Competition, Marketing Mix, and Pricing Research Paper

Competition, Marketing Mix, and Pricing - Research Paper Example Key Characteristics of the Users Maryland General Hospital offers wide range of services to its customers with different characteristics and with different needs and requirements. The hospital is based in Baltimore City, which is the largest city of Maryland. A sharp decline can be found in the Baltimore’s poverty line. Most of the people who find themselves under the federal poverty line are moving to the suburban areas from the urban or metro cities. In the city of Baltimore, there are more than 21,000 people who are below poverty line, but recently a major decline in the rate of the poor population has taken place. Maryland General Hospital targets people from both the metro and suburban area of the Baltimore. They offer specialized premium services for the premium patients with high income level and also offer general service for the mass. They also offer different special services to different demographic strata, such as children care, senior citizen care and women care. For example, Heart catheterization is provided to adult and children separately. The Hospital offers some specialized service within the framework of women care. The Competitive Environment of the Health Care Provider The competition generally arises on one or more elements like quality, price, convenience etc. Competition eliminates the inefficiency of the players. But in case of Maryland General Hospital, there is no such price competition among the leading players in the market as 75% of total cost for the treatment of an individual is provided by the health insurance company (Kronick, Goodman & Wennberg, 1993). Different hospitals try to differentiate its services on the basis of quality. If Porter five forces model is applied for Maryland General Hospital it will be clear that most of the competitions are coming from the rival hospitals. The competition is immense for Maryland General Hospital. There are 14 hospitals in Maryland. All the hospitals provide customized services. A study suggests that 58% of the patients recommended for going again to Maryland General Hospital while 77% people recommended for going Greater Baltimore medical centre. Many people also recommended for Good Samaritan Hospital. Even in this respect the Mercy Medical Centre Inc has also got high points than Maryland General Hospital. The hospital faces quite low bargaining power from the suppliers as there are many suppliers present in the market. The timely delivery of equipment and medicines are very essential for the hospital. The hospital needs to depend highly on its suppliers to maintain goodwill in front of the customers as most of the hospitals are competing mostly on the quality and not on the price. There is no such threat from a new entrant in the market as the set up cost is very high for any new entrant and the physical evidence is the most important factor for any hospitals so the new entrant has to face a tough competition from the old players as the physical evidence is very strong of the old players. There is no such substitute in hospital’s product as it is a necessary service for all. The buyers bargaining power is also strong but as mostly the insurance company pays the bills, the bargaining power gets reduced. Tools of Marketing Mix Marketing comprises of seven elements. For the health care sector all the 7P’