Justin Jones Introduction to Marketing Marketing Plan Final April 24, 2012 Executive Summary St. Jude Children s Research Hospital is a non-profit company that provides unprecedented service for families with children battling extreme pediatric disease, illnesses, and cancer. This marketing plan will educate the reader on what St. Jude Children s Research Hospital is trying to accomplish while examining their current business model, company culture, target market, environmental factors, psychographics, market strategy evaluation, and how to improve their current success. About St. Jude Children s Research Hospital When late entertainer Danny Thomas opened the doors to St. Jude Children s Research Hospital in 1962, he was not just changing the lives of children who would walk through its doors he was changing lives across the world. When St. Jude completed its $1 billion, five-year expansion in 2005, it bolstered the hospital's efforts to find cures for the catastrophic diseases of childhood. The growth more than doubled the size of the hospital s original campus. The expansion included the Children's GMP, LLC the nation's only pediatric research center on-site facility for production of highly specialized treatments and vaccines an expanded Department of Immunology and more. Now with the addition of the Chili s Care Center, a larger, rejuvenated Kay Kafe cafeteria for employees and patients, and renovations to the medicine room and rehabilitation areas, the hospital is more poised than ever to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. (St. Jude Children's Research) Mission Statement The mission of St. Jude Children s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family's ability to pay. (St. Jude Children s Research Hospital)
Organization St. Jude is led by CEO William Evans, and he is assisted by one of the best support cast in any company. What this company does is amazing, and it appears that everyone that works for St. Jude wants to make a large difference. St. Jude is a non-profit organization located in Memphis, Tennessee seeking to advance extreme cases of pediatric illnesses using modern medicine, research, and extensive care. This mature organization has continual success of a theory of no child should die in the dawn of life. Since 1962 Danny Thomas and Dr. Lemuel Diggs began providing cancer research to advance cures and prevention through research through research and successful treatment practices that have saved countless lives. Industry Analysis St. Jude Children's Hospital has been the driving force in continually improving the survival rates of catastrophic diseases and pediatric cancer. St. Jude has almost exclusively focused on treating children with life threatening illness and cancer (Healthcare IT News, 2011). By doing this they have been able to increase the survival rate in most common types of pediatric cancer from 4% in 1962 when St. Jude Children's Hospital was founded to over 90% today (Cicero, 2009). The National Cancer Institute has named St. Jude Children's Hospital the first as well as the only cancer center designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center for pediatric cancer. Environmental Factors St. Jude provides an unprecedented service for families with children battling disease and cancer. This service is extremely costly, but St. Jude will never refuse treatment to children due to their families inability to pay. St. Jude Children's Hospital is vulnerable to many environmental factors that involve technology, sociocultural, economic, and legal complications. According to reports published by St. Jude the daily operating cost of their programs are 1.7 million dollars which are primarily funded by public donations. Financially this research hospital is funded largely by public donations which carry a lot of risk to funding and research (St. Jude Children's Research). St. Jude manages this risk by seeking help from major financially stable companies who believe in their vision while producing quality research articles and care while following the company vision of providing ethical decisions to improve cancer research and care.
Providing ethical research has helped St. Jude to continually help children and to guarantee that they are providing a service that complies legally with laws and policies currently in place. Competitor Analysis The competitor analysis is quite unique with St. Jude Children's Research because St. Jude does not use a traditional business model. St. Jude's goal is to advance the treatment, research, and care of catastrophic disease and cancer, but at the same time they praise other companies for assisting in this fight. The competitors of St. Jude Children's Research are also St. Jude's allies. This is extremely unique because St. Jude's competition takes away funding from their research, but the culture of this company is to find the best methods for advancing research and treatment of illnesses. The University of Iowa Children's Hospital is one of St. Jude's competitors located in Iowa City, Iowa. This children's hospital is not able to conduct the level of research or care for financially unstable families to a lack of financial support and reach of promotion. St. Jude Children's Research is able to differentiate themselves with their competition because of their unique culture, financial assistance, and unequal success of continually improving the success rate of catastrophic illness and pediatric cancer through scientific research and financial reach. St. Jude is able to reach the public to promote a great service that will save an immeasurable amount of lives by providing research and treatment to successfully help children beat unprecedented illnesses. Target Consumer Market: The target market for St. Jude s Medical Research is most generally explained by any individual who is actively seeking to help advance cases of pediatric cancer and extreme illnesses. This target audience will be able to afford to either give a one time or monthly donation to St. Jude s. Demographics, Geographics, & Psychographics: The threat of pediatric illness can be understood by any individual. Pediatric illness has shown extreme leaps largely based on the research and practices of St. Jude s Research. This marketing plan will rely on the attitude and beliefs of our target audience that no family should have to walk down this road of extreme illness alone. We will attempt to market this plan in areas of awareness which are located near St. Jude or a St. Jude s affiliate. By targeting our reach
in areas that already have an awareness of St. Jude we will be able to eliminate miscommunications on what St. Jude s core values are, and what the company means to the families in which they help. The demographics will be directed towards the middle and upper class families that will be able to afford to donate to a good cause. We will also direct our marketing plan to include groups within that are willing to voice the need of pediatric cancer help including religious, education, and pediatric care groups. Using education in our marketing plan will allow us to meet a target audience that might not be able to contribute financially, but will be willing to help receive donations for an education donation drive for St. Jude. Consumer Purchase Process This marketing plan to consumers for a non-profit organization such as St. Jude allows us to create a unique marketing plan in which we will be able to push our product in many ways. St. Jude s service of pediatric cancer research and treatment allows us to receive donations in multiple ways. Potential sponsors to this program will be able to donate by any method. We will use every method at our disposal to receive funds that will rely heavily on individuals donating online, and by mail. A goal of our marketing plan is to be as accessible as possible. We will do this by accepting funds by phone, text, online, mail, and in person. By maximizing the methods of donations we will be able to capture payments in multiple ways that will be convenient to our sponsors. Our sponsors will be able to gather information from multiple sources because St. Jude s is a popular established company with a great reputation and company values. With radio and television marketing we will be able to capture impulse donations, but we will also show value for a long term commitment by accepting monthly and annually donations. Relationship with Customer This unique opportunity of being a valued sponsor of St. Jude will allow St. Jude to build an on-going relationship with sponsors. Although many sponsors donate sporadically or only once we will be able to show value in the opportunity for success from the sponsor. Sponsors will receive monthly newsletters and access to articles in which they can continue to help with additional donations or by volunteering. We will be able to offer repeat donations of either monthly, annually, or by any method chosen by the sponsor. St. Jude needs as much support as possible, but any financial support no matter how small is an amazing achievement while St. Jude continues to battle multiple forms of pediatric illness.
Target Business-to-Business Market The marketing plan of St. Jude will attempt to use large organizations to raise funds for research. This will be more effective by selecting established companies that have a history of helping causes in which they feel strongly about. This target business market will be able to provide large contributions from their business as a sponsor while providing opportunity to gain their affiliates as sponsors. The target business market will be able to be sponsors of St. Jude s while promoting themselves as a company of great values for doing so. Corporations such as Wells Fargo Bank show incredible reach as a sponsor, and with this no physical market should be addressed. It will be important to find organizations that will help the research of St. Jude by more than sending in donations. Psychographics Sponsoring a great cause is a helpful tool for many established organizations. The organization is able to show their core values, and what they are doing to help others. Sponsoring an organization such as St. Jude the sponsoring company will be able to increase their company image which will lead to an increased opportunity of business while helping out a great cause. Sponsoring companies would be able to provide financial assistance to St. Jude by either issuing a corporate check or by auto bill pay from a company expense account. Nature of Relationship with Corporate Clients Corporate sponsors must keep an on-going relationship to be able to ethically promote their relationship with the advancement of pediatric illnesses and cancer. The donations will not be limited to a minimum donation, but any public relationship advertised must be a substantial donation either by providing financial assistance or service to advance research and treatment at St. Jude. Repeat donations will be monthly, quarterly, annually, or by discretion of the sponsor that meets their needs. Product & Place: St. Jude Medical Research is a mature company that shows extreme value in pediatric care and research in extreme illnesses that include cancer. St. Jude has been branded as a company with great corporate values because of their success in pediatric care. Their company
image has been very successful at reaching their target audiences due to their history of advancing care, practices, and medicine through their research. St. Jude requires top of the art medical facilities to successfully care for young patients with life threatening illnesses. Their physical location is largely limited to their corporate headquarters and care facilities in Memphis, Tennessee, but with supporting alliances with prestigious medical centers such as University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska St. Jude is able to broaden their reach for possible donations. Promotion & Price: Currently St. Jude relies on traditional television and print based promotions. Both of these promotion techniques are popular in larger metropolitan areas that host affiliated medical centers. Target audiences for these promotions are targeted to upper class residents who are able to afford monthly donations, but with the core message being sent to this target St. Jude is able to capture another demographic that supports their cause without the ability to afford large or donations regularly. The core message of St. Jude is that no child will be denied treatment based on race, religion, or even a family s ability to pay. The statement that St. Jude will continue treatment without pay if a family is unable to provide financially is able to emotionally move many individuals. This powerful statement is able to provide value to future sponsors knowing that they are helping parents who are already struggling emotionally and financially providing treatment for their children. Donations are the primary source of financial assistance St. Jude receives, and this assistance is the primary objective of their marketing plan and promotions. Evaluation of Marketing Strategy St. Jude currently uses their Four P s (Product, Place, Promotion, Price) extremely well throughout their target audience. St. Jude is able to offer their services free of charge if a family is unable to pay using a great marketing campaign that allows donation sponsors to help fund research, care, and medical bills. This product s service has no set price to a sponsor, but it allows them to provide value to everyone involved which is only one reason that this company is able to succeed. St. Jude is able to receive donations to their program by showing value that their competition cannot provide.
A must in St. Jude s business objective is to make sure that they stay away from taking advantage of a gimmicks, fads, or popular movement that will only provide instant success. St. Jude must show that the reason individuals should be involved in their company is a result that the future sponsor finds valuable and worth donating. To propel themselves and their message further St. Jude should look into advancing their relationships with Fortune 500 Companies and partner themselves with other causes to broaden their reach. By reaching out to other organizations the message of St. Jude will be able to be heard throughout the static, and will optimistically turn an individual into a mouthpiece for the cause. Moving forward St. Jude must continue to provide value for pediatric care, and as long as they successfully improve the field of pediatric illness sponsors will flock to their mission which will help create opportunities not previously possible.
Bibliography Cicero, K. (2009, February). 10 Best Children's Hospitals. Retrieved from Parents Magazine: http://www.parents.com/baby/care/pediatricians-medicine/best-childrenshospitals/?page=15 Healthcare IT News. (2011, July 07). St. Jude Medical Center Helps Ease the Trauma of Premature Birth. Retrieved from Healthcare IT News: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/press-release/st-jude-medical-center-helps-easetrauma-premature-birth St. Jude Children s Research Hospital. (n.d.). St. Jude Mission Statement. Retrieved from St. Jude Children s Research Hospital: http://www.stjude.org/mission St. Jude Children's Research. (n.d.). Quick Facts about St. Jude. Retrieved from St. Jude Children's Research: http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=434d1976d1e70110vgnvcm10000 01e0215acRCRD&vgnextchannel=ee58ebc7a7319210VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD St. Jude Children's Research. (n.d.). St. Jude History & Growth. Retrieved from St. Jude Children's Research: http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=7dcb13c016118010vgnvcm10000 00e2015acRCRD