Brief Marketing Plan Outline

Brief Marketing Plan Outline

        I.            Executive Overview

A.      What is Community Immunity?

1.       Community Immunity is an open forum webpage designed to educate parents and expecting parents about immunizations.  With more and more parents seeking supplementary health information from the World Wide Web it is important to use various resources and techniques for advocacy.

2.       Community Immunity is a not for profit company that partners with state and local public health agencies and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. All persons whom work with and contribute to the webpage are practicing health professionals.

B.      Why is Community Immunity essential to public health?

1.       A rapidly growing minority in society questions the validity of vaccination and fear that immunization may be the root-cause of severe health problems.

2.       Choosing not to vaccinate allows for the resurgence of eradicated diseases and puts the population at risk of an epidemic.

C.      Provide an explanation of your intended intervention.

1.       The goal of Community Immunity is to encourage communication regarding immunization and infectious disease and empower parents in conjunction with Healthy People 2020's goal to "increase immunization rates and reduce preventable infectious diseases." 

2.       If parents are more educated and feel more comfortable about immunizations, hopefully they will continue to make the decision to vaccinate their children, adolescents, and themselves.

3.       The objective of Community Immunity is to debunk anti-vaxxing rhetoric and provide a resource for parents to utilize to research vaccine related health information.

a.       During the first year of the website, we expect to see moderate traffic (1-2 users per day). 

b.      After the first year and throughout the life of the website we expect to see a steady increase of daily usage.  The goal is to reach one-third of the American population annually.

     II.            The Customers (Market Review)

A.      The primary target audience is expecting parents and parents of children and adolescents who are skeptical about vaccinations.  Whether it is the process (the amount of shots a baby must receive at one time), the safety of vaccines, or the necessity of immunization.

1.       Behavioral—expecting parents, new parents, and veteran parents actively seek information regarding the health and well-being of their children.  Over the past decade, more and more parents use social media and the Internet to search for medical answers prior to seeing a physician.  Parents are more likely to adopt a behavior after extensive research and consulting their healthcare provider.

2.       Cultural—parents are using personal belief exemptions (PBEs) to opt out of immunization—a result of vaccine/health illiteracy.  Understanding what drives parents’ management of their children’s immunization schedule in terms of vaccination literacy and psychological empowerment can help health professions to communicate more effectively with parents in order to facilitate an informed decision.¹

3.       Demographic—in a recent Pediatrics study, with was found that PBEs are used mostly by white, affluent suburban parents.²

4.       Physical—there are no physical attribute with the exception of race that can be used to identity the target audience.

5.       Psychographic—majority of anti-vaxxing parents believe vaccination causes autism, are afraid of the side effects of vaccines, do not believe that the illnesses that vaccines prevent are that bad, feel as though allowing the body to fight off the illness naturally is more beneficial than the vaccine, and believe their child will be protected of herd immunity.

B.      Healthcare providers are the secondary target audience.  Most parents desire to have an open line of communication regarding vaccination with their child’s healthcare provider.  It is important for healthcare providers to provide literacy and assist in the decision to vaccinate.

  III.            The Product (Product Review)

A.      CommunityImmunity.com is an open forum website that offers parents information about vaccination. 

1.       Community Immunity is an information tool that parents can use to answer their vaccination questions.  The 24hr chat allows for real time answers from healthcare providers regarding anything vaccine related.

2.       Community Immunity offers health literacy and empowerment to parents and expecting parents who are curious about vaccination.  It provides immunization schedules, local health care provider information, and informs users of disease outbreaks in their area.

3.       There are many health related websites however Community Immunity solely focuses on immunization. 

B.      Community Immunity provides parents with health related information in regards to location.  If there is a measles outbreak in La Jolla, CA, Community Immunity informs all residents of the area.

  IV.            Strategies

A.      Position

1.       Imaging: Community Immunity is a supplementary resource used by parents to aid in their decision to immunize.

2.       Distinctiveness: Community Immunity only focuses on vaccinations, its close partnership with the CDC allows for the most up to date information available for parents.    

B.      Product

1.       Features: 24-hour chat capability is a huge selling point.  Parents are able to get on the spot answers regarding vaccination.

2.       Necessity: As noted, parents are soliciting information about vaccines, it is imperative to provide them with information to assist in their decision making.

C.      Price

1.       Price: Community Immunity is a not for profit website.  Community Immunity will use advertisements to financially support the website.

2.       Value: The more informed parents become the more likely they will immunize their children thus helping prevent the spread of preventable communicable disease.

D.      Promotion

1.       Selling points: Community Immunity is a public health necessity. Limited or insufficient health literacy is associated with reduced adoption of protective behaviors such as immunization; Community Immunity can improve health literacy.

2.       Promotional places (Channels): Community Immunity will be promoted using social media, by handing out brochures are supports health care facilities, and by word of mouth between parents.

     V.            Budget

A.      One-year projected cost for the website is $1,500,000.

1.       Itemize with unit costs

a.       Initialization of website—$10,000. 

b.      Advertisement of website—$10,000 per month.

c.       Payroll—$1,325,000

d.      Misc. expenses—$45,000

e.       We anticipate $100,000 in revenue from advertising and contributions from donors.

2.       Offer subtotals and total costs

a.       Subtotal—$1,455,000

b.      Est. Revenue—$100,000

c.       Total—$1,355,000

B.      Community Immunity is a not for profit website.  The website requires minimal upkeep to function. The majority of the budget is on payroll which includes an IT to support the website and multiple health care professionals to blog on the site and offer answers to the questions asked my parents.   

  VI.            Resources

A.      Fadda M, Depping MK, Schulz PJ. Addressing issues of vaccination literacy and psychological empowerment in the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination decision-making: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health. 2015;15:836. doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2200-9.

B.      Carrel M and Bitterman P.  Personal Belief Exemptions to Vaccinations in California: A Spatial Analysis. Pediatrics. 2015;136(1):80-88. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-0831