E-Marketing

My office, the clinic that I work for, has recently established its own website and Facebook page. We have been able to track the number of new patients who came to our office due to seeing our website. It is amazing how our new patient numbers have increased!!!

Our Facebook page provides a way for patients to comment on our services, give suggestions, and follow our doctors in specials they offer or important information that we provide.

Our website provides a way to be able to contact our office manage with any questions, gives directions to our clinic (through the use of Mapquest), gives daily health tips, has an entire library of printable material available concerning health issues, etc.  Here is our monthly wellness spotlight copied from http://bozemancreekfamilyhealth.com/home.html:

Wellness Spotlight:

May Is...

 

 

• National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month
• For more information, visit..National Osteoporosis Foundation
•  

• National High Blood Pressure Eduction Month
• For more information, visit...National Heart, Lung, and Blood Pressure Education Month
•  
• National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
• For more information, visit...President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports

                                                              **As of March 1st, 2012

~Refer a friend or family member as a new patient

and receive a $15.00 referral credit on your account!

~Please note.. name of person making referral must be listed on

new patient's admin forms upon check-in to receive the account credit.

Through the implementation of our new website and social networking page, we are able to reach potential patients that we could not before. 

Pringles

So since I am hungry, I thought I might as well type up a blog about food. I was interested in how the companies come up with the designs for their packaging. I found this awesome site to design your own Pringles can. I designed mine, but I couldn't take a picture and post it to my blog. However, here is the link...

http://www.pringlescancreator.com/create.aspx?locale=en_gb

What a neat idea to have your customers design the can and have a competition. It creates a sense of pride in the company and the design of their can. I created a 2D image of my can that I wanted to make in observance of Memorial Day. Here it is...

Granted, I completed this with just the paint option on my computure, but I have to give Pringles props for the good idea (since I am the one who designed it). You should try it, it is fun.

Survey: Jewelry

So in my spare time, which is not very often, I love to make and design jewelry. I have seriously thought about selling my jewelry at the farmer's market. Associating my future business possibilities to the current chapter I am reading in our marketing classes, I have thought about designing a survey in order to figure out what type of jewelry I should sell.

http://firstfashionnews.info/gallery/country-girl-jewelry-necklace

 

 

 

 

 

I make two different kinds of necklaces and I need to create a way to survey the people who attend the farmer's market on what kind they want to buy. The first picture listed is of the "country style," the type that you would find at a rodeo.  Or I can do a regular beaded necklace. It is important to figure out what your target market is, also what product you can sell and at what price. The main issue I have come to find is that I don't know how I am going to survey those who go to the farmer's market? Any suggestions from my readers? (FYI: these are not necklaces that I have made, just images that look like something that I have made).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.fashionjewelryonline.net/product_glass_beads_necklaces_70.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethics in a Clinic Setting

I work in a health clinic, which for the time being I will just call it by the name Family Health, and there are several ethical issues I have noticed could come up. As a background, our office has several different marketing techniques including ads in the following areas:

• newspapers

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/

• Local Magazines



http://www.distinctlymontana.com/article/easy-eat-locally





• Radio stations
• We now have a website too!

The issue with developing ads, as I have found out from my assistant office manager, is not promising too much. For example, one of our slogans is similar to:

We see the entire family!

In all honesty, we should actually say:

We see the entire family, except those who are: on Medicare, Medicaid, and Workman's Comp.

It is not that we do not want to see these patients who have these insurance companies or positions, but we actually end up basically paying out more for our expenses then we are getting from the insurance companies.

Ethical Issue #1: One doctor believes that it is acceptable to accept an occassional patient who has one of the outlawed insurances because the patient is her friend. Is this ethical or fair?

Ethical Issue #2: A patient comes in to the office with some sort of serious injury. Can we refuse as a patient if he is bleeding all over the carpet due to the type of insurance he has?

Ethical Issue #3: One patient is allowed to have an outstanding balance of over $4000 and is still allowed to be seen in the office, since it is a friend of a doctor, but another patient with an outstanding balance of $30 is sent to collections. Is this ethical or fair?

As with every environment there are ethical dilemas in many different forms or situations. I know I run into several situations every day where I use my best judgement and advice from my managers in order to find an answer that makes everyone happy. However, not everyone has that ethical fallback.  Being an ethical company means making sure everyone from the bottom up understands what the company is expecting. When everyone works as a team and is one the same page, ethical decisions that are not in the best interest of the company can be avoided. We have been told by our patients that they trust our office, a trust customer is a happy customer!

http://terminalpodcast.org/2012/04/19/trust-consistent/

Sodium Reduction

I am currently taking a nutrition course this summer, which I am very excited about. I think it is really important for everyone to know about nutrition, even if you don't want to follow everything that is recommended. I am, of course, talking about myself...I sure do love a good cheeseburger smothered in grease.

http://hangingoffthewire.blogspot.com/2011/09/national-cheeseburger-day.html



However, my most favorite food that has been on this planet is a chip. I love potato chips of all different varieties and all different flavors.

blogs.palmbeachpost.com

So you probably cannot see the sodium content on this little picture for a small bag. It says it is 330mg of sodium which is about 14% of your suggested daily intake. What is worse, if you are more likely to have issues with hypertension, you have a significantly lower suggested daily intake than the rest of the population. As is expected, there have been many recent studies on sodium and the harmful qualities it has on the body. Many companies are responding to this increased awareness by making vows or promises to decrease their sodium content. One company in particular is Walmart. Along side Michelle Obama, Walmart made a vow to:

1. Change the formulas of packaged foods: i.e. change sodium and sugar content
2. Make prices on healthier foods cheaper
3. Aid in an easily identifiable seal for health foods
4. Help cities which do not have easy access to health foods
5. Give aid to nutrition programs

http://www.walmartstores.com/pressroom/news/10514.aspx

http://blogs.babble.com/family-style/2011/04/07/walmart-coupons-5-must-have-printable-coupons/

You make think that Walmart doesn't have to change their products since there are so many different items which they sell. However, when you think about it...they were pretty smart. They responded to the changing market environment for foods. They took a proactive approach to the issue by not letting the negative reputation of sodium get in their way. They are changing the way that people buy food, they are changing the composition of foods, and they are attracking a wider variety of customers. Not only do they attrack their usual customers, but they also attrack the customers who really focus on healthy foods. With the idea that Americans should focus more on eating healthy, the market condition changed to a more wholesome look at nutrition. Many factors, including where they shop for their food, may come into mind and really could have been devastating for Walmart. They, however, seem to be making headways in the natural foods department, they are focusing on the new needs of the customers, and perhaps are going to gain considerable amounts of new customers or increase in the frequency of current customers.

SWOT: Pinterest

I have to start off with admitting that I just love Pinterest. It is an addicting site. I am on there when I have spare time, well lets face it I am on at work when I have no patients in the office. They have everything you could ever want to search for. Today my interest was on gardening. 'Tis the season! I was looking for some ideas to help in creating my container garden. I live in a duplex, so I really don't have any room for a full garden. Here are some examples:



This one here is suitable for my patio.

This one here would be great for the side of the house.

Essentially the key factor that keeps me returning to Pinterest (Strength) is that it is constantly changing. The people who actually post the pictures of different container gardens or different recipes are Pinterest users. The individuals who created this website were extremely intelligent...hmmm let's think of a website that will be really popular and we don't have to do anything...*Lightbulb* here comes Pinterest. The one factor that keeps frustrating me (Weakness) is that it is extremely difficult to become a Pinterest member. I have tried many, many, many times and with many different emails, and I still cannot create my own account. Initially I just thought that my computer illiteracy was getting the best of me, however, my computer genius roommates even tried to invite me and actually tried to create an account for me...still no luck. The fact that you do have to create an account is obviously a safety measure. However, If I had not already been addicted to Pinterest, I probably would be furious with their incapabilities to figure out how to deal with their member requests. Of course, just looking at the company as a whole it has amazing opportunities. Pinterest is very much so like Facebook, except, with Pinterest you are sharing ideas and finding a common ground. With Facebook, it seems like the goal nowadays is to compare drunk photos and see how many friends you can get...even if you don't know them. With Pinterest, it creates a community with similar bonds and similar interests. I feel like our society is needing a way to connect to people and there is so many people who are stay at home moms or college students or part of the working class who just need people to connnect to. With 7 billion people in the world, how do you actually find the people who have the same interests as you? The one weakness I could even think of with Pinterest is that it could be a fad. It could sizzle out just as fast as it started. Who knows what is going to happen in the future...All I know is that the SWOT analysis, as part of the components of any marketing plan, is easy as pie...as long as you know the company you are talking about.

Ulta: New and Good and What They Do

In Bozeman there is a new and exciting store available to all the women out there who love name-brand cosmetics, hair products, etc. Ulta had its grand opening last weekend; and of course, I attended this opening. When you walk into the store, you are overwelmed with the size and the selection of products. They had over 15 floor attendants waiting on you hand and foot. I am not one who really spends alot of money on "beauty products," but I have to admit I spent alot of money this past Saturday. I was entranced by the new store, the great customer service, their sales, and the glitz. And yet the main question is how does this relate to my marketing class? How can I prevent myself from getting pulled into the glitz, or at least recognize why was I pulled into the glitz? The answer...The 4 Ps: product, promotion, price, and distribution. The products they offer include not only hard to find beauty products, but also services. I was sucked into the sale price they offered in the salon and paid for a haircut and style. The promotion of their store was everywhere. In the newspapers, on the front of the store, and mostly word of mouth. The prices, actually not very cheap, were on sale. Every girl loves a good sale! The best part about Ulta is their distribution processes. They were able to provide everyone in the store with any type of beauty product they wanted in exactly what quantity they wanted them in. No longer do I have to go to a salon and search endlessly for my favorite eye cream or conditioner. I just have to go to one store, and I have everything that I could ever want. For example, my roommate has been searching endlessly for the past 2 years trying to find a certain brand of hair product known as "Big and Sexy." You may ask the question, "Well did she find what she was looking for?" Of course she found what she was looking for, she went to Ulta!!!! I found that many, many shoppers have gone crazy in Ulta (just go to youtube and type Ulta store) and I have included a video that I have found! Thank you Youtube!