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Introduction
Teleflex Incorporation is a firm that is established within the hospital and healthcare industry. The firm has a global scale of operation with its headquarters located in the Greater Philadelphia Area in United States. Over the years, the firm has been able to attain sustainable growth. For example, during its 2008 financial year, Teleflex Incorporation managed to increase its level of revenue with a margin of 25.2%.In its operation, Teleflex Incorporation deals with a wide variety of health care products. This has been achieved through incorporating the concept of flexible product lines. One of the products in which the firm specializes is the Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICC) lines which are medical fluid controls devices.
The long term success of firms in the hospital and healthcare industry depends on their competitive position in the industry (Kyle, Myers & Jamie, 1990, p.8). One of the ways through which these firms can succeed in the long term as going concern entities is by ensuring constant growth in their operation. There are various strategies through which these firms can attain sustainable growth. One of these includes effective marketing of the products and services that the firm deals with. In addition, the management can attain sustainable growth by integrating the concept of brand management in their strategic management process. According to Porters (1980, p. 34), developing a strong brand acts as a defense mechanism for firms in hostile business environments. The discussion in this paper entails an analysis of the marketing and branding of PICC lines by Teleflex Incorporation.
Target market
The success of a firm is influenced by how effective the firms management was in targeting the market. Target market refers to the specific category of potential customers that a particular firms management team intends to capture and supply the products or services. Target market is identified through a market research conducted prior to the production of the products. To effectively target a market, the entire market is divided into various segments according to their market needs.
Target market for PICC lines
Through a market research, Teleflex Incorporation identified a large market for its PICC lines. The target market consisted of both individual and institutional customers. The institutional customers identified include public and private hospitals and other institutions that offer acute healthcare services. Institutional customers form the largest per cent of PICC lines. The management of Teleflex Incorporation identified a high market potential for its PICC lines amongst the institutional customers due to the possibility of their utilization in various medical operations. According to Sing, Rosemary, Diane and Miriam (1994, p. 23), physicians in hospitals increasingly utilize PICC lines in the process of administering various treatments such as chemotherapy and TPN nutrition. Hospitals also use the PICC lines in the process of conducting blood transfusion. In designing and manufacturing the PICC lines, Teleflex Incorporation considered diversity of product requirement in various hospital departments. As a result, Teleflex Incorporation designed PICC lines to be used in Intensive Care Units (ICU) and conduction of surgery. In addition, the institutional customers also consist of medical schools such as the nursing and medical schools.
Teleflex also targets individual customers. This enables the individual customers to extend their treatment for sub acute medical conditions. According to Sing et al (1994, p.24), the individual customers are able to conduct these treatment since there is a low probability of complications arising in using the device.
Importance of selecting a target market
According to Art (2004, p.138), selecting a target market forms the basis of a firm succeeding in the market. Art asserts that selecting a target market is beneficial to both the customer and the business. Subha (2007, p. 35) asserts that through market targeting, a firm is able to implement value addition to its products and services since there is a comprehensive understanding of the customers needs and other market characteristics in. This culminates to a high level of customer satisfaction. As a result, effective product and service innovation is conducted to meet the customers demands. This means that the firm will be able to position itself optimally in the market. Teleflex Incorporation has been able to attain a relatively high market position in for its PICC lines through effective selection of its target market. This is due to the fact that the firm supplies the products according to the demands of the customers. According to Art (2004, p.140) targeting a particular market segment, the management of a firm is able to a certain degree identify and forecast the market trends. This enables the management team to be proactive in making decisions.
Selecting a target market has enabled Teleflex Incorporation to concentrate its marketing efforts on a particular market segment. This has made the firm to achieve its goals marketing objectives in a more economical way. By targeting its PICC lines to institutional and individual customers, Teleflex Incorporation has been able to minimize on its resource utilization in its marketing process.
According to Art (2004, p. 145), selecting a target market enables a firm to establish a good relationship with its customers unlike mass marketing. Considering the complex nature of the medical field, selecting a target market has enabled Teleflex Incorporation to establish a good relationship with its clients in their entire lifecycle. For example, the management of the firm has been able to offer effective solution to its customers in relation to their PICC line demands.
Issue to consider in selecting and managing a target market
The success of any business in propagating sales is mainly hitched on its ability to effectively select and more importantly manage the target market. In the process of selecting the target market, some issues must be put to perspective. First is the degree of target market attractiveness. Attractiveness here is viewed in terms of plausible the market is gauged on its ability to generate adequate business for the firm. Issues to consider here include: the size of the segment as viewed in terms of the estimated customer base or the demanded units in the market for a given period. In a case where the demand cannot enable the firm to breakeven, then it is not economically feasible to enter such a market. PICC lines are high cost products requiring heavy investments and therefore a sizeable market size to enable the company breakeven. Other considerations include the rate it which the market is growing. This is important especially for products with short product cycles.
The second major consideration is congruency between the identified target market with the firms capabilities, goals and resources. This consideration ensures that the target market is in line with the aspirations of the business. In a case where there are significant departure points between what the firm wants or is able to do then it may not be viable to enter such market. It may require re-evaluation of the firms resources as well as goals and targets. Teleflex had the resources, the will and the ability to enter into the market for PICC lines and to optimally utilize the market opportunities.
Attractiveness of the target market
According to Porters (1980, p.45), the attractiveness of a given market is determined by a number of elements. Some of these include the profit potential, degree of competition, growth potential, brand loyalty and the size of the target market. In addition, attractiveness of the target market is also determined by the market share that a firm should attain for it to break even. According to Art (2004, p. 248), the attractiveness of a market can be attained through a comprehensive market research. Before venturing into PICC lines market, the management of the firm conducted a market research to determine the attractiveness of the sector. The findings of the research revealed a high potential of growth in the market for PICC lines. This is due to the fact that PICC lines are gaining more importance in administering various treatments such as chemotherapy while the size of the market is relatively large (Kritchevsky, 2008, p 25). Considering the fact that most there a large percentage of PICC lines customers is composed of institutional customer, the degree of customer loyalty is relatively high.
Branding
Branding refers to the process of developing and maintaining a mutual and valuable relationship with a certain strategic group of customers. This is attained by delivering the proposed products or service to the customer by the firm (Ireland, 2008, p.45). The mutual relationship established enables the firm to retain its customers. As a result, the firm is able to survive in the long term. Effective branding is attained by strategic selection of the customers. A strong brand should have the capacity of appealing the emotions of the customers. According to Spencer (2009, 4), healthcare industry has not fully exploited the concept of branding in their operation. This means that there is a high probability of firms in this industry increasing their sales revenue through product branding.
Importance of branding
Branding benefits a firm in the process of attaining a high competitive advantage compared to its competitors. This is due to the fact that the firm is able to develop strong brand equity. Brand equity is attained by developing strong brand image and brand identity. Branding enables the customers to associate themselves with a firms products and services. This is due to the fact that the customers are aware of what the firm deals with and the promise it has made to deliver in relation to the product it deals with. The ultimate effect is that the firm is able to develop strong customer loyalty.
Brand image of Teleflex PICC lines
In marketing its PICC lines, the management of Teleflex Incorporation has been able to develop a strong brand image to its customers. Teleflexs PICC lines have created an image of high quality, effectiveness and efficiency in designing the PICC lines to administer medical treatment. These brand images have been able to appeals to a large number of individual and institutional customers. As a result, a large number of physicians, patients, nurses and technicians have been influenced to purchase Teleflexs PICC lines. For example, in marketing to individual patients, the management of the firm has been able to create a positive psychological image to the patients. This has been achieved through communicating the importance of administering sub acute treatment using its PICC lines. This has culminated into an increase in the number of individual customer who purchased the product. As a result, the firm was able to increase its profit margin with 25.2%.
To strengthen PICC lines brand equity, the management the firm should integrate the concept of brand culture in its branding strategy. Through brand culture, the society will be able to associate themselves with the firms product. This is due to the fact that the customers will create perception of the firm being a part of the society. In addition, continuous research should be conducted so as to integrate the changes in medical requirements in designing and manufacturing PICC lines.
Conclusion
Marketing and product branding can enable firms in hospital and health care industry to attain a high market position. Effective marketing through selection of a target market enables the firm to understand the customers needs. The ultimate effect is that the firm is able to supply the specific market demand to the target market. Through branding Teleflex Incorporation is in a position to attain a relatively high market position and growth. The success of the business in the sector can largely be attributed to proper application of business concepts in developing and marketing its products. It is however very true that the success can largely be attributed to the ability of the firm to identify lucrative target markets and more importantly engage in offering the best solutions to the market even in the face of competition.
Reference List
Art, W. (2004). Handbook of market segmentation: strategic targeting for business and technology firms. New York: Haworth Press Incorporation.
Ireland, R.D. (2008). Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall
Kritchevsky, S. (2008). The impact of hospital practice on central venous catheter: associated bloodstream infection rates at the patient, a multicenter level study. American Journal of Medical Quality. Vol. 23, issue 1, pp. 24-38. Washington: Cengage Publishers
Kyle, K., Myers, J. (1990). Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters: development of hospital based program. Journal of infusion nursing. Vol. 13, issue 5, pp. 23-25. London: Oxford Publishers.
Porter, M. (1980). Industry structure and competitive strategy: keys to profitability. Financial analyst journal. New York: The Free Press
Sing, L., Rosemary, S., Diane, R. & Miriam, A. (1994). Peripherally inserted central catheters in acute care hospital. Journal of nursing. Vol. 154, Issue, 16, pp. 12-34. New York: Archives of Internal Medicine.
Spencer, W. (2009). Healthcare Stone Age or cutting age? Web.
Subha, B. (2009).Market segmentation, targeting and positioning. Web.
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