Sample Marketing Plan for a New Product or Service

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Table of Contents

1. Background        
2. Product/Service Description         
3. Over all Marketing Strategy        
4. Target Market Analysis

Identifying ideal customer

                Establishing a value proposition

                SWOT analysis

1. Service Positioning
2. Competitive Analysis

Major competitors

Competitive advantage

1. Sales or Utilization goals/objectives
2. Promotional strategy/analysis
3. Distribution strategy/analysis
4. Pricing strategy/analysis
5. Budget for marketing efforts
6. Action plans for implementing this marketing plan
7. Plan for monitoring marketing effectiveness

Background

Pearl dental hospital located in Columbia, a city with a population of around 120,000. Pearl Dental has been existent for over 15 years with 2 partnering dentists. Dr. White, a general dental surgeon who strongly adheres to the conventional dental practices. Dr. Parker, an orthodontist, always enthusiastic about the advancements and innovations in the field, attends many continuing dental education conferences and constantly upgrades his knowledge and techniques. Pearl Dental has a good reputation among all its patients majorly due to its highly flexible hours of operation. Since its inception, Pearl Dental has been able to develop a strong loyal patient base through its meticulous service and payment plans. They were driven by customer satisfaction. Dr. White who adheres to the professional values, understood that dentistry is one such service line where, a one-on-one and face to face patient interaction is unavoidable. This has acted as a foundation for him to build trust, value and loyalty with his patient base along with Dr. Parker.

However, in recent times, Dr. Parker, the orthodontist, has started to notice some amount of dissatisfaction among his patients. He noticed the most common complaints to be, difficulty in speech, eating, maintaining oral hygiene. Some patients even mentioned soreness in the mouth due to the dental wires. The concern in the high school teenagers is the esthetics and appearance.

Dr. Parker called for a meeting with the clinic manager and his partner, Dr. White. He expressed his concerns about increasing complaints from the orthodontic patient population and suggested Invisalign, a recent orthodontic advancement that they could start using to promote patient comfort and satisfaction. Dr. Parker also feels introducing this new method would also help in increasing patient inflow. Dr. White, contradicting Dr. Parker’s opinions mentions that orthodontic alignments have remained that way ever since their origin but always produced desirable results for the patients. He agrees that they are not the most comfortable however, he does not see a need to move onto the new advancement with an ambiguity over results. Dr. Parker asks the clinic manager Ms. Britton, who holds an MHA degree and a 5-year experience, to do a product analysis. Both produce it to Dr. White and convince him to launch this new product based service line. Ms. Britton now must work on the marketing plan of this new service, Orthodontic alignment using Invisalign.

Product/ Service Description

Invisalign is the set of clear aligners that are custom made for each patient based on the individual needs. These aligners are virtually invisible and have a snug fit over the teeth. Each aligner shifts the teeth slightly, moving them horizontally and vertically and even rotating them when needed. These aligners are engineered to use the right amount of force in the right place at the right time.

  The aligners need to be changed typically every week. As the treatment progresses, the teeth gradually move into position, following a custom treatment plan mapped out by the orthodontist.

One of the best things about Invisalign treatment is the minimal impact it has on the everyday life. Since the aligners are so comfortable, it is easy to wear them for the recommended 20 to 22 hours a day without much effort.

Overall Marketing Strategy

Pearl Dental is willing to upgrade to Invisalign – a removable clear aligner technology used in orthodontic alignment of teeth. This will be replacing the usage of metal braces in most of the cases. This decision is made based on the customer satisfaction rates from the existing treatment plans and a product analysis done by the practice manager. Our target market already contains a huge base of loyal customers. To expand this, and reach out to new target markets, our strategy is to concentrate not only on the adolescents and young adults but also the parent populations who usually detect the need for a treatment. We are also expanding our network and partnerships with pediatric general and dental clinics to promote referrals. We are introducing new features in our digital market by enabling a portal ‘ask a question’ where patients can express their doubts and questions that will be addressed before they attend the first consultation. These are explained further in the sections below.

Target Market Analysis

Identifying Ideal Customers

Pearl Dental will focus on providing comprehensive orthodontic care majorly to the patients falling in the age groups of adolescents and young adults, since these are the age groups that mentioned high discomfort with the conventional braces, but preferences of this target market may evolve over time based on the market necessity and acceptance.

Market Segmentation