Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan - DOC Format

A market has been opened for STATag with the emergence of reVIEW, a program founded by Cindy Jimmerson that employs the Toyota Production System. This system helps to create a more “defect-free” product or service, reduce or eliminate waste, and improve workplace appreciation. This program was spawned off the top ten wasteful prospects. One of the most wasteful concerns was equipment locating. It has been found that 35 to 60% of a nurse’s time is wasted on, partly, searching for equipment. This figure results in 58 to 99 billion dollars wasted on an annual basis.

The marketing strategy addresses several facets. The problem with time wasted for locating equipment can be drastically reduced. In a matter of seconds, a hospital employee can learn the location of a particular piece of equipment with the click of a mouse. The benefit of saving hospitals time and money is an incentive in itself. With the acquisition of STATag by a medical facility, a return on investment can be achieved in as little as 8 months, allowing the hospital to return a profit from the system use in the first year. Savings in subsequent years continue to ascend as product usage continues.

This will provide us with valid arguments when approaching a medical facility as a potential customer. We will be able to show that a hospital will be able to achieve a higher level of service for its patients, and maximize efficiency for profitable gain.
With the acquisition of funding from SBIR, we will be able to begin realistic marketing strategies. Marketing strategies include medical journals and magazines, web advertising, attendance of medical trade events as well as technological expos and events.

In addition to the benefits attained by the use of the solution, a medical facility can advertise to its customers that a high level of service and efficiency can be expected. This would encourage facilities without such technology to consider using a product such as STATag to maintain competitiveness.

STATag will use the IEEE 802.14.5 standard which specifies ultra-low power self configuring wireless networks. A main marketing strategy is the ease in maintenance with such a network. Most wireless networking technologies in medical facilities employ IEEE 802.11, which require administrative overhead. This overhead can be eliminated in IEEE 802.14.5 because of the specification that calls for self discovery on the network.

For advertising of the solution, we plan to use $30,000 for booth rental of a trade show, with $4,000 (for four employees) used for airfare.

For a trade show exhibit, we have considered the Florida International Medical Expo (FIME). FIME is an attractive venue for our solution as it attracts medical experts from across the world, in addition to selling out the 2003 event.

We also plan to expand advertising to medical journals. According PERQ/HCI, in 1998, advertising in medical journals topped the response effectiveness at 66.5%.
This concept alone shows that we can obtain market awareness and message penetration with the use of medical journal advertising. Out of the top five rated best journals, the FDA Consumer Magazine published by the FDA would be an obvious choice for our paper and web advertisements.(Note to group – this is a bi-monthly journal)

It will cost approximately $932,600 to build STATag. $850,000 comes from SBIR grants and another $200,000 will come from an SBA loan.

Competition

The STATag uses an upcoming efficient wireless networking standard that is easy to maintain. Our competitors use technology that requires additional expensive hardware, and includes wireless technology that requires administration overhead. With STATag, no expensive access points are required, and the wireless technology used is self-configuring and self-discovering. This means no time wasted with IT administrative overhead.

The WhereNet solution only provides 2D locating. It does not address locating devices that are on different floors. WhereNet’s solution also does not keep track of its location. In addition, WhereNet uses 802.11b IEEE standard which requires expensive access points once it has reached the ranges boundaries.

The Intermec solution does not provide any location tracking. Although it can trigger alarms, it is not able to detect tag removal which makes it’s alarm mechanism defeatable.

Symbol Technologies provides no location tracking nor provides any alarm mechanisms. It is assumed that’s its primary function is for inventory tracking alone and not for equipment location.