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description & student objectives || syllabus | BryLin Prototype
Marketing Web
BryLin Hospitals Behavioral Medicine Services Web Site Marketing Plan by Ellen Errigo & Wayne Creelman 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BryLin Hospitals is a comprehensive provider of psychiatric, addiction medicine and behavioral health services. Inpatient services are offered at sites in Buffalo and Alden, New York, outpatient services are offered at four clinics in various suburbs of Buffalo, and a partial hospitalization program is offered at an additional City site. Errigo and Creelman Web Services is proposing to develop an interactive Web site for BryLin Hospitals. The organization already has a Web site, however it is a static, brochureware site that has done little to increase BryLin’s market share or promote its programs. Errigo and Creelman are proposing a site that will offer: extensive information on psychiatric and addiction disorders; inspirational support through meditations and bulletin board postings of others suffering from behavioral disorders; and therapeutic support through email communication with staff therapists. The site will be dynamic and expanding, with new information, meditations and opportunities for interaction added frequently. Much of BryLin’s marketing is directed to those who are the "gatekeepers" to the access of services, rather than to the client. This is done because it is the physicians and the insurance companies that must refer and approve patients for services. BryLin’s current Web site is directed to the "gatekeepers" in that it uses the language of health care professionals rather than potential clients. However, we believe that doctors and insurance company employees are not going to access this site to determine whether to refer patients to BryLin. We do believe that people in need of services will access the site, but now there is nothing to keep them there. Is it important to market to the potential client? We think so. Although the physician and insurance company must approve referrals, the client still has the right to request the provider they wish to see. We believe that BryLin could profit by moving from a marketing orientation to a market orientation at its Web site. A market orientation looks at the consumer’s viewpoint and goes beyond the four P’s to the four C’s-consumer, cost, convenience, and communication. The proposed BryLin Web site could provide a consumer-oriented service to potential clients, BryLin ‘alumni," and to the general public. We estimate Web site development, promotion, and one-year maintenance costs to be $40,000. We believe that additional referrals to BryLin that may be directly attributed to the Web site will offset the costs within the first year. By year two, we predict a 3-5% increase in "sales" that may be directly attributed to the Web. Our projections of the total value of the benefits of the Web site to BryLin are ‘educated guesses’ since it will be difficult to determine word-of-mouth advertising and good will that will result from the site. We recommend that BryLin add the questions ‘Have you visited our Web site?’ and ‘How did you chose BryLin?’ to its intake procedure to better determine the influence of the proposed Web site on BryLin’s income. 2. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this report is to describe the features and benefits of the proposed Web site within the context of BryLin’s overall Marketing Plan. We will discuss the Web site in relation to the four P’s-product, price, place and promotion. We will also consider how it meets the customer needs by looking at the four C’s-consumer, cost, convenience, and communication. We will look at the macroenvironment, target markets, the various pieces of the marketing mix, and expected outcomes. 3. MACROENVIRONMENT Is there a need for this service? More than 51 million American adults and children experience a diagnosable mental or emotional disorder in a single year. The full spectrum of mental disorders affects 22 percent of the adult population in a given year. This figure refers to all mental disorders, and is comparable to rates for "physical disorders" when similarly broadly defined. During the course of any given year, 40 million American adults are affected by one or more mental disorders, while 5.5 million are disabled by a severe mental illness. An estimated 19.9 million Americans experience phobias; about 9.1 million live with major depression; 3.9 million have obsessive compulsive disorder; 2.4 million have panic disorder; 2 million have schizophrenia; and 2 million have bipolar disorder (manic depression). In addition, one in five children suffer from diagnosable mental, emotional or behavioral disorders. The abuse of alcohol and drugs creates another population of Americans in need of behavioral treatment. One out of every 20 Americans has a problem with alcohol. Alcohol abuse accounts for 10 percent of all deaths and is the most widely used drug in American society. Continued and chronic abuse of alcohol permanently changes brain chemistry and results in physical addiction and uncontrolled use of alcohol and other drugs. Alcohol abuse and dependence affect about 15.3 million adult Americans, and 38 percent of adult Americans have felt the experience of alcoholism or alcohol abuse in their families. Alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, barbiturates or hallucinogens are all equally destructive with the same dependency syndrome. Thus, it is evident that there is a great need for BryLin’s services in the community. Is there a need for such services on the Web? We believe there is. There still is a stigma attached to psychiatric and addiction disorders in the general population. Many people are reluctant to seek help due to embarrassment. The confidential and less personal interaction through the Web may draw those who are afraid to go to a therapist. Some of the well-known national providers of addiction programs (Betty Ford Clinic, Phoenix House, and Hazelden) have developed Web sites, but no other local provider has a site at this time. Web access is increasing rapidly and at least 20% of the local population uses the Internet to find information relating to personal concerns. Projections indicate the Internet usage will continue to grow rapidly over the next 3-5 years until almost half of the population will have daily access to the Internet. One of the early uses of the Internet that has continued to grow, has been relationship building through the use of email, chat rooms and bulletin boards. The therapeutic model adapts well to these forms. BryLin’s pricing has tended to attract a more "upscale" clientele. It is this population that is increasingly becoming "wired" and looking to the Internet as a source of information and as a way to make consumer decisions. BryLin can get ahead of the competition by developing a Web site that offers online services, support, and information. The local competition for providing the services that BryLin Hospitals and its Web site offers comes in the following forms: 1. Coordinated Access Intervention Network (CAIN). CAIN is an integrated delivery system (IDS) which is an organized system of providers, designed to span a range of behavioral healthcare services. Their stated objective is to provide efficient, cost- effective care with improved access, quality, treatment outcomes and alternate payment structures. It includes the Erie County Medical Center, Crisis Services, Horizon Health Services and Spectrum Human Services. CAIN both benefits and suffers from being an Article 28 general hospital based enterprise with supporting services provided by Article 31 not-for-profit, freestanding agencies. The benefit is the political will that can be exercised by the Erie County Medical Center and its close affiliation with the Medical School of Buffalo. The big disadvantage is their vast size, quasi-governmental status (ECMC), university residency program "overhead" costs and a "net deficit" financed funding arrangement history which renders CAIN slow to take action and unable to competitively price their services. They currently offer no Web site to the local or cyberspace community for the provision of therapeutic information or services. Genesis Behavioral Health System. Genesis is an integrated network of behavioral health providers with client services that span both mental health as well as chemical dependency. They emphasize the provision of services rather than the administration, support or the development of services. They currently offer no Web site to the local or cyberspace community for information or services. Their system includes eight agencies dominated by general hospitals that survive through the dependence upon government sponsored "net deficit" financing. In addition to a lack of experience operating within a "bottom line" without government subsidy, this organization's component parts are highly regulated by New York State and consequently lack management flexibility. 3. National Behavioral Health Managed Care Companies. The Buffalo and Niagara Frontier market is vulnerable to penetration by large behavioral health managed care companies such as MCC, Magellan, Value Behavioral Health and multiple other smaller entities. The macroenvironment includes not only the above mentioned national competitors but also the full Internet with its numerous mental health and behavioral medicine Web sites that offer therapeutic information and services. The Buffalo and Niagara Frontier market is a highly volatile one. Both the managers and providers of behavioral health services must have the capacity to quickly reorient and reorganize their delivery systems to meet the changing needs of the behavioral health market and the changing needs of their customers. By creating a BryLin Web site, the ability to meet this outstanding customer need will be enhanced. Local Western New York demographics reflect a decreasing population base with stagnant income. The population is also aging as many of the young and college-educated cohorts are moving south for greater perceived career opportunities. Despite the market shifting from a fee-for-service base to a highly benefit-regulated managed care macroenvironment; the Web site will begin as a fee-for-service startup product. To the extent that "gatekeepers" such as behavioral health care managers will become interested in the Web site as a "cost-offset" to other health care costs, the ability to offer the Web site to populations of designated patients will be possible. Due to mergers and affiliations, the Western New York market is becoming increasingly concentrated among five major insurance payers including IHA, Health Care Plan, Community Blue, Medicare and Medicaid. The decreasing reliance upon inpatient care and reduction in mental health funding make the BryLin Web site particularly attractive in this rapidly evolving health care macroenvironment. Health care market forces will continue their efforts to diminish inpatient utilization, promote home health care and outpatient treatment. The BryLin web site offers both a confidential approach to emotional health wellness as well as a primary preventive approach to conflict and stress resolution in the privacy of one's home, office or hotel room. In the past, therapeutic treatment was sold to individual recipients through mass advertising. The Web site service is a newly evolving behavioral health care system that satisfies an increasing demand. 4. TARGET MARKET Although the population at large is at risk for psychiatric illness and addictive behaviors, a higher percentage of women suffer depression/anxiety disorders (the most common psychiatric illnesses), while men exhibit a higher percentage of alcoholism and drug abuse in the general population. We believe that our Web site will be visited by close to equal percentages of men and women. Demographic issues include the following: more men use the web than women, resulting in more males than female browsers (although the gap is narrowing). However, when browsing for therapeutic help, women have a greater willingness to enter into therapeutic treatment than men do. As women are more likely to share their emotions and need for personal help, we believe that the higher socioeconomic, adult female, with a college education and Internet skills will be the most likely population of users. However, men may be attracted to the confidential and less personal nature of the Web interaction. As mentioned previously, the market over the next few years is expected to be middle to upper middle class and college educated. As computers become less expensive and Web TV is more widely utilized, we expect our market to become more reflective of the general population of Western New York. Since people seeking alcohol detoxification services often choose to go to another part of the country, we could expect the Web to expand BryLin’s out of town referrals. Our target market becomes the entire spectrum of Web users nationally and possibly internationally. With these projections of usage, we carefully considered the look and feel of the Web site and decided upon a nature theme that would give a calming, nurturing feel to the site. It may be interpreted as ‘feminine’ to some viewers, but we don’t believe that will alienate males seeking help. Those users seeking a calming, reassuring, therapeutic encounter will find comfort in our Web site regardless of gender, age or ethnic background. 5. MARKETING MIX The Product Our product is an over fifty-page Web site for BryLin Hospitals. The site is divided into four main sections: Programs and Services, Self-Help, News and Education, and Talk to Us. The Programs and Services section is most like the brochureware site that currently exists. However, even this section will include the interactive options of emailing feedback and asking questions about medications. This section presents all of BryLin’s programs and services including outpatient and inpatient offerings. The Self-Help section will include a daily meditation as well as archives of past meditations, listings of Western New York support groups with their meeting times and places, bulletin boards open to all for posting and exchange of information, a secure (password necessary) chat room for alumni of BryLin’s programs, weekly chats on changing topics guided by therapists, suggested reading lists and links to other related sites. The News and Education section will include Bryline articles, press releases and other news articles, interactive quizzes on alcoholism and mental illness, calendar of events including educational programs, and frequently asked questions (FAQ). The Talk to Us section will include the most innovative feature of the Web site--the Ask a Therapist option. Users will be able to ask a therapist a question and receive an answer within 24 hours. This service may be used up to six times per year without a fee. To continue a dialogue with a therapist beyond the six exchanges would require an online therapy contract with a fee. We believe the Ask a Therapist option will be attractive to those who are reluctant to seek help or to those who wish to interview a therapist before committing to working with them. While it may be the most costly aspect of our Web site in terms of staff time, we believe it will also be most influential in bringing in new clients either for Web therapy contracts or as outpatients. In addition to the four sections described above, the Home Page will offer a quick research option for those seeking answers for themselves or someone they care about who is in crisis. This hyperlink will lead the user to such pages as "How do I talk to a friend about their addiction?" "What are the common signs of cocaine abuse?" "What are the symptoms of clinical depression?" and so on. The Web site will be customer-centered, using language that is directed to the lay person, not the health care professional. The tone as well as the look of the site will be calming, nurturing and supportive. The site will be updated daily with new meditations, news items and listings of events. A 24-hour response to email and Ask a Therapist will be guaranteed Each page is a variation on one design theme: a pale yellow background with a green font, decorated with various leaf designs and bullets. A rust accent color is used for hyperlinks and some borders. We extensively utilize photography and drawings to illustrate our pages. The overall feel of the site is calming yet upbeat and nurturing yet "professional." Our prototype site is approximately 50 pages-we have developed 11 pages to demonstrate our concepts for the site. In developing the pages we were handicapped by the lack of photographs in the BryLin files. We recognize the need for confidentiality at the hospitals, however we suggest a photo shoot to obtain a larger stock of photographs of similar size and color. Web site therapists will reflect a high degree of education and experience with appropriate certification and accreditation on the part of institutional providers. All Web site activities will be in compliance with regulatory bodies such as OMH, OASAS, HCFA, MHLS, CQC, and JCAHO. Our digital production marketing team anticipates that this Web site will become the first interactive, therapeutic cyberspace site to receive NCQA accreditation. The Price Start-up Costs for BryLin Hospitals Web site The first year start-up costs of the Web site are projected to be approximately $60,000. The initial costs will include additional liability insurance, a Web consultants’ fee and expenditures for a promotional campaign.. In following years we will not need to continue the promotional campaign so annual costs would decrease to approximately $40,000. Start-up Expenses
Sales Forecast
Prices for inpatient services are inordinately high due to considerable overhead expenses related to labor costs, supplies, rent, taxes, and multiple fixed and variable costs. Oftentimes, inpatient services must sacrifice quality to maintain a competitive price advantage. The Web site will be an outpatient service that can be delivered at an exceedingly low cost, based on volume-driven services that will defray the expenses of maintaining the site and creating an "on call" roster of qualified therapists and expert medication management physicians. The web site will also appeal to a more "upscale" clientele with Internet access. Web site services will be innovative, informative, comprehensive, and lack the cost controls normally associated with a high degree of utilization review, quality assurance and outcomes benchmarking. The Web site will avoid strident, organized labor forces and instead possess the flexibility to change quickly based on market trends and demands. Interactivity between browser and Web site personnel will be timely and predictable. A particular strength of the Web site is that it has a captive market that can contract with the site clinicians with competitive outpatient rates for therapeutic services. The full spectrum of potential services available within this market place has yet to be fully exercised. Pricing will be dependent upon the type of contract, method of payment, credentials of therapist and length of treatment. The option of a PMPM (per member per month) pricing system will be employed in a risk arrangement or capitation system based upon the number of covered lives, co-pays and specific services rendered. Promotion Our team of Web site marketers will work within the service development department of BryLin Hospitals in preparation for the launch of the Web. As the Web site will be a division of an existing organization, the promotion must emphasize "distinctive" core competencies, and how this new media product will fit into its existing service line. The body of this marketing plan will describe the BryLin system as it expands its integrated delivery system integration efforts to the Internet, uses outcome data for external (marketing) accountability, and successfully balances the pricing versus quality equation. In order to remain competitive, the hospital will need to diversify its market to include as its customers, general hospital systems, physician organizations, insurance companies, individual recipients of services (BryLin Web site browsers), as well as employers. The BryLin general marketing plan has targeted the following local markets for referral sources: psychiatric private practices, psychological private practices, clinical social worker private practices, behavioral health group practices, mental health and addiction agencies, hospitals with behavioral health services, employee assistance programs, insurance companies and behavioral health independent practice associations. Primary markets include private practices, hospital systems, physician groups, insurance companies, employer groups and government. Secondary markets include specialty care physician practices, nursing homes, home health care agencies, school and college communities, as well as employee assistance professionals. Based on the most recent data, as the Buffalo, New York region is 63.4 % HMO service penetration (Managed Healthcare May 1998), the BryLin organized delivery system exists in a stage 3, consolidated, "advanced cost" market. However, BryLin is strategically positioning itself for a level of delivery system integration activity characterized by the stage 4, "value," market stage. A recent survey conducted by Goldhaber Research Associates in Western New York asked respondents, Which healthcare facility would you select if a family member required treatment for alcohol or drug abuse or psychiatric services? BryLin Hospitals was chosen by 9 out of 10 CEOs as the facility they would select for a family member. They also chose BryLin as the top facility for their employees. Doctors also found BryLin preferable for family members and their patients, 8 out of 10 times. As a result of this favorable position in the market, the hospital launched an extensive marketing campaign to alert all Western New Yorkers about the trust and confidence key decision-makers have in this provider of behavioral care. This campaign emphasizes the image of BryLin in the medical community. It is a rational, logical, "left-brain" approach that appeals to the "gatekeepers" -- the physician, the insurance providers and other members of the health care profession. This is a strong and appropriate image-building campaign due to the realities of health care in New York State in 1998. However, a consumer orientation is lacking in the current marketing of the Hospitals. We suggest that the doctor-oriented approach may underscore certain perceptions of BryLin in the general population. BryLin may be seen as the place one goes for hospitalization for very serious mental disorders. The organization is less known as an outpatient facility offering a wide range of therapeutic options. We do not believe that BryLin is well known for its caring, supportive staff and environment. The Web site itself as a promotional vehicle will compliment BryLin’s current marketing by adding the consumer orientation to the mix. We will launch a mini-marketing campaign to publicize the Web, which will underscore the consumer-orientation points of convenience and communication and lower cost. As the type of Web site for BryLin Hospitals includes both a marketing web with sales available, as well as a search service with sales, our digital development marketing team will begin the Web site promotion July through December 1998. The overall promotion objective will be to gain market share of individuals desiring therapeutic knowledge, insight and services and/or an interactive relationship with a therapist through our Web site. Our marketing campaign will include press releases to key publications in the area including the Buffalo News, Business First, college newsletters, and therapeutic journals. We believe that the unique nature of the site, particularly in Western New York, will prompt feature articles rather than small notices. A thirty-second spot will be aired on local TV that will include the URL and the message "ask our therapist for help online." We also will promote the site by adding the address to all our business cards, stationary and publications as they are reprinted. The Hospital publication, BryLine, will feature the site in a front-page article when the site is launched and subsequent issues will include the address as well as notices about new Web site features. All current patients/clients and BryLin alumni will be notified about the Web services. Online promotion of the site will include listing with the major search engines such as Yahoo and Excite. We will seek to trade links with such organizations as Alcoholics Anonymous, Betty Ford Clinic, and Hazelden. We will research Web rings that we might join or consider forming our own ring. We will send emails describing our Web to news groups and lists. After six months, we will analyze Web "hits" to determine the necessity for additional on- and off-line promotions. Place As mentioned above, BryLin currently offers services at seven locations in Western New York. The Web site will greatly expand BryLin’s potential service area. Clients seeking inpatient care for addiction or psychiatric issues frequently consider sites outside of their own community for reasons of confidentiality. The Web site will make it convenient for those outside of Western New York to research BryLin’s services. We predict that Web services will increase out of the region referrals by 2% the first year, 5% the second year and 7% the third year. For those utilizing online therapy services, place becomes irrelevant. A therapist may provide online counseling to someone in Alaska as easily as they could to a client in Amherst. Insurance considerations will continue to be an issue, as they are locally, but the Web offers ever-expanding "place" for services. The BryLin Web site has been created to capture new market share. The unlimited number of users of the Internet will allow the BryLin integrated delivery system (IDS) to market online its nationally recognized track record of excellence in the provision of the highest quality of psychiatric and addiction medicine services in both the inpatient and outpatient environment. The Web site will be marketed in a fluid market environment that requires both cost containment and quality services. This requirement has segmented the market in unique ways that creates both information and services for customers ranging from pressured business executives rushing between cites for corporate advantage, to unfulfilled Internet browsers searching the Internet for greater meaning and relevance for their lives. The BryLin web site will use the latest and most technologically advanced and "customized " system of behavioral health management information services (CMHC). This system will address financials, billing, scheduling, medical records, contract management, utilization review, provider profiling, credentialling, treatment algorithms, policies and procedures at the therapeutic services level. BryLin will utilize a local area network (LAN) and Microsoft Exchange to enhance communication through email and access to a national database as well as the Internet web site http://www.brylin.com to enhance communications with the local behavioral health care community as well as facilitating national and international exposure. 6. MEASURE OF SUCCESS Success will be measured by outcomes-driven service delivery. Customer satisfaction surveys will be built into the provision of information receipt as well as in the results of online therapeutic improvement of functioning with behavioral functioning scales being utilized for assessment. The Web site will succeed as it demonstrates low cost, high quality service characterized by customer satisfaction, positive patient outcomes and an easily accessible home page with quick hyperlinks to key components of confidential information and interactive services. We believe that the proposed Web site will help BryLin market certain core competencies that are not emphasized in its current marketing mix. The caring, supportive nature of its staff as well as the client orientation of its services is not conveyed in the ongoing billboard, print and TV campaign. The Web site will allow BryLin not only to market these features of its services but to also put them into action. The Web site will emphasize the four C’s of a customer orientation by providing convenience, communication, and lower cost to the client. The expected outcomes of the Web site are: increased knowledge about BryLin in the local community as well as on a national level; enhancement of BryLin’ s image as a caring, supportive, client-oriented provider of behavioral care services; and increased market share for BryLin both on a local and national level. We will measure the success of the Web site not just in terms of numbers of "hits" at the site but also by level of achievement of the expected outcomes mentioned above. CONCLUSION The BryLin Web site is not only a marketing tool, but also a vehicle for providing services. Its success should be measured in both areas. Since the thrust of this paper is marketing, we did not include measures for success as a counseling tool. A recent article in the Buffalo News described the therapeutic benefits of writing about difficult personal issues. If, for some people, this is as beneficial as face-to-face therapy, the Web could become a major vehicle for counseling. BryLin could lead the way in testing this hypothesis. In conclusion, we believe the benefits of an interactive, dynamic, well-designed Web site are numerous. Perhaps most importantly, the site will provide extensive information and suggestions for additional research on addiction and mental illness. The information will be immediately available when the "customer" needs it and it may be viewed confidentially. Thus, the site provides convenience and communication to the potential client. The Ask a Therapist option will make it easier for those people who are afraid or embarrassed to seek counseling. We believe email interaction with a therapist will encourage some people who would not otherwise seek help, to decide upon an online therapy contract or to become an outpatient at a clinic. The supportive, nurturing tone of the Web site will provide a counterpoint to BryLin’s current advertising and promotions which is directed more toward the gatekeepers of medical services than to the potential client. The site will be available to all Web users, thus enhancing BryLin’s reputation on a national as well as local level.
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