The health microchip will have an extensive set of potential partners and customers. The former will include medical organizations (hospitals, clinics, centers), insurance companies, the military, and individual doctors. The cooperation will extend to pharmacies, which the application will recommend, IT developers, and investors. The key activities will involve fundraising, developing, testing, marketing, and selling the product, and organizing seminars and workshops. The key resources are money obtained through fundraising for research and development (R&D), knowledge in medicine and tech, and raw materials for chip production. As for the customers, the product will target patients at risk, older adults, people with a busy lifestyle, and enthusiasts interested in the latest technologies. Customer relationships will occur through free microchip maintenance and providing assistance if abnormalities are detected. As far as business-to-business partners are concerned, workshops and conferences will be held to teach them how to implant and use the chip. The channels will mostly mirror the highlighted partners (health organizations and insurance companies), although the word-of-the mouth through doctor recommendations will also be significant.
The product will have much value and is projected to be profitable despite the high costs. The chip will monitor the patient’s vitals and transmit them to the physician, who will provide a detailed analysis in addition to the app’s. It will save the customer time and money and potentially alleviate the health risks, positively impacting their life. The initiative will be costly, as such stages as testing, R&D, marketing, and business development will require significant investments. The revenue streams will come from the product’s sales and pharmaceutical commission, as the app will recommend products from local pharmacies.
The Challenges of the Project
Although the product appears convenient for the underlined partners and customers, it may face difficulties. First of all, people are wary of chips, and it is unlikely that the situation will have changed by 2030, so the product’s marketing will have to address the device’s safety in addition to its main function. It may not be sufficient for the older audience, which is a significant segment, so more efforts will have to be made to ensure them of the chip’s absence of negative effects. Perhaps, the workshops originally proposed for B2B partners only will expand to customers and involve live demonstrations. Another challenge is that the chip will compete with similar devices, and their functionality may overlap. It will be necessary to monitor the competition and upgrades the product, at least software-wise, to enhance the existing functions and add new ones. In order to avoid backlash from previous customers, those updates will be free, which is not unlike smartphones. The competition will likely affect the partnership will pharmacies, so revising commission prices might be instrumental in preserving it.
A different subset of challenges will concern the costs and business partners. The chip’s development and testing alone will require significant funding, but not all models will be working. Thus, they should be somehow recyclable to save money and prevent environmental damage. Then, only a handful of health organizations will agree to use the new product, and they will not necessarily find the advantages valid. It is essential to cherish the first partners and accumulate positive experience for further expansion while implementing a business model that will satisfy both doctors and patients.
Marketing Strategy
A robust marketing strategy is crucial to ensure the chip’s success. It will be based on growth hacking, which involves continuous product testing and altering depending on the situation or customer feedback (Ellis & Brown, 2017). A multidisciplinary team will be necessary for the initial stage, and it will include marketers, IT developers, and medical specialists, among others (Ellis & Brown, 2017). Their operations will be fast and responsive to both positive and negative processes in the market (Ellis & Brown, 2017). The customer data will be shared among all participants, which will allow for improvements in the product and its marketing simultaneously (Ellis & Brown, 2017). It might be worth advertising the chip using technological means, as the Internet’s user base is considerable, but allocating some funds for TV advertisements also seems reasonable, considering the older audience (Ellis & Brown, 2017). On the other hand, by 2030, people will have learned how to block most banners and videos, so a social media approach may be efficient.
As the product will grow, so should the teams devoted to it. More feedback will be coming, and everything will have to be addressed, especially in the age when all corporation blunders are easily trackable. Must-have and retention surveys might be necessary to conduct to determine the customers’ opinion towards the chip (Ellis & Brown, 2017). Regardless of the phase during which the customer has the product, it is always crucial to highlight its value (Ellis & Brown, 2017). Securing a stable base might be an appropriate goal for a start, but the chip has a potentially wide reach, so the strategy should aim to expand it.
Launching Activities
The product’s launching activities will involve extensive social media and TV advertising, workshops for B2B partners, and a focus on a set of health organizations and their customers. The chip will have devoted accounts, which will contain the necessary information and video clips showcasing how it works with various demographics. The latter may also serve as a TV advertisement, saving the costs. The workshops will teach the partners how to use the product, its implantation and removal procedures, and other functional aspects. They will also be recorded and distributed among those unable to attend the events in person. Meanwhile, the growth team will focus on a chain of medical organizations to determine whether the specialists correctly utilize the chip and track the patients’ feedback. The data will be used for initial improvements for the workshops and the device.
Conclusion
This paper presented a marketing strategy for a microchip used for health monitoring and considered such points as the business model canvas, the challenges, the growth hacking implementation, and the launching activities. The product has a detailed picture of its partners and customers, value propositions, costs, and revenue. The challenges will concern marketing the product for a specific group, surviving the competition, avoiding high costs, and securing the initial audience. The strategy will be based on growth hacking, requiring a cross-functional team with a rapid reaction, modern advertising techniques, and customer data. The launching activities will include effective online and TV advertisements, informative workshops, and data-gathering to address initial feedback from B2B and B2C. Altogether, much might change in 2030, but these aspects might still be relevant for pitching and promoting the product and ensuring its constant improvement.
Reference
Ellis, S., & Brown, M. (2017). Hacking Growth: How today’s fastest-growing companies drive breakout success. Crown Business.