Mecwacare is known aged-care service provider who provides services throughout Victoria. Mecwacare provides residential, nursing and support service for aged, disadvantaged and people with special needs and disabilities. The paper follows has offered an insight into a different aspect of the firm. The microenvironment and macro environment analysis has been done to provide an insight into the current scenario of the firm. The targeted market and the detailing of the customers have also been considered to provide a summary of the firm. The key findings from the above discussion is that though the firm is stable with its experience and working pattern though it needs some amendments because of its aging residential facilities and employee turnover. Other challenges such as competitions and losing market segmentation due to developing technology and political reasons are also prominent but the firm can cope up with it. Hence, to summarize it would be justified to state that the firm can attain sustainability with minor changes and mitigating the threats faced by it.
Mecwacare is known aged-care service provider who provides services throughout Victoria. Mecwacare provides residential, nursing and support service for aged, disadvantaged and people with special needs and disabilities. Mecwacare has a wide network to provide service in Victoria with over 1,700 employees and 350 volunteers. They care for over 13,000 people each year (Mecwacare, 2019).
Mecwacare covers service network with in-home nursing and care services operating across greater Melbourne and regional Victoria. Residential care centers in Malvern, Glen Iris, Prahran, Richmond, Hoppers Crossing, Mornington, Mont Albert North, Hamlyn Heights, Westmeadows and Traralgon. Community centers in Malvern East, Malvern and Pakenham and community housing in Glen Iris, Sandringham, and Beaumaris (Mecwacare, 2019).
Understanding the market is one of the primary needs for the successful deployment of a marketing plan. Hence, the following sections have offered insight into the micro-environment and macro-environment analysis of the market. As part of the microenvironment analysis, Porter's 5 force, BCG matrix and GE matrix have been presented. While for macro environment analysis Pestle has been presented. Mecwacare is an old aged care company with the vision to provide people a quality life. Basically, it provides in-home service and customized care for old ages. It has its 1700 employee and 350 volunteers to serve 13000 people every year. It has been spread widely across greater Melbourne and regional Victoria. Through Victoria, this is now much better known and they have an idea to open their branches worldwide so that the all old man can get a better life in their rest of life. There is not a less old aged center in Victoria, still, they are competing with the other old aged care and has got asset up for their business. Here some of their market force is described.
Firstly about their service and supply, it can be seen that they have an excellent serving of nurse according to the customer's availability. For serving efficient workers it has its own reputation, especially for disabled people. In Victoria maximum peoples are working outside their home and don't get time for their household and old parents. So there the demand is gradually increasing as well as they provide residential for the old one. So here the most interesting thing is as the demands are increasing, so their service pricing is also reasonable according to their service. A business whichever may be, there is all time completion with other and any type of organizations are afraid about the new entrants. As the demand is there highly increasing so for one company it is too much to bear up.
Hence, the other peoples are also interested in that business, as well as the completion there is really too much.
The market growth rate of the firm is high because of the aging population and lack of adequate services for their service along with the need for aiding physically challenged people. Furthermore, the relative market share of the firm is also high hence making it in star category.
The aging population and lack of adequate services for their service along with the need for aiding physically challenged people to make it one of the most attractive markets and hence, the industry attractiveness is high. The experience and well-established nature of the firm also offer its advantage over its competitor which gives it a competitive advantage. However, the increasing competition is offering certain challenges and hence it needs to be kept in the medium category. So the firm is in its growth phase.
Many people choose full-time worker for their household and caring. Sometimes it is lower than hiring a professional, so most of the time people choose that type of service, which is never expected to them. There is a major problem if the customer does not agree with someone then those starts bargaining. Like once a woman from Victoria came to that company and asks to provide a 5-hour worker for their household so the company charges amount so the customer is not satisfied with the amount, as a result, she starts bargains, for being an existing customer company is bound to give her a special discount. Every firm seeks a competitive advantage by reducing their costs, improving quality. Being an old age service provider when it is providing service $20 an hour and a new company enters with $17 per hour, then the existing companies need to change their fare otherwise peoples will get interested to the new company.
Market research is an important path to estimate market Size. Mecwacare uses different methods to find out the market size.
Census Data is very useful information for market study for Mecwacare. This helps to study the age of the community. This provides the number of people in each geographic location. Mecwacare can predict the level of care required in the community.
ABS Data is used census data to provide accuracy with information. Mecwacare uses data to determine what is the current market? What service will be in demand? How to expand geographic growth? There is some way that Mecaware maintains to analyze their customer and create customer insights. The customer is the most unpredictable component for any type of business. So every company should have its own customer insights, some of them described below. Firstly it is important to know who their target customers are. Being a service provider Mecawares customer will be women and old aged person. Hence, to identify their customer Mecaware do some field survey in nursing home, where they talk to the member of a personal family and approach them to hire a service from them, otherwise maybe some busy women or men who want anyone to help them household, or maybe some disables special child can be their target customer. The second thing is to get the right idea about their customer's needs. As an example, if a 70aged person wants to hire a person to stay some time at their home and to do some household service, and in that case, if Mecaware sends a boy of 23 or 24 who doesn't know anything about household much then it can make a fault on company impression. So it is very urgent to read the customers actually need.
NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) is the new way of providing support for Australian with a disability, their family and carers. NDIS data is used to determine how Mecwacare can reach out to these families for care.
Industry overview analysis helps to determine economic, legal and market status. Mecwacare uses their experience within the industry, staff knowledge and feedback from customers to organize the business structure. This data contains evolves demand and supply of Mecwacare. It helps to reach out to the targeted marketed area where service shortage.
Government research and findings help to understand the market need. The Australian aged care sector is large and complex. From an economic perspective, it is one of Australia's largest service industries, employing over 350,000 employees to deliver services to over one million people via some 2,000 service providers (ACFA, 2015).
Strength-As the image attached above has made it evident that the strength of the firm is its client and customer driven nature. Here the client sets the time and the agility is focused on the customer care with the objective of offering attention to customer satisfaction.
Weakness- Employee turnover is the primary weakness of the firm as it suffers greatly from the influence of the turnover. Hence, it is the prime need of the firm to mitigate the threat and maintain its employee for long turn sustainability. The cooperation and coordination of the agency workers are also one of the weakness that the firm is facing because of the lack of dedication and the obstacles posed by them is difficult and need to be coped up. The increasing age of the residential facilities is also one of the prime challenges as the firm cannot leverage the full potential of its facilities and in the process missing out on important opportunities.
Opportunities- The weaknesses of the firm also pave the way for different opportunities that can be leveraged by the firms. As the firm is facing dire situation because of its old residential facilities, hence, the firm can renovate it with state-of-art technology and in the process induct new reforms that will be beneficial for the firm and desirable for the end-users. Another primary threat that is being faced by the firm is the threat of employee turnover and one of the ways through which the discussed threat can be mitigated is also an opportunity for the firm. The firm can develop skills in the employee through training which will assist in mitigating the threat while offering a trained employee who will offer better customer satisfaction and eventually profit for the firm.
Threat- Change in government policy and auditing is one of the primary threats that are being faced by a firm and hence, it is also a threat for the firm. Acquisition of the firm is another threat that is evident and has been accounted for. Royal commissions can also emerge as a primary threat for the firm that needs to be mitigated and hence has been considered as part of the threat.
Marketing intermediaries help the company promote, sell and distribute its products to final buyers. Marketing intermediaries is a key chain for a company to deliver the service to market by resellers. Government services such as My Aged Care, NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), Home Care Packages are market intermediaries for Mecwacare. Medicare's reputation through word of mouth and marketing strategies turns this factor as strength. Similarly, data from ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) can be used for targeting the market and customers. Tie-ups with the healthcare service providers can also assist in the collection of data that can be leveraged for customer generation.
There are some key marketing functions in every organization is described as below. To collect information about their market will help them to get a clear prospect of marketing. By gathering the market analyzation reports they can get that what type of customer they have, and the need of a customer, and what type of customer does not like any type of service. After having an idea about the market they can draw planning that where they will do their marketing and how they can approach their service. Some of the time market reviews open a way to the business what type of development they need and what type of improvement they should take for their customers. By analyzing a market they can differentiate or can do better for their services from another company. Pricing is a key factor of any type of business. So a perfect market analyzation can get an idea about what is their substitute products price, and how the customers are accepting this. If the price reasonable then fine otherwise it should be decreased. The social part is also included in the business. A business always should have its social contribution otherwise society will be the barrier to an organization. There are so many social activities that any organization can take this. A good social contribution always a structure of a business which helps to gain handsome goodwill from society.
A customer plays an important role in the company's microenvironment. Mecwacare has the goal to create a relationship with clients and deliver value to the targeted customer. Mecwacare has gained 700 clients largely due to the NDIS. Mecwacare sells 24/7 qualified aged-care services through residential services and home care services business. There is high demand in Australia for quality aged-care provider due growth in elderly people to meet the demand Mecwacare fosters thoughtful, respectful and ethical interactions and relationships to ensure client and resident experience are both rich and rewarding The customers of the firm are aged people or physically challenged people who need services. The firm operates in within the geographical domain of Australia and hence, serves the customer from the region.
The key findings from the above discussion is that though the firm is stable with its experience and working pattern though it needs some amendments because of its aging residential facilities and employee turnover. Other challenges such as competitions and losing market segmentation due to developing technology and political reasons are also prominent but the firm can cope up with it. Hence, to summarize it would be justified to state that the firm can attain sustainability with minor changes and mitigating the threats faced by it.
The key marketing objective of the firm is to increase the market share of the firm by making the people aware of the services that they offer with context to the quality of the service.
The primary market targeted by the firm would target the aging population. The reason for the above-made statement can be justified by the fact that the average age of Australia is 37.4. Furthermore, for offering services to other physically challenged people the firm had to adopt services specific to the illness of the customer which will need specialized tools and techniques and will also demand specialized skills. Targeting the aged population will mitigate the issue of purchasing specialized tools and techniques and training the staffs for specialized services will also be easy and simple and hence the recommendation.
Mecwacare follows 4P’s strategy to go ahead from the competitors.
4P's marketing strategy helps Mecwacare review market and study the competitor. Value for care is the prime motto for Mecwacare, therefore, market research and the competitive rate is delivered each year.
Strategic Direction |
· Mission- “Maximize the Quality of life for the people who aged and disabled in the Victorian community” · Vision- “Caring together, creating choice, respecting lives” · Values- “We value interactions and relationships” o Accountable o Caring o Ethical o Respectful |
Key learning &Conclusion |
· The firm needs to focus on aged persons as it will incur less cost and in tools, techniques, and specialization. · Special programs and services should be launched with the objective of aiding persons with special needs. |
Overall Objectives & Goals |
· To become a household name. · Expand the reach out from the Victorian state. · Increase the profit of the firm by 50%. · To retain the existing clients and expand the suppliers base. |
Strategies |
· To launch new service packs for both the aged and people with special needs. The discussed strategy can be attained by collecting adequate data from ABS and similar sites for identifying the special needs that may arise. · To reach out of Victoria through franchise and partnerships. · Develop a strong supplier’s chain for both the tools, products and necessary data. |
Target Market |
· Aged Customers and people with special needs in the state of Victoria and nearby locations. |
The firm has its plan based on the competitive pricing and it even provides high-quality service. So, the funds for the project are limited and hence, the firm needs to devise a plan with a limited budget. The budget of the marketing should fall between the braces of AUD 20,000 to AUD 100,000. The primary market targeted by the firm would target the aging population. The reason for the above-made statement can be justified by the fact that the average age of Australia is 37.4. Furthermore, for offering services to other physically challenged people the firm had to adopt services specific to the illness of the customer which will need specialized tools and techniques and will also demand specialized skills. Targeting the aged population will mitigate the issue of purchasing specialized tools and techniques and training the staffs for specialized services will also be easy and simple and hence the recommendation.
Regular auditing and progress reporting can be used as a plan for monitoring and controlling the process. It will also develop data that can be leveraged in future instances for development of statistical plans.