Final exam

1- Akron Children’s Hospital Marketing Director Aaron Powell felt it was important to
conduct this study because

Since the Akron Children’s Hospital focuses on children, this particular strategy needs to
focus on the entire range of issues families will consider when selecting a hospital for
their child.

Mr. Powell feels it is not just about the children but also the adults because they are the
people that are going to make the decisions on which hospital their children are going to
go to. Mr. Powell is trying to increase the number of patients by ten (10) percent in the
following year and he feels it is through the parents, not the children to obtain this ten
(10) percent.

and also powell thought that it was important to conduct this study, because other
competitive hospitals in the area had hired marketing directors similar to himself,
and were consequently intensifying their marketing campaigns in the area, which
created an urgency for Akron Children's Hospital to intensify its marketing efforts
in order to remain competitive.
2. The main purpose of of the Akron children hospital study was

The Board of Directors of the Akron Children’s Hospital wants the hospital to become
the preferred hospital in the high-growth areas .

The board is studying different positioning strategies to best select a research campaign.

The main purpose of the Akron Children's Hospital study was to ascertain the
best positioning for this hospital for the upcoming communications campaign,
which was intended to increase the number of patients for the hospital by
approximately 10% in the next year

3-The key questions the Akron Children’s Hospital employees

address in the case are ____________________.

(Identify the key questions in the minds of the case

protagonists.)

the akron hospital employees were trying to answer key questions onn whether to
proceed with plan A.B.C or d .

the amount of financial resources varied for each option and the group was trying to
determine which effort would be a worthwhile investment of their time and resources

4-The methods used by Powell and his team to answer the

marketing research problem were ____________________.

Powell and his team were reviewing several methods to determine the best avenue to
market the hospital .

Plans A.B.C all utilized focus groups to answer marketing research questions .
Plan A : focus group only 20 k

Plan B : focus group with a follow up survey 60 k

Plan C : survey with a follow up focus group 60 k

The focus group participants would discuss their experiences while at the hospital .

In plan B THE FOCUS group would be held and then a field survey would be conducted in
order to follow up on the issues that were identified .

Plan C would conduct a survey to establish the positioning preference of the participants
and those strategies can be explored with a follow up focus group .

Plan D was the last alternative which was to conduct no research and let the
communication and research agency brainstorm markting ideas .

5-The most important understanding about Akron Children’s

Hospital as an organization that led the firm to consider the

research about its positioning was ____________________.

(Identify the facts, observations, and/or data Powell and his

team are using to support their conclusions.)

The status as a hospital in the general area of Ohio and its advancement of its marketing
efforts.

The Board of Directors wants the Akron Children’s Hospital to grow significantly and
wants to be the preferred hospital in high-growth areas.

By become the preferred hospital, it will set them up to be successful in the future and
to continue to provide the best customer service and doctor service in this area.

It does not state in this case, but maybe the Board of Directors seen a decreasing
number of patients in all the other area hospitals listed in this case study.

This would be a big decision maker about the positioning of the Akron Children’s
Hospital if the previous sstatement I made was true.

6-The research design decision can be put into context by

____________________.

(Place the research design decision into other readily under-

stood contexts.)

This design is qualitative focus group centered research.

Qualitative research is designed to reveal a target audience’s range of behavior and the
perceptions that drive it with reference to specific topics or issues.

If there is a survey completed (as no decision has been made as to which plan to follow),
there would be some aspects of quantitative research.
7- The main inferences/conclusions in this case are

____________________.

(Identify the key conclusions implied by the case.)

The main conclusion of this case is the effective positioning of any place requires more
than one option.

In this particular case, there are four different potential plans to complete.
Specifically ,focus groups tend to be within most of the plans in this case.

The group needs to agree with which route to go so everyone will put in 100% effort into
this project.

The proper marketing techniques need to be in place to move this project forward.

8. If we take this line of reasoning seriously, the implications

for many other firms are ____________________.

(What consequences are likely to follow if people take the

marketing team’s reasoning seriously and apply it to other

firms?)

Other firms would be highly successful in improving their positioning and the application
if they used this firm’s methodology to analyze the results of Akron’s Children’s Hospital.
If another firm was completing they same type of research and this one was successful, I
would mirror what the hospital did as it was already proven successful.

9-What is the role of marketing research in determining the

best positioning strategy for Akron Children’s Hospital?

Market positioning is the process of establishing a hospital image that stands out
from the competition.
The objective of market positioning is to influence the perception of the hospital in
the minds of a specific segment of consumers.( parents )
Market positioning also increases brand awareness, communicates value, and
justifies pricing.
The hospital marketing and promotional efforts need to suit its personality along
with ensuring that customers resonate with the content.
For this, the hospital can conduct market research to find out exactly where the
audience traffic is maximum and likely to be more effective.
Market research helps to figure out exactly the medium and channel that customers
find preferable so that the marketing can be directed in a way that helps in reaching
the target customers.