To prepare for this assignment, read this week’s required article by Firshein (1996). For your Final Project, you will compile the work you have completed throughout the course to develop a 10 to 15-page marketing plan that supports the goals of a strategic plan for a real-world healthcare organization, incorporating instructor and peer feedback as appropriate. The Marketing Plan must contain the following sections:

Executive Summary

• Provide a brief summary of the marketing plan.

Introduction

• State the objectives of the strategic plan.
• Explain how your marketing plan will achieve specific objectives and support the organization’s business plan and strategic plan.

Market Analysis

• Describe the organization’s products and services
• Explain how these products and services meet the needs of the organization’s determined customer base.
• Include relevant aspects from the SWOT analysis you conducted in Week Two.
• State the competitive advantage your plan provides.

Environmental Analyses

• Internal: Include an analysis of the role of leadership and employees, the communication processes, and the culture of the workplace.
• External: Include an analysis of socioeconomic, legal, ethical, political, and technological factors that could affect the organization.
• Describe how data, based on the quadrants presented in the Boston Consulting Group Matrix, would apply to your marketing plan.

Marketing Mix

• Describe the marketing opportunities and marketing goals for your chosen HCO.
• Explain the marketing strategies that are employed in your plan.
• Apply market segmentation to your plan based on the target markets you have identified.
• Explain how database marketing was used or why it was not included in your marketing plan.

Plan Evaluation

• Discuss methods of performance evaluation and monitoring that will be used to evaluate the success of your chosen healthcare organization’s marketing plan.
• Explain why reports for a particular time frame (weekly, monthly, quarterly) would be important and how you would use feedback in these reports to control the future of your marketing.

Conclusion

• Provide a conclusion that summarizes your marketing plan. Include persuasive statements that explain how your marketing plan supports the goals of your chosen healthcare organization’s strategic plan.

The Marketing Plan:

• Must be 10 to 15 double-spaced pages in length (excluding the title page and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• Must include a title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must utilize at least 10 scholarly sources (in addition to the course text) that were published within the past five years. At least three of these sources must be from the Ashford University Library.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style

1. Firshein, J. (1996). 20 strategies for marketing your managed care plan (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Healthcare Executive, 11(1), 15-7. Retrieved from http://www.ache.org/HEOnline/digital/heonline_index.cfm

• The full-text version of this article can be accessed through the ProQuest database in the Ashford University Library. In this article, Firshein describes 20 techniques healthcare executives use to create a unique marketing plan that helps to differentiate their plan from the competition.