Written Assignment – Health services organizations place and price decisions – worth 20% of the grade

Overview: Your third assignment will be an analysis of the place and price decisions of a health services organization as covered in Week 5 and 6. You may use the same organization that was your focus on Written Assignment 2, or pick another health services organization with which you are familiar. Be sure you understand the marketing concepts discussed during Weeks 5 and 6 and can apply them to your organization.

You might have to seek out some information on the organization by visiting its website, or if it is an employer interviewing someone who has knowledge of the pricing and distribution decisions. After you have completed your research, answer each of the following questions in turn following all the general guidelines or written assignments posted in the syllabus.

1. Brief overview of the organizations service/products and a description of their target market. This is important to ensure that your analysis considers the needs of the target market in evaluating their pricing and channel decisions.
2. How do you think the organization arrives at its price? Refer to the Week 6 Overview for a framework of some of the pricing considerations and discuss those that appear relevant to your organization.
3. Do you think the pricing strategy is appropriate? Can it be improved to better meet its customer’s needs?
4. Is the organization hindered or helped in their pricing decisions by government or payer restrictions. If so, how do these restrictions impact their pricing strategy?
5. What kind of value delivery network does the organization employ, e.g. horizontal or vertical, and what is their distribution strategy, e.g. exclusive, intensive or intensive? What factors influence the distribution strategies of this organization? Are they customer-focused? If possible, outline all of the channel members and what function they perform to serve the customer?
6. Can you recommend any changes to the value delivery network that would serve customer needs better?