusing on the cancer patients, best doctors for treatment of the cancer patients, complying with the improvement of the brand image of the clinic. It creates and focuses on creating an environment for finding the best possible way or method to fight against cancer (Picton and Broderick, 2009). Figure 1: Positioning strategy of MD Anderson The difference in the positioning strategy of MD Anderson and Mayo Clinic is that since both are clinical research centre therefore there positioning and marketing strategy is almost similar but the difference is the target audience since Mayo clinic is focusing on various segments of customers and MD Anderson is particularly focusing and is concerned with the cancer patients since this is a specialist centre well known for the treatment of cancer. Differentiation strategy adopted by Mayo clinic and MD Anderson Mayo Clinic has adopted and implemented the differentiation strategy for remaining viable. The clinical centre has adopted service differentiation strategy for differentiating its services from that of its competitors. The clinic can differentiate its services in terms of its cost and time taken for delivery of its services. The service differentiation strategy will provide the clinic to gain competitive advantage over other clinics in the market. It has focused on improving the performance of the employees and the clinic. The differentiation strategy adopted by Mayo Clinic emphasizes that it has focused on offering the best quality services to its customers at a affordable price and special care that is provided to the patients which will help the clinic in widening and strengthening its customer base as compared to its competitors in the market. The differentiation strategy that is adopted by MD Anderson is mainly based and focused on improving the focus on sale that explains how cancer can be treated , providing personalized care to its customers or patients, improving the quality life of the customers that is providing hope for the survival of the customers or the patients, it offers compassionate care in which it implies that it looks after the whole patient not only the disease suffered, it is expertise in the research and treatment of cancer and it applies multidisciplinary approach and technique for offering right treatment to its customers or patients (Cheverton, 2005). The difference in the differentiation strategy that is adopted by Mayo Clinic and MD Anderson is that Mayo Clinic is focusing on providing better service at an affordable price whereas the MD Anderson is focusing on the well being and treating the patient with new and innovative techniques. Conclusion Mayo Clinic is considered as one of the best clinic providing the best health care facilities to its customers in United States. The clinic is focusing on providing quality service at an affordable price. The clinic is required to adopt and implement the positioning and the differentiation strategy for sustaining and remaining competitive in the market. Therefore it is required to overcome the barriers for the successful implementation of the strategy. The barriers generally includes the problem in communication, lack of resources and the resistance to change.MD Anderson is concentrating on the treatment that is provided to the patient or the customer suffering from cancer and it has adopted its positioning and differentiation strategy so that it can communicate its message clearly in order to reach its target audience and being considered as the first choice by the customers. References Cheverton, P. (2005). Key marketing skills: strategies, tools and techniques for marketing success. Great Britain: Kogan Page Publishers. Harvard Business School Press. (2005). Strategy: Create and implement the best strategy for your business. Boston, MA: Author. Picton, D., and Broderick, A. (2009). Integrated marketing communications, 3rd edition. Harlow: FT- Prentice Hall. Read More