HCM 325 Module 2 Market Research Short Paper Example

Who Are We Trying to Reach? Market Research for the Cedar Ridge Women's Health Center

[Student Name]

Southern New Hampshire University

HCM 325: Healthcare Marketing

Module Two Short Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.

Who Are We Trying to Reach? Market Research for the Cedar Ridge Women's Health Center

The women's health center at Cedar Ridge Community Hospital will open in six months with 3D mammography, bone density testing and an obstetric and gynecologic clinic. Before any advertising, the marketing team needs to know who could use these services, what keeps them from getting care now and how to reach them. This paper describes the research conducted and the segments it revealed.

Secondary Research

Census data show about 18,400 women aged 40 to 74 in the hospital's service area, the group for whom breast cancer screening is commonly recommended, and about 11,600 women aged 18 to 39. State screening data suggest that 64% of women aged 50 to 74 had a mammogram in the past two years, below the state average. Hospital records show that 38% of local women who were screened went to a regional health system forty minutes away.

Geographic Access

Onega et al. (2014) mapped travel times from U.S. women's homes to breast imaging facilities and found that most women lived within a short drive of a mammography site, but women in rural areas faced substantially longer travel times, especially for advanced breast imaging. In Cedar Ridge's county, women in the three northern townships live more than thirty minutes from any mammography unit, a barrier the new center can address directly.

Primary Research

The team surveyed 420 women aged 18 to 74 by mail, online and at community events, held three focus groups with 26 women and interviewed eight primary care physicians and two obstetricians about referral patterns. The survey asked about screening history, where women go for care and why, preferred appointment times and how they find health information.

The Competition

Understanding the market also means understanding competitors. The regional health system offers 3D mammography, a breast surgery program and a well-known brand, but its main campus is forty minutes away and its scheduling line averages a two-week wait for screening appointments. A mobile mammography van visits two county sites four times a year. A private imaging center twenty-five minutes away offers screening but not diagnostic follow-up. Cedar Ridge cannot match the regional system's specialty depth but can compete on distance, appointment speed and personal service, which the survey showed matter most to the priority segments.

What Women Said

Among women over 40 who were overdue for screening, the most common reasons were distance, trouble getting time off work and not getting around to it. Women who screened at the regional system said they did so mainly because their physician referred them there or because it was near work. Many younger women wanted obstetric care close to home but assumed Cedar Ridge lacked specialists.

Reaching Hard-to-Reach Women

Surveys tend to hear from women already engaged with health care. To reach overdue rural women, the team partnered with two churches and a grocery store in the northern townships, where volunteers handed out short paper surveys, and with a community health worker who knows many families personally. These channels produced 94 of the 420 responses and most of the insights about time off work and transportation. The same partners will be used to deliver messages at launch, since trust in the messenger matters as much as the message.

What Physicians Said

Victoor et al. (2012) found in their review that physician referral is among the strongest influences on which provider patients choose. Local physicians confirmed this: most referred mammograms to the regional system out of habit and because results came back quickly through a shared record. Several said they would refer to Cedar Ridge if results arrived within 24 hours and appointments were easy to schedule.

Principles of Segmentation

Slater (1996) argued that effective health audience segmentation groups people who share characteristics predicting how they will respond to a message or service, such as their current behavior, beliefs and barriers, not just demographics. Good segments are internally similar, differ meaningfully from one another, can be reached through identifiable channels and are large enough to justify effort. Using these principles, the team grouped women by screening status, barriers and care patterns.

Four Segments

The research produced four segments, shown in the table with estimated size, needs and likely channels.

Table 1. Market Segments for the Women's Health Center

Note. Composite estimates from census, survey and hospital data.

Evaluating the Segments

Overdue rural women have the greatest unmet need and a clear barrier the center can solve, making them a strong target on both mission and volume grounds. Regional-system loyalists are the largest segment but will switch mainly if their physicians do, so the real target is the referring physician. First-time screeners are reachable through primary care. Women seeking obstetric care are a distinct market requiring different messages.

Priority Targets

The team recommends two priorities for the launch: overdue rural women, reached through physician offices, community organizations and reminder letters with same-week appointments, and referring physicians, reached through visits, a 24-hour results guarantee and easy electronic referral. First-time screeners and obstetric patients will be addressed in the second phase.

Positioning

The center's position will be screening and women's care close to home, with quick appointments and fast results. That position matches the barriers women and physicians described and avoids competing with the regional system on reputation or technology alone.

Limitations

Survey respondents may be more engaged with health care than nonrespondents, and segment sizes are estimates. Focus groups reflected the views of women willing to attend. The team plans to update the analysis after six months using actual patient data.

Conclusion

Market research turned a vague target, local women, into four segments with distinct needs and channels. It showed that distance and physician referral patterns, not awareness, are the main barriers, and it points the launch toward overdue rural women and the physicians whose referrals shape where women go.

References

Onega, T., Hubbard, R., Hill, D., Lee, C. I., Haas, J. S., Carlos, H. A., Alford-Teaster, J., Bogart, A., DeMartini, W. B., Kerlikowske, K., Virnig, B. A., Buist, D. S. M., Henderson, L., & Tosteson, A. N. A. (2014). Geographic access to breast imaging for US women. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 11(9), 874-882. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2014.03.022

Slater, M. D. (1996). Theory and method in health audience segmentation. Journal of Health Communication, 1(3), 267-284. https://doi.org/10.1080/108107396128059

Victoor, A., Delnoij, D. M. J., Friele, R. D., & Rademakers, J. J. D. J. M. (2012). Determinants of patient choice of healthcare providers: A scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 12, Article 272. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-12-272