Question 1: How would you evaluate EHG’s marketing efforts to date? EHG’s marketing efforts have been limited and not as successful as it could be because of the following strategies and limitations. EHG’s marketing efforts seemed half hearted or lacked direction. First, EHG has had an inconsistent marketing campaign. It initiated and then withdrew from a radio campaign. That campaign was resulting in an average of an additional 100 examinations per month with a close ratio of 29% - almost 1 in 3 callers who called as a result of radio were booking examinations. Key figures in EHG felt this broad campaign was too costly and it consequently discontinued. Similarly, it’s print media campaign was achieving a 1 in 5 close ratio and deployed the same negative/fear campaign as the radio slots. These efforts were adding just over an average 100 customers per month. The negative campaign, while somewhat distasteful appeared to be resonating in the market but may not have been getting to the core of EHG’s value proposition.
EHG’ other promotional activities included partnerships with trade and workers associations. While these agreements included sharing a portion of the revenue from examinations with the associations, they were targeting one of their key segments: executives – in this case female executives. Additional campaigns along these lines may have proven more useful.
EHG’s segmentation and targeting efforts reflected a weak response to the market opportunity. Their products were clearly oriented to executives and higher-level employees but they found it difficult directly accessing this channel, as benefit managers often served as gatekeepers. Even when EHG convinced benefit managers of their value, it had no strategy on how to tap into the potential employee pool and encourage employees to use their services – EHG needed a hook through either