Ge Healthcare Marketing Plan

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Situation Analysis

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Global environmental factors

Being one of industry leaders, GE Healthcare is currently looking at this situation from various perspectives in order to nullify or minimize the threats to the launch of its new respiration monitor. The name of GE is a worldwide landmark in several aspects, especially, technological advancement, product reliability and after-sales support. Potential customers have already an idea about the capabilities of GE Healthcare, and this is the advantage we have in the market. We will use the company’s fame and brand awareness in order to market this new innovative device.

PEST ANALYSIS:

Political:

Being a multinational company based in Chicago, GE Healthcare is obliged to take into consideration regulations and political situations in different countries in order to maintain the intended growth rate. However, for our case in the United States, the company will benefit from the present political stability which is also necessary for a steady growth. The company also should take into consideration the dynamics concerning healthcare laws in the country as well as the trade/exporting policies.

Economic:

Understanding the economic factors in the healthcare sector is a major success factor. To start, GE Healthcare possess broad knowledge and expertise in the domain, which will allow us to make steady steps towards achieving our targets. Yet, whenever there is profit, there is risk. And by that we mean economic factors such as inflation, interest rates, currency exchange rates, economic crisis and many other factors will be decisive. The repercussions of the slowdown in economy is felt worldwide, which has a direct influence on sales.

Social:

It is true that Norms, cultural traditions, and even religion are important determinants when it comes to business. For our case, these criteria are alleviated due to the nature of our company and our product. Since it is a medical device that is concerned with respiration, our experts doubt the possibility of facing any opposition. The social factor is also established by the heritage in our company. GE Healthcare adapted a socially sustainable work environment which takes into consideration the basic needs of employees.

Technological:

As technology is advancing at a fast rate, new products are always under development in order to keep up with the market and other competitors especially as globalization and worldwide communication are terms in discussion. This is one of the main reasons behind the astronomical R&D spending observed in the financial statements of the big manufacturers. For our case, our presence in the US and the pool of expertise available will give us the edge in reaching our objectives.

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Relevant Market

In an attempt to estimate out potential market size, we started by identifying a possible market segmentation scheme. For our case, a mix of Benefit Criteria and Buying behavior-based criteria is the optimal type of segmentation. Looking at GE’s heritage and position in the US market, we can identify our main segments as:

- Cost sensitive customers

- Quality driven customers with advanced information behavior

The choice of this segmentation resulted from the analysis of our customer base, based on their annual spending on medical devices in the past. Our customers are usually interested in the quality that GE healthcare established over the years as well as the professional after sale support. We are targeting quality driver customers due to the nature of our product. Since it is a medical device, more specifically in the respiratory diagnostic domain, our customers are interested in keeping up with the latest technologies in the healthcare sector due to the increasing competition. And to abide by our motto “We deliver”, we thrive to satisfy our customers need. In broad terms, our users are state owned and private hospitals, outpatient clinics and medical centers, health research institutes, as well as medical schools.

In an attempt to estimate the market size, considerable amount of research was done, as well as the use of secondary data available in the company’s database. The output of our research is the following:

Estimated market size

Hospital

Outpatient Clinic

Research Institute

Medical Schools

Small

Medium

Large

Number of Institutions

2365

2122

1140

25750

107

172

Estimated number of devices required per institution

5

7

13

3

3

2

Estimated number of devices per segment

11825

14854

14820

77250

321

344

Total number of devices (Initial)

119414

Final count with spare devices and unaccounted customers (20% margin)

143300

In order to analyze the attractiveness of the medical devices industry, we performed the Five Forces Model based on our knowledge of the market and our competitors. Medical devices industry is labeled as “Clash