Marketing Plan for Castlight Health Company

Online tools have since been used by different companies to reduce the costs by aiding consumers to become savvy in the field of health care shopping. But it remains to be less effective as many of the companies and stakeholders would hope. Several companies including CastLight Health Company have managed to launch their web-based tools aimed at using data that is taken from medical claims and other different sources to create portfolios of in-network medical practitioners and also rank them according to their projected costs. Some of these tools have become even more dynamic and even have doctor reviews and suggested information from customers that have used the health plans provided. There is however a limitation when it comes to the online tools that are used by these companies and in this case study we will focus on Castlight as a company that has focused on using the online marketing tools to actually reach its customers. The project will be making a marketing plan to help understand the company and how it utilizes the online tools and how it can improve these tools to attain its marketing goals. The online tool that they use currently has not lived to the expectation of the stakeholders.

Marketing goals

Marketing goals are vital for a company and allow the company to set standards that will ensure that they are able to maintain and grow their profits through increasing their sales (Koku, 2014).). Consumers are usually willing to buy goods and services that are marketed to them through the company’s marketing strategy and how they position the products and services in the market. If a product or service is not well positioned then it means that the company will lose its market share and its loyal customers. Therefore, the best way to ensure that the company remains well positioned in the market is to have a solid marketing goal and strategy to ensure that the customers are able to access the products and choose the company’s products compared to the competitors in the market. The healthcare sector is also an industry that requires companies to have clear marketing goals in order to perform and compete with other competitors in the market. Castlight Health Company is one of the companies that has been operating in the health sector and its main goal is to increase its customer base through the use of online tools to ensure clients get the most out of their health care services.

Benchmarks from other Competitors

The health care industry has for the longest time operated on what is known as a fee-for-service model, where the paying of health care providers for services gave them the incentive to produce more volume in services than increasing the quality. The healthcare providers were mostly pharmacies, physicians, and hospitals, which delivered health care services to the consumers who needed them. The payers were the government agencies, private insurance companies, and other organizations that they were able to reimburse the fees to the providers for the delivery of care services. In recent times, the healthcare sector has expanded and is now dominated by other health care providers that offers technology based solutions and tools in order to provide health care services online for their clients. Castlight Health Company is one of the companies that has adopted this technology and has other companies also doing the same thing in the same industry. The other competitors in the market have been changing the way that Castlight operates as the company has to ensure that their services are better than the competitor’s in the market (Raube, 2018). One of the identified main competitors is ClearCost Company, which has been changing the way that the industry operates by providing consumers with credible information about the health plans even before they need it. It is one of the main competing points for the company and this is a benchmark that the company has to consider for their marketing plan if they are going to ensure that their online tools are going to help them grow the company to the previous success and increase their sales.

Marketing Objectives

For this reason there should be well defined marketing objectives that are suppose to ensure the company is able to improve on its sales and also increase the market share. Castlight is regarded as the pioneer of health care transparency, which has been able to help employees make the right decisions in relation to their health decisions through guiding them to choose the right programs offered by care providers. Jiff is a company that was able to redefine the status of the industry by revolutionizing the health care transparency experience, through creating a first user experience program. It is known as the world’s largest ecosystem when it comes to health partnerships that are available in the industry. This combined platform enables customers to have an improved health experience, especially for employees. Castlight’s mission has been to provide people with ways of making better choices when it comes to their health needs (Raube, 2018). The company’s main objective is to ensure that their health benefits outdo the competitor’s health portfolios. As a company that has specialized in providing options to employees on health care; then it requires the company to have clear and achievable marketing objectives so as to ensure that they get back on track (Koku, 2014).). The main marketing objective of the company would be to increase the sales of the company and also increase the market share that was there in the initial stages of the company launch. Another marketing objective will be to ensure that the company is back to the top of the health care service provider industry through innovative ideas and technological advancement in their health service offers. Accessibility is also an area that the company needs to work in attaining a full turn around to full rapid growth and increased sales through reaching out to the new customers through partnering with Jiff as one of the world’s largest health care platform.

Limitations to implementing the Plan

The aims of the company will be to get back to being one of the leaders in health care plan provider for employees and also increase their customer base to other clientele through a solid marketing strategy that is specially adopted for this company. In short there is a need to help the company grow and also regain its earlier market potential and market share. However, there is always the threat of having limitations to the plans. These limitations have to be put as factors that actually could affect the marketing plan and how the company will implement its marketing plan. The main limitation for the marketing plan would be the cultural effects and how people consider health care tools. Not every individual would prefer to use the health care tools that are provided by the company and hence would be a challenge to reach that market segment for the company. There are also barriers when it comes to behavioral changes in the customers and how they perceive their work. There are different traits of the workforce that can be influenced differently by the services that the company provides and would be a problem for the company in the long term marketing plan.

Solutions

Castlight has a wide range of practices that help motivate employees. It has a communication curriculum that organization can customize to meet their needs. The second solution that is offered by cast light is Full integration. Castlight has a centralized platform for employees program and benefits. Employees can get information for different health care all in one place. Therefore, cast light provides convenience since employees do not have to shift from one website to another. Therefore, there is need for Castlight to have a solid marketing plan that will enable the company to be better positioned to manage its clients. The marketing plan makes it easier for the marketing manager to reach the milestones they have set. It is a way for the company to check whether it was able to meet its set target. The marketing plan is able to motivate employees to even work harder. Through a marketing plan ahead of time helps an organization to avoid failure. The marketing plan will help prevent a misfortune from happening.

Reference

Koku, P. S. (2014). Strategic Marketing Plan. Decision Making in Marketing and Finance, 35-47. doi:10.1057/9781137444776_3

Raube, K. (2018). Castlight health: disrupting the health care industry. Berkeley-Haas Case Series