When developing a marketing plan, it is important to understand

Discussion: Health Care Consumerism

When developing a marketing plan, it is important to understand that health care consumers differ from consumers in other markets. One of the greatest distinctions is that health care consumers are often not the ones to select the products or services they are purchasing. Instead, doctors or other health care providers decide what services or products consumers need. This means that when marketing in health care, organizations should consider both the consumer and the provider. For this Discussion, you examine buying behaviors of health care consumers in the following scenario and recommend strategies to market a drug product.

Scenario: A pharmaceutical company is going to be selling a new brand-name prescription drug to treat allergies. You have been hired to help them market this product to individual and industry consumers.

To prepare:

• Review the provided scenario.
• Identify individual and industry-based consumers for the prescription drug product in the scenario. Consider buying behaviors and characteristics of these consumers.

Note: For this Discussion, you are required to complete your initial post before you will be able to view and respond to your colleagues’ postings. Begin by selecting the “Post to Discussion” link and then select “Create Thread” to complete your initial post. Remember, once you click submit, you cannot delete or edit your own posts, and cannot post anonymously. Please check your post carefully before clicking Submit!

By Day 3

Post a cohesive response to the following:

Describe one individual and one industry consumer for the prescription drug product in the provided scenario. Analyze buying behaviors and characteristics of these consumers. Then, recommend strategies to market this product to the consumers you identified. Include strategies for the different stages of the product’s life cycle. Defend or argue your recommendations. Support your response by identifying and explaining key points and/or examples presented in the Learning Resources.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings. Consider how your colleagues’ postings relate to the information presented in the Learning Resources and to your own posting.