Introduction
The target organisation is a nursing home Active Retirement, which name actually embodies the mission of the facility. Specifically, it lies in creating an atmosphere where the residents feel sufficiently comfortable and protected not to focus on their age. The vision of this involves providing space for various activities as well as the necessary assistance, so that mobility issues do not prevent the residents from interacting with the world.
As the facility is a home, seniors actually live there; hence the need for a broad scope of services, including not solely a shelter and food, but also medical aid and entertainment. For the latter, it is critical to be diverse and productive to postpone or smooth age-related mental disabilities. The location of Active Retirement favors this because the territory includes parts of the neighboring river and forest, where it is possible to walk, fish, or simply rest. Indoor activities also are quite various, such as handcraft, sports, reading, listening to music, and other.
One of the biggest obstacles to realizing the mission is the food that the facility currently offers. Although of acceptable quality, it is dramatically unvaried and subsequently contradicts with the organization’s values, making the residents stuck in routine. It is essential, therefore, to improve the variety not only of products, but of everyday experiences as well. This is possible to do by serving healthy dishes from foreign cuisines, which would bring both new unique impressions and more topics for communication, improving the quality of life.
To develop an appropriate initiative and implement it successfully, it is critical to be aware of the customers’ needs. In the case under review, primary customers are the residents of Active Retirement. The main determinant of their requirements is their health issues, which derive from their age; thus, excessively salty, spicy, or fatty food is unacceptable since many seniors have digestive disorders (“Nursing homes,” n.d.). Regarding secondary customers, those can be the residents’ relatives, friends, medical practitioners, or social workers, who monitor their living in the facility. It is worth noting that complaints about food are quite common among both primary and secondary nursing home customers in the United States, and the COVID-19 pandemic aggravated the problem (Paulin, 2021). This adds to the topicality of the project and, subsequently, to the need for an adequately planned advertising campaign.
The essentials of a marketing strategy are product, price, place, and promotion, for which the so-called four P’s stand. The product should be special to be competitive; in the given case, this happens due to the unique possibilities associated with it. Excessively high prices, on the contrary, can discourage the customers, as financial hardships are among the frequent reasons for living in such facilities (“Nursing homes”, n.d.). Regarding place, the food should be served directly in the nursing home since many of its residents lack mobility. Finally, promotion has to address all groups of customers, which calls for using several channels in parallel since the elderly and the younger people predominantly trust different sources.
The most important drivers of demand, age and health, are closely intertwined and, therefore, equally considerable. Thus, in addition to indigestion, about two-thirds of nursing home residents experience memory issues in more or less serious forms (“Nursing homes,” n.d., para. 4). It would be irrelevant, therefore, to opt for complex recipes, as in this case, the customers may be unable to memorize what they have eaten and which dishes they find especially tasty. Attention to each of the above points is the key to maximal customer satisfaction that, in turn, underlies productive and lasting cooperation with the facility.
Context
Since both the food provider and Active Retirement apparently are interested in attracting and retaining customers, collaboration is the most appropriate solution. Specifically, it is reasonable to align the marketing goals of the food serving initiative to the mission as well as vision of the organization, which allows for a productive duet. Besides, although acquiring new customers and further work with the existing can be marketing goals themselves, dividing them into smaller objectives may be more relevant (Bhasin, 2021). Such an approach enables a closer focus on detail, hence a better alignment.
Marketing Goals
As said above, the mission of the facility lies in providing all senior citizens with a chance for safe and comfortable aging. This presupposes increasing the market share of the initiative, which point, therefore, is worth mentioning at the top of the marketing goal list. Implementing the project actually pursues this purpose; the primary steps towards compassing it are creating and maintaining brand awareness, which can bring new customers on the condition of a successful realization. The next goal lies in providing satisfaction with both the food and the service, so that primary and secondary customers see and appreciate the long-term benefits of cooperating with the brand. Finally, the fact that the circle of customers comprises several categories makes it important to focus on differentiation as another marketing goal to deliver high quality products to each.
Industry Segment
The market, which the initiative seeks to enter, is quite narrow due to the specialization of the facility but apparently stable, assuming that the above food complaints cause permanent demand. The demographics of Active Retirement are statistically average for nursing homes. This means, in particular, that about 50% of its residents are at the age of 85 or older (“Nursing homes,” n.d., para. 2). The biggest group involves females who have no spouses, that is, are divorced, widowed, or single. Many experience financial constraints, which may create certain obstacles to providing an appropriate payer mix.
Regarding health status segmentation, it rests on the most frequent issues. Those are limited mobility, poor sight or hearing, sometimes up to a complete absence, incontinence, memory loss, social deterioration, and age-related cognitive impairments (“Nursing homes,” n.d.). Nursing homes, meanwhile, are obliged to “maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident,” in accordance with the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 (“Federal Nursing Home Regulations,” 2020, para. 2). Considering this along with all of the above, the key success factors of the product are harmlessness, diversity, and affordability.
Target Markets
In the given case, one of the target markets includes the residents of the facility, who are seniors in their 70s and 80s, frequently disabled and needing supervision as well as medical aid. Another includes their relatives, friends, and caregivers, who worry about their comfort and security. The latter two points, therefore, are the preferences of all customer groups, and their typical behavior aims to ensure those. There is no detailed information on the demographics of the secondary customers; it would be necessary, meanwhile, for better understanding of their needs.
Market Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
- Healthy food means better quality of nutrition, and multicultural dishes bring new emotions; hence improving both physical and emotional well-being of the customers.
- Higher diversity of food helps balance the diet, which is especially important for the elderly (Ogden, 2018).
- Product frameworks guarantee the usage of high quality and maximally fresh ingredients.
Weaknesses
- Food costs may rise considerably due to the increased complexity of the cooking process.
- For the same reason, more time and human resources will be needed to provide the necessary amount of food.
- The supply of less common ingredients is not necessarily stable, which may cause additional difficulties.
- A special menu probably will require higher qualifications of the staff, which may complicate the search for competent professionals as well as increase the prices even more substantially.
Opportunities
- The residents of Active Retirement will lead a healthier lifestyle, which may improve their wellness in general.
- The quality of nutrition is a substantial component of customer satisfaction and, consequently, loyalty.
- Secondary customers, such as relatives and social workers, apparently will be more satisfied as well and are probable to recommend the facility to the other, favoring further extension of its audience.
Threats
- Considering the numerousness of factors that can increase the costs, the risk exists that the potential benefits do not cover them.
- The prices of the ingredients may rise as well, limiting their availability; hence complicated diversification of the menu.
- In case competitors implement a resembling strategy, not solely the possible benefits of the initiative may be lost, but also market share, which will compromise profitability.
Competitors
The industry of assistance services, in particular provided to seniors, is rather competitive by definition, as aging is never-ending process, which determines stable demand. Therefore, Active Retirement has several rivals, for instance, Aegis Gardens, the nursing home that specializes in Asian experience. The culture-specific dishes that it serves may be a challenger to the initiative that the project offers. Cultural sensitivity actually is among the strengths of that institution, along with its cost-efficiency and the full consistency of its performance with its mission that lies in creating authentic atmosphere (Aegis Gardens, 2021). On the contrary, focusing exclusively on Asian causes a range of weaknesses, such as the limited collection of products and services, poor possibilities of development, and ignoring the diversity of the residents.
Another competitor worth noting is The Quarry Senior Living. This nursing home delivers assistance to seniors with special requirements, focusing on Parkinson’s disease (The Quarry Senior Living, 2021). Among the products that it offers to its customers are vegetarian food plans, which may compete with multicultural healthy diet since both follow the principles of quality organic nutrition. The main strengths of such an approach to food are a minimal amount of processed products, friendliness to vegetarians as well as vegans, and long-term benefits for the residents’ health. Regarding the weaknesses, the menu is quite limited, inconsistent, and lacks cultural components, which may discourage people who appreciate diversity from choosing the facility.
Market Position
The outcomes of the industry segmentation, SWOT analysis, and competitor assessment show that Active Retirement is competing quite successfully with its main rivals, promoting healthy lifestyle and providing appropriate care as well as new impressions to its customers at generally affordable prices. In accordance with the differentiation marketing strategy, the nursing home seeks to balance its uniqueness and meeting the needs of the target audience to maintain its competitive advantage over the long term. Multicultural healthy food can add to the attractiveness of the facility in terms of nutrition quality, experience diversity, and healthcare; hence new customers as well as retention of the existing.
Marketing Strategies
Promotions Strategy
As the primary customers of Active Retirement and a certain share of the secondary belong to the demographic that perceives traditional marketing techniques more easily that digital, TV commercials would be relevant. Another reason for designing it is sight disabilities, which are frequent in seniors and prevent them from sensing exclusively visual data, for instance, from billboards (“Nursing homes,” n.d.). For persuasion, the commercials could tell stories of positive experience at the facility, so that the audience associate the characters with themselves; this is a popular approach to public relations (Wynne, 2016). A maximal coverage is possible to reach by broadcasting the videos several times a day.
The other groups of the secondary customers, such as relatives, medical practitioners, and social workers, may be younger and have presence in social media. Therefore, digital marketing is necessary as well, in particular, in forms of Facebook and Instagram posts. The usage of this marketing channel would improve the security as well as ethicality of the entire campaign because some seniors cannot make balanced decisions, for which addressing the younger population can compensate. It is important, however, that digital advertisements may be annoying and, consequently, demotivating (Bailey, 2019). Considering this, the posts have to be highly informative and memorable but not intrusive or too frequent.
Resource Requirements
A video commercial needs filming and editing; the following step is agreeing the conditions of broadcasting. Financial investments, therefore, include studio rental fee, the fees of the scriptwriter(s), operator(s), actors, and video editor(s) as well as payments for screen time. Regarding the indirect expenses, they predominantly involve time, notably, that spent on meetings with the executive team and the TV channel representatives as well as making the video.
The other technique, social media marketing (SMM), presupposes designing and posting advertisements. This, in turn, determines the need for paying wages to the designer(s) and SMM manager(s); placing posts also is not necessarily free of charge. In addition to the above financial and human resources, time is needed to approve the concepts of posts, agree the detail with social network representatives, and hire the specialists.
Evaluation Metrics
An essential measurement of the success of both marketing techniques is their correspondence to the company’s mission and vision. Specifically, the commercials as well as posts should be sufficiently informative to show how multicultural healthy food benefits the body and provides new experiences, making aging more comfortable. Regarding the effectiveness of the campaign, its main criterion is the amount of customers who order the dishes, which is possible to learn from the reports by the facility. In addition, it may be relevant to assess how secure the population consider the initiative, for instance, by attaching an appropriate question to posts and collecting answer statistics from time to time. The outcomes would be possible to use as a reference point for further advertising strategies.
Conclusion
Currently, the nursing home under the name Active Retirement is facing difficulties in realizing its mission, for which the project is expected to compensate. Notably, the food that the facility offers to its customers lacks variety. This contradicts to the idea of enabling diverse experiences that the facility sees as the key to comfortable aging. The project, meanwhile, introduces such a marketing initiative as healthy dishes of foreign cuisines, which would provide the residents with new unique impressions. Those, in turn, would smooth the limitations in exploring the world that seniors have because of their age; hence a more comfortable life, which actually corresponds to the facility’s mission.
References
Aegis Gardens. (2021). Asian inspired living. Web.
Bailey, J. (2019). Digital marketing vs. traditional marketing: What’s the difference? 99 Designs. Web.
Bhasin, H. (2021). Marketing goals – definition, list of goals and examples. Marketing91. Web.
Federal nursing home regulations and state laws. (2020). Nursing Home Alert. Web.
Nursing homes. (n.d.). Health in Aging. Web.
Ogden, J. (2018). Successful dieting. The Psychology of Dieting, 49–63. Web.
Paulin, E. (2021). Nursing homes are filled with empty beds, raising more concerns about care. AARP Official Site. Web.
The Quarry Senior Living. (2021). Assisted living. Web.
Wynne, R. (2016). Five things everyone should know about public relations. Forbes. Web.